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.

• Don't do a THEME till your DC are old enough to ask for one - even then, just ask them to choose the birthday cake. Themes are an absolute waste of money - all children really remember is the cake
• ALWAYS give the children a slice of cake after it is cut. I just don't understand this business of whisking away the cake and wrapping the soggy slices up in napkins to go...
• If children invited are less than 5 years old, make sure a parent is invited
• Always have planned activities or an entertainer to keep the children from running around bouncing off your furniture (if at home)
• Restrict all sweets and chocolate to party bags, save the sugar rush till they're away
• Wrapped books as sole return gift are very disappointing even for bookworms
• Try if you can, not to give out small plastic tat in party bags - one nicely wrapped good toy or craft kit looks better and sometimes costs less than bag + 4 types of plasticky crap.
• If unavoidable, reuse unwanted plastic tat (secreted away from party bags your DC have received) in your party bags
• Serve simple familiar food for children, in surprising ways. Use playdoh cutters, food colours.... and of course, time and imagination. Lots of inspiration on the internet.
• Hide away precious/breakable things in locked closets, keep unsafe toys for babies/toddlers out of reach
• If there are any kids with allergies, DO NOT serve ANY food that could contain nuts/whatever they are allergic to. Better safe than sorry, kids do not always eat only what is served to them
• Individually labelled/coloured sports type drinks bottle for all kids - no spillage
• If party is near a mealtime, ALWAYS serve food for all guests - parents or children. If no food is being served for parents, let them know for god's sake. I once spent 2 hours starving at a 1pm party because I wasn't told food wasn't going to be served for parents. I actually stole a sandwich from my child to keep myself from fainting.
• Relax, it's just a party - not a competition. Parents just remember the warmth of the hosts and whether there was enough to eat and drink. At least the ones whose opinion you should care about.

Sorry, haven't read the rest of the thread....

My top tip is, instead of party bags, but a few sweets, and a little gift in a pair of gloves or a pair of socks. A gem stone or a fossil is a nice little gift

This has proved popular with parents and children - something more useful than your average crazy plastic crap

put a few sweets, not "but a few sweets"

Use food boxes with their lunch all ready in the box, toddlers are no good at buffet etiquette! Makes them sit down and avoid my child just helping herself to the bowl of crisps - which she will not share!

I hired a room in a victorian gothic mansion style hotel on a Sunday afternoon as it was free for the room we just had to pay for buffet for dd's 3rd birthday party (disney theme). The children came in mostly princess outfits and we told dd it was a castle (which it looked quite like) so the theme worked really well. We decorated the tables with winnie the pooh balloon centrepieces and had a cardboard cutout mickey at the entrance, the hotel also put a red carpet down for the kids to come into the room on.

We kept the numbers quite low as lots of 3yo's are quite difficult to control which meant we could feed adults and children and there was a bar for adults who fancied a drink. I found a great entertainer who did dancing, bubble games and used a colourful parachute all whilst playing disney music. We also did a pass the parcel and tailored the gifts for boys or girls making sure each child got a gift. A waiter in a suit came in with the birthday cake and by the end of the day dd thought she was a real princess. The best part was not having to tidy up at all.

Make up small pots of mixed coloured pencils/crayons and stickers, and cut out strips of card big enough to go round a child's head -then before the party tea, get them to decorate their own party hats - it calms them down before they eat and give you a chance to put the tea on the table - not my idea, I pinched it from someone else, but we used it for years and it worked every time

As an alternative to party bags, I've always given a book as a thank you for coming to the party. There are always great packs of beautiful books on the Book People website, usually 10 for a tenner! Wrap up (add a thank you gift tag from your child) and give with a slice of birthday cake. The kids feel like they are getting a proper present, mums are happy to have something useful to take home and every time the book is read, they think of their friend, my little girl.

I like the idea of getting a huge piece of paper and putting that out post-food with a lot of crayons etc and just letting them all draw. It calms them down and keeps them happy while people start to leave.

A white paper table cloth, and wax crayons on the table at tea time. The children can mix munching party food with decorating the table. Keeps the children occupied during the meal, reducing stress for all the adults, and, barring major drink spills, leaves a beautifully decorated memento for the birthday child.

Ask for adult helpers in advance and give them specific jobs like:
Get contact details of parents leaving children
Man bouncy castle
Stick name label on kids
Blow up balloons
This gives you time to actually run the party. If you are having a big group, split them into teams and revolve them - so one group does bouncy castle, one does craft activity, one does party game
Make a list of party games and work your way through it so you don't get stuck with entertaining 25 bored 5 year olds. Plan more games than you'll actually need.
Have blown up balloons ready when kids arrive - for soem reason, chasiong round a hall with a ballon really appeals to a 4 year old (also - find out if anyone is ballon phobic in advance - we had one and had to take him away and then hide all balloons..)
Eat cake at party
Ensure you have a ready meal / takeaway and bottle of wine organised for when you get home...

For the younger kids make the games fun and not too much waiting and sitting around.

Do cake decorating - make or buy a batch of fairy cakes and set the kids loose on them with icing, sprinkles etc. Keeps them all quiet and then they can eat them!

A piñata just before the kids go home always goes down well too!

My top tip is, don;t try to feed children at the wrong time. We went to a soft-play party at 9am, food (cooked breakfast) was served at 10.15am. None of the kids didn't want to eat at that time. They'd already had breakfast when they got up, it was too early for lunch and they just wanted to play! HUGE waste of money! Either do food at proper times or just provide snacks at other times. I don't think kids of this age necessarily expect to be fed at a party, they just want to have fun and games with their friends.

For a party at home, allow the child to invite one guest for every year that they are in age, so that they and your home are not overwhelmed. Always worked for us!

Have wine/gin at the ready as soon as the last child is collected

When DS was in year 1 we put out lots of invites expecting lots of refusals. Everybody accepted. It was being held at home and we couldn't seat them all so we put down a large disposable tablecloth on the lounge floor and had a picnic. It was a huge success. It was January otherwise we would have had the picnic in the garden. So:

Tip 1: Consider a picnic on the floor rather than sitting at the table.

Tip 2: Have more ideas for games than you think you will need - traditional games e.g. teams having to flap a paper fish down the room with a newspaper were very popular with 5 and 6 year olds.

Tip 3: Have drawing or craft for a quiet break after eating (and for children who are too shy to join in despite your best efforts!).

Thanks everyone for sharing your top tips. The winner of the prize draw is....Faverolles
Congratulations - I'll PM you to get your details.

Some children of this age (most, probably) either don't understand the concept of being 'out' in a game or will throw a strop when they're out. We played the usual musical statues etc but didn't bother making anyone out each time - it didn't seem to bother anyone and no need for a prize for the winner!

We also played a version of musical chairs but with pieces of newspaper to land on. More than one child could end up on a bit of paper, but each time the pieces of paper were torn in half making them smaller. We started off with the idea of people being out when they couldn't get onto the paper, but actually they loved squashing together to get on the paper and in the end we just let them carry on without anyone being out.

Limbo with a broom handle works well, and you may find the children want to take turns holding the ends so you don't even have to do that.

Instead of proper party bags, get packs of cellophane bags meant for holding home made sweets and tie up with parcel ribbon - you get around 50 for a couple of pounds so they'll last for years of parties! A bit flimsy though so not for heavy gifts.

If you're having the party at home, make upstairs out of bounds (as long as you've got a loo downstairs of course!) and hide all your breakables/extraneous furniture up there. Make sure your child knows the rules beforehand so they can help enforce.

I have just started out making party boxes and bags, they are very sweet and it takes away the stress of finding suitable gifts to wave the children goodbye.