Share your top tips for children's birthday parties with Cadbury and you could win a £200 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Cadbury would like to hear your top tips for hosting a great themed birthday party for your DCs.

From pirates to Peppa Pig, baking to science - if you've thrown a great children's party, what theme did you choose and how did you bring it to life? Did you use decorations to set the scene, choose party food to fit with a fantasy world, or tailor activities you knew the kids would love? What did you put in the goody bags to go with your theme? And did you create a special birthday cake?

We'd love to hear about all the different ways you incorporated your child's favourite things into the day - to help inspire other parents who are party planning.

Everyone who shares their birthday party ideas and inspiration on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to where one MNer will win a £200 Love2Shop voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on Cadbury's pages on MN, their social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Dont go too mad with food,most of the time the children just want to play
If you see anything related to Birthdays IE balloons,banners,candles,goody bag toys throughout the year,pick them up

We had a garden party for my daughters third birthday, bought an inflatable boat paddling pool filled it with balls put up a gazebo added plenty of toys and colouring. The kids loved it and it was so cheap to do!

Pinterest is really good for inspiration

I think keeping it simple - if you have a lot of children, have fewer activities. If you have fewer children, you can have a more detailed activity to do.

If you go all out on the cake the rest of the food gets forgotten so you don't have to trouble yourself about food too much.

Kids only remember one or two things, what is it you think they will remember? What makes it special?

Having been a single mum on a tight budget for quite a while when my dds were small, I had to come up with activities which wouldn't break the bank. My sister is an excellent cake maker, so she always made the cake according to the theme. I would hire a hall locally fairly cheaply and do the food myself. And then as the activity, I would get the children to make something, which also became the major part of their gift bag to take home. So one year, I bought some cheap multipacks of plain white shirts from Asda and some fabric pens. I made some stencils and the children were all able to make their own pirate or princess t shirts. Kept them occupied for twenty Minutes/half an hour. Another year, I bought a pack of plain white paper plates and arranged the table with glitter, pens, sequins etc and the children designed their own themed plate with a prize for the most creative one.

set a budget, and stick to it.

We had an outdoor themed party and threw them all in the garden. OH bbq'd, we set up a tent, the kids picked fruit from our bushes and played with sand/water/digging etc. Lots of wellies, but very easy to clear up after!

We did a pirate themed party & I really did go OTT! It was so much fun. We all dressed up, had creeky ship music & gulls playing & we gave them all inflatable swords ( which were a huge hit)

We had lots of games including a treasure hunt & all the party food was themed such as dead mans fingers ( little sausages) and cannon balls ( olives)

Keep valuables away. Seriously, so many things can go wrong. If you're going to have an action filled day, make sure it's not in a place where things can break!

I hired a hall and a dj man for my l.O. birthday the dj provided the games as well as prizes and kept the children entertained (all 40 children) for 2 hours worth of fun.
I was less stressed the 2nd time round as I knew what to expect.
I cooked enough food to feed a 100 children and stocked up on party rings, jaffa cakes. By the time we had tidied up and left the hall all the food was either eaten by parents or the children.

plan, relax, take a deep breathe and take everything in your stride

Always have enough adults there or ensure that there are no escapees, especially if you are in a public place! Have plenty of nice food which is easy to eat like little sausages and mini scotch eggs. All the traditional games work best like musical statues and pin the tail on the donkey. But my TOP TIP. If they are driving you CRAZY, play sleeping lions. They all have to lie there as still and quietly as possible and the first one to move loses. Gives you a bit of peace!

We always have a different theme party each year so for our son we had a space theme and our daughter we had a winter wonderland. We plan alot in advance and make a list of how we will decorate what games we will play and the food. The internet is a great place for ideas. i will tell you about the space party. For this we make lots of rockets using toilet roll/kitchen towel tubes. we had these handing from the ceilings along with planets made with sponge balls. We cover the walls in black sheets with painted on space objects, comets stars this then allows the children to imagine they are there, We make alot of finger food shaped as object from space. Games are the easier to do with tradional games but changing the names e.g pass the alien, moon piece hunt, pin the space man on the moon, alien dancing etc. The kids always enjoy themselves and so do the parents who end up taking part. Its all about the fun and being creative.

Always have a range of activities (e.g. crafts, Playstation games etc) to suit different children's interests, like learning styles they will be engaged in different ways!

Talking of variation, have some Cadburys variety packs on hand for the perfect mix of treats!

If the weather is warm enough, have the party out in the garden. Kids love eating outside, and it saves on mess inside the house!

Have it at home! Play traditional party games, bake a cake and give them a nice goody bag to take home.

just have fun and your kids will too

My DD is only two but I've thrown tiny parties at home for her few favourite people both years. I love planning and crafting and I can't wait for her to be old enough to care really enjoy and remember them.

First year was animal circus. Lots of bright decorations, pom poms, pinwheels, balloons.
I even learnt how to make balloon sculptures and stayed up until 2am the morning of her birthday sculpted balloon animals and even making her name out of balloons.
All invites, thank you cards and plates were co-ordinating and there were juggling balls to play with and a ringmasters hat for DD.

Second birthday was underwater.
Found plenty of cute cartoon sea creatures and printed them out and blu tacked to walls.
Made 'waterfalls' out of various shades of blue crepe streamer to cover doorways.
Floor was covered in balloons of blue, silver and teal.
Bubble machine going and the Hue lights set to blue finished the scene.
Oh and her favourite toy donned a mermaid costume for the day too!
Dairy free cupcakes were made with blue frosting and tiny little fish shaped sprinkles.

Paw patrol is her current obsession and I've already got a Pinterest board on the go with ideas!

My daughter had an In the Night Garden themed party for her first birthday, so we used pink and orange decorations, paper plates etc to match Upsy Daisy's clothes. For her second birthday we went with a Minnie Mouse theme. Anything pink or red and spotty was definitely in!

Party bags are a bug bearer as they are generally full of toys which end up in the bin. I try to keep to a theme with my bags, but do it cheaply. A box set of books that can be divided is more appreciated by parents and can work out cheaper.

For our ungirly-girl parties can be a total pink glittery borefest! So for her 8th we had an animal-petting party. We know the woman who does them so knew all the animals were well cared-for and loved. She got to choose the animals which were brought along, she chose a tarantula and a snake (!) among others. We made all the food, she had a caterpillar cake and cupcakes, heart-shaped sandwiches, fruit kebabs and animal sweeties from Mark's. For the rest of the party the girls just wanted to play in the garden so not too much planning needed - they had a ball and we pretty much put our feet up! Party bags featured lots of sweets, slice of cake, bits of stationary.

Get other adults to help!!

Provide an area for babies if there are several baby siblings coming.

Some snacks for adults.

Instead of party bags get books from The Works or similar: you can't RRP £6 ones for a quid!

Get help to make adults teas ncoffees.

Hire an entertainer.

Get help! Don't organise it alone, make sure there are a few people helping you at the party as kids can be a handful. Hire out a room or two at the local community center a lot of times they can help you with entertainment (like hiring out a Dj for a disco or getting a clown or magician) as they're used to hiring out rooms for kids parties.

A PJ party for 8yr old girls. This sounded like a nightmare but was one of the easiest parties we've ever had. Kids all turned up in their PJs and sat around in sleeping bags doing hair and make-up. The most popular activity, that kept them busy and quiet for almost an hour, was decorating a pillowcase each. I bought each child a £2 white pillowcase (which doubled up as a big party bag and wrote their names in bubble writing then they set about colouring and decorating them. They then settled down to hot chocolate (Cadbury's of course :) ) and watched a film. Have to add they didn't all sleepover!

It's important to plan everything to the tee and well ahead of time so you have enough time to find the party items that match the theme of the party.