NOW CLOSED Share your top party tips for children aged 3-6 with My Little Pony, and you could win a £100 Argos voucher.

[KatieBMumsnet]

We've been asked by the team at My Little Pony (www.mumsnet.com/microsites/my-little-pony) to find your top tips for kids' parties - specifically for children aged 3-6.

This could be anything - from using a theme, to party foods, venues, drinks, present etiquette, and cake or the all important (or not-at-all-important) party bags. So, do share your top tips and funny stories on this thread, and everyone who does so will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 Argos voucher.

Please note your tips and stories may appear in an email MNHQ will be sending out in April.

Hire a village hall.
When they're arriving, put out lots of balloons to kick and throw.
Let them run around screaming for an hour
Feed them sugar and token carrot sticks
Attempt party games. Abandon party games.
Let them run around screaming for an hour.
Bribe them to leave with party bags.

HTH

Don't have one, spend the money on a family day out instead.

Don't get carried away with party bags. If you must do them then just dump everything your ok gets throughout tge year into a bag and make them up out of this, recycling at its best.

If you want an easy life - outsource it (i.e. go to a venue where it is all done for you) or just don't do it - it's not compulsory.

However, if like me you actually enjoy this stuff (and it doesn't last long - by the time they hit double figures all interest in "big parties" seems to have gone ) then:

• Go for a theme - and stick ruthlessly to that theme - it makes a party far more memorable for all concerned. Gender-neutral themes (jungle, space, science, cooking, monsters) work best IME, but others can be adapted (Pirates/Knights + Princesses, or vice versa)

• Manage responses. Give as many options as possible (email, home phone, mobile) for replies and then use "pester power" to get your DC to get others to chase their parents to reply. Be ruthless.

• Get Help. As many adults (friends, relations) as you can possibly round up - and then give them definite, clear jobs to do and let them get on with it.

• If you are having a "big" party, then I cannot see a way to make opening presents at the party work - hence confiscation. Obviously a small party at home is a different story altogether.

• Balloons. 'nuff said (except that you get what you pay for, on the whole - so better quality balloons = less tears about popped balloons)

• Cake - see theme

• Party bags - I do, personally, but increasingly they contain (or consist of) something which the DC have made at the party + small amount of chocolate (Costco boxes of Freddos are a must for parties in this household). They make a nice end to the party to make it clear it is time to leave and a chance for party child to say "Thank you for coming" to departing guests.

...and finally, if you are stuck, there are always nutters like me party enthusiasts on MN willing to engage in vicarious party planning and help you out.

Get them to decorate cakes/biscuits...
Buy some rich tea biscuits or cheap plain fairy cakes.
Make lots of different colour icing with icing sugar, water and food colouring.
Buy edible glitter, sprinkles etc and let them at it! Then put the finished items in/next to party bags to take home.

My kids always loved to do this at their party and it can be quite calming if it is all getting a bit fractious!

Have something to play with at the party that can be taken home in lieu of a tiny tat toy in the party bag. We've had inflatable guitars, saxophones, microphones etc to play with during the party, and all the children could take one home. Two birds, one stone.

I always give a party bag as well, containing cake, sweets and a balloon or somesuch because, as someone else said, it indicates very clearly that guests should start shipping out.

My top tip is end with a story to calm the kids down. As everytime DD has come home from a party she is still excited (overtired) etc, but sit down stories are known to calm children down. Then hand out party bags and off they go :)

Themes go down well. I like making up the party bags and have become an expert at picking up stuff that is useful and that the children will actually use instead of being thrown straight in the bin after the cake has been eaten.

dd1's party was last month and she wanted a fairy theme, we found some fab note books in poundland and pencils, so all children got a notebook and pencil and then on ebay we found felt tip pens that had a roller stmaper on one end, and then sheets of stickers, with the obilgatory pack of haribo. They all loved them.

DD chose a soft play centre this year so the rest of the effort was minimal as we literally just had to trun up and then leave so no clearing up or cooking and sandwich making as all done for us.

Also if your budget stretches to it, you can now buy build a bear type kits and customisable t-shirts for the bears, this would fill the party for the right age group and provide the party bag gift.

If you are doing a homemade cake, it always takes longer than you think, so plan accordingly.

I bake cakes for celebrations about a week before and freeze. Then am ruthlessly organised about decorating. I know how much I need to decorate, what the stages are, what ingredients I need, how much time it'll take, what fridge space it needs.

Pre-prepare all the butter icing and the like, then, putting together the freshly defrosted cake is quick and easy and no stress on the night before, rather than eight hours in the kitchen stressing the day before.

We had a baking party for dd's 6th birthday - it was great.

Started by letting them all draw on very cheap white aprons with fabric pens - party bag sorted.

I had measured out 15 portions of flour, sugar and butter the night before (for shortbread bisuits) so let them all mix their portion together and then cut into shapes.

Bisuits into oven for 15 mins and 15 mins to cool - party tea time.

Decorate biscuits with icing pens, butter icing and any other stuff I had around.

Best tip - avoid chocolate on hot day. Ds's 6th birthday cake was chocolate and it was 80 degrees the day of his party. Cake ended up looking like sludge and not a child went home unmarked by it!

Keep it short - whatever you do dont go over 2 hours.
3-6 is quite an age range. I would say 3-4's you need to remember to keep the games quick and easy to understand as they have a short attention span. Dont do a pass the parcel with 20 kids for instance or if you have to, use several parcels at one time. 5-6 year olds however are much more energetic, if it is a big party hire a church hall and fill it with balloons and fun music. You can also hire bouncy castles for church halls if you are worried about the weather.
Dont buy plastic rubbish for party bags, if you have a theme for your party do the bag on that theme, so for instance at a wildlife party fill the party bags with rubber frogs and snakes, still only cost pence but much more fun!

With party bags, why not get them to put things they win in a little bag as they go. This worked for the last 3yo party we had when everyone got a tiny little prize in every game just for joining in. Then just slip a bit of cake in at the end if desired.

The tiny prizes were from the supermarket, you can buy them quite cheaply, they tend to be in little bags of four or so.

My favourite game for 3 yo was 'hidden treasure': place one small chocolate coin per child in the bottom of a casserole dish. Pour dry cous-cous on top. Put it on the largest tray you have. One at a time they put their hands in to find their piece of treasure.

I know it's not always possible but I always breathe a sigh of relief when I see that the party runs over a 'normal' mealtime e.g. 11am-1pm or 3pm-5pm.

Otherwise you end up with grumpy, hungry kids - a 1pm-3pm party generally means lunch at 2pm. Alternatively food just goes to waste as no-one's really hungry - a recent 10am-12pm had pizza and sandwiches at 10:30am - they were untouched as most people had had breakfast.

2 hrs is the maximum time for a party. Best party we had was a lego party for age 4-6 yr olds. We bought a HUGE box of assorted lego from ebay for £5, we made lego brick boxes out of shoe boxes with cardboard egg carton bits stuck on to make the "lumps", and painted them primary lego colours. The kids (boys and girls) spent an hour or so making models, which they then took home in their own "brick box" (party bags sorted!) They then went on a lego man hunt in the garden, had to find lego men doing all sorts of things, climbing wall, digging on flowerpot, swimming in birdbath etc. Sausage beans and chips for tea (bulk bought at supermarket) and the cake was just as easy, a rectangle cake with bits of mini roll on to make the lumps, covered in bright red butter icing! A great time was had by all, and my 2 still talk about it now, 6yrs on!

Make loads of sandwiches and make each child an individual lunch box - less waste, and you don't have to run the gauntlet of separating vegetarian children from the sausages.

Hire an entertainer.

Sit with the other parents and drink gin tea.

And that's it. Perfect party. :)

Don't make too much food. There's always loads of waste.

Party bags - buy packs that you can split (e.g. colouring pencils) so they don't cost much and don't go overboard

Pass the parcel, bit of dancing, kicking ablloons about, table of craft stuff for colouring/sticking/stamping, etc., biscuit decoration - all pretty cheap

Do it at the park (in summer) or soft play (in winter). Under no circumstances should you attempt to do it at home.

Individual boxes of food are def the way to go - both on limiting waste, and stopping children like my ds gorging on a particular food (berries or cherry toms are culprits for us). You can then put their slice of cake and a toy in the box to take home as a party bag.

I like to run over a real mealtime too, as either they are starving or not interested.

At a big party in a hall for 20+ children I have found a craft/colouring table a godsend - some children want to be there but just don't enjoy running about, and will happily colour in sheets on your party theme (princesses, pirates, knights) for ages.

Don't expect young children to spend long eating. Max 15 mins for tea. Do however make sure you provide some tea. Not too many sandwiches, lots of crisps and strawberries go down well IME.

I had great success when mine were younger with a craft competition on the theme - eg DD aged 6 was made about Rainbow magic books, so we had a rainbow themed party and all the kids could decorate a rainbow. I gave prizes on a rainbow theme to the best.

Top tip if you are doing a prizes type party of this kind - have a sheet of paper where you can note down who wins what so you avoid doubling up!

Top tip #2 - wear your jeans so you have pockets for the bit of paper, a whistle, a tissue or two and a couple of spare balloons.

I always make the cakes because I am bit nutty like that - if you are the same, my best-ever cake was a pirate treasure chest, it really did look good and was dead easy. The trick is to cut a long rectangle into two triangles and use these to hold the lid open; ice with choc butter icing and fill with Haribo rings, sweetie necklaces etc.

Keep it small - about 6 friends is fine and means the birthday boy/girl can open presents on the day without too much confusion.
Enlist help - from sister / parents etc.
Have it at home - saves lots of money and to me feels more "special" than yet another soft play party.
Take the kids off into a separate room for party games, and keep the parents (if staying) in their own room with adult drinks/nibbles.
Weather permitting, get the kids out into the garden if possible.
Go traditional - musical bumps, pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey, party food and homemade (but not elaborate) cake.

One of the best parties I attended was a Teddy Bears picnic party.

The kids all had to bring a teddy (dressed up if they wanted) and it was done on the local meadow so lots of space for running around screaming without upsetting or disturbing others.

Lots of big old blankets (I think most were acquired from a charity shop) were laid on the ground and used to put food etc on. The Mum arranged lots of running around games, so that even though all the kids were on serious sugar highs they burnt the vast majority of it off.

A second party (which was strangely a MLP party) was held in someone's garden, and they hired a couple of shetland ponies which had been dyed pink, and the kids had a great time having their photo's taken with the ponies and playing various farm games and a picnic style lunch was served again.

That said DD's birthday is in Novemeber so no chance of us having an outdoors party, so if anyone has any really good ideas for hosting a party in a small village hall, that would be great :)

Have a good "icebreaker" activity planned, I.e. decorating a small plant pot or pirate bandana. Ideally make it something they can take home as a party bag.
Have plenty of spare costume for children who forget theirs.
Invite your own friends in the evening after the party to eat all the leftover party food.
Charity shop books or book people book sets make good party bag presents and look like they cost more than they did.

If you do a pass the parcel, wrap the layers with alternate paper/newspaper/magazine layers. That way the children have a better idea of when to stop unwrapping on their turn. I also try to save paper from previous presents for this- doesn't matter if it's a bit battered. You can also add forfeits in the layers (eg do 10 press ups, tell a joke), or sweets.

Invite less than 10 guests
Hire a venue which supplies food. Soft play is good at this age as parents can stay and don't need entertaining as they can jave a coffee/chat
Make a big homemade cake - it's what your child will remember and be in photos
Buy packs of books (e.g. 10 for £10) from the Book People and wrap one per guest instead of a party bag.

If you can, hire an entertainer. I took DS to a 4th birthday party in a church hall at the weekend which had a great entertainer for an hour. She had loads of enthusiasm, occupied the kids with games and songs while the parents relaxed!