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

[VickyViolet]

If you have children with birthdays that are within a month of each other I have found it can be economical to have a joint party. It can be trickier to find a theme that appeals to different age groups. A big triumph for me was a party at a farm with hands on experiences like animal handling, feeding goats and taking care of horses. All the kids loved the experience, but the older children also took in a lot of the animal facts the staff explained. Model balloon animals and animal masks made popular gifts at the end of the party instead of party bags.

[skapur]

I start preparing far in advance! The party bags are done at least 2 weeks before and I always keep extras for the 'surprise' siblings who tend to turn u p without an invitation.

[Redhotchillidog]

Don't over plan. Go with the flow and make sure you have an endless supply of Cadbury's chocolate fingers!

[sarahsnail]

The last party we had was a princess frozen party with a singing Elsa.
We thought it would be better for the boys if they had someone other than princess Elsa to entertain them so we also had a Pirate, who played the games alongside Elsa.

Both the boys and girls loved it.

[Scholtzy]

I got the most compliments from the Minecraft party I did, very easy to find all the labels and party decorations on the Internet and free to download and print.

Instead of doing a big spread of food we fed the kids hotdogs (which took 5/10 mins to sort) and then let them pick from the themed 'dessert table' they loved it! We put TNT signs around party poppers to complete the fun!

[SouthWestmom]

Serve the cake for pudding rather than squishing in the party bags.

[mumsbe]

We love party's. When planning a party plan from start to finish so there are no awkward pauses. Make the buffet yourself and make a seperate buffet for the parents. Tea and coffee for the parents is always a good idea keeps them happy if they want to stay.
We have had an frozen birthday party, minnie mouse, and a peter pann party.
We make our own party invitations which is a lovely touch. Such as a pirate map or minnie mouse head with a bow. We have made our own decoration s such as shadows of peterpan or pictures of elsa.
We enjoyed doing our own games like frozen statues, find the frozen pictures and pass the snowball (which was a giant pompom we made)
To save money we did half the party ourself and hired a entertainer and character for the other half.
We have also had partys at softplay centres which are much less stressful where characters have turned up and there has been party games half way through.
At some partys we have had glitter tattoos which have gone down much better than face painting.
We keep the party prizes cheap but themed if you go to somewhere like aldi you can get a pack of choc lollies 12 for a pound or have a look in the pound shop. The cake is normally supermarket bought because its cheaper. I put the invitations out about 3 weeks before the party and normally choose a sunday afternoon because a lot of children have dance or something to do on a Saturday.
Church halls are normally quite cheap we paid £30 for two hours but you have to tidy up yourself and get the keys back quickly.
As for goody bags plenty of sweets some cake and a balloon possibly bubbles generally goes down well. Make sure someone is taking photos and relax and enjoy the day.

[Raisiebay]

My daughter decided she wanted a Disney Frozen party for her birthday which is in July! It turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year so we had the party in the garden. I made a game of Frozen skittles by sticking cut out characters on bottles and placing them on a table covered with a white sheet (to make it look like snow). We made Olaf, the snowman, from cut out pieces. I told the kids to be creative and one made him with 3 heads! I made the cake myself which I was rather proud of. But the highlight was having snow! I bought some magic snow and when we added a little water it turned into bucket loads of wonderful snow. My eldest son sprinkled some out of the bedroom window for extra effect..cheaper than a snow machine.

[Lovelydiscusfish]

We tend to hire the local church for dd's parties, as it means that colourful plastic cups, plates and bowls, tables and chairs, and craft stuff, are all readily available. Plus tea and coffee making facilities for the grown-ups!
My party recipe is craft activity (Baker Ross are great), then traditional party games (pin the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel, musical statues etc etc), then food, then another craft, then drift off homewards! Party bags in tow. These are much source of discussion in our household beforehand, and include items to please all tastes. (For example, a My Little Pony mini-figure, a toy car, a "finger fright" monster, a pencil with a dinosaur rubber, pirate stickers, and sweets!)

[cybilfawlty]

For my 7 year old DD's party she had a superhero theme - the invitations had superheroes on (hard to find ones with girls as well as boys on), the kids had the option of dressing up and we decorated the village hall with handmade posters saying 'POW', 'BAM' etc. We also used red, yellow and blue balloons, plates, cups and tablecloths. For activities we had a mixture of crafts - make a superhero ID badge with name & superpower on it, decorate a mask for a superhero. And games - superhero bingo, pin the badge on batman, superhero memory game. And my favourite - managing to shoehorn in a bit of Black Lace music by getting them to do all the actions to 'Superman'!
Food was simple - pizzas and veg sticks and cupcakes with red, yellow and blue cases. Cake was a Wonder Woman design.
Party bags were simple brown paper bags with more BAM & POW stuck on as well as the kids' names. Easy to fill with superhero stickers, transfers, toys etc.

[MoodyMarge]

For my DS's first birthday we threw a seaside themed party (as it was really the only thing he liked at the time)....in the garden. Had big paddling pool, sprinklers, sandpit and lots of toys for the kids. Had a bbq going with burgers and beers for the adults and the kids had little stripy fruit cups, popcorn, chips in a cone and lots of beach themed cake which I made. For decorations, I just put up loads of colourful bunting that came from eBay and really cheap. We still have it and it gets lent out and used for lots of gardeny parties. A few balloons here and there and they all loved it!

[cather]

Rather than having plates of sandwiches and snacks that tend not to get eaten I make party food boxes for each child as I find that if they all have their own box it is more exciting and they tend to eat the food better. I put a drink, sandwich, sausage roll, chocolate and carrot sticks in each box. You can buy boxes quite cheaply and I buy boxes to go with the theme of the party so if it is a pirate party I will buy boxes with pirates on.

I don't give party bags anymore but buy books from the Book People/Poundland and give those as gifts as it works out cheaper than party bag gifts and they don't get thrown away after a day!

[TheToys]

Make sma individual cakes for the children and have them decorate their own, with a big selection of toppings, as a party activity. Always a massive success. Also premade glow in the dark fimo letters (with children's initials) to take home after a search in a dark room.

[TyrannosaurusBex]

My greatest idea ever was to hold the party in DPIL's greenhouse - no worries about the weather not being good enough to play outside/trashing the house.

[HALA]

I like to add a few games at each party - depending on the age of the child - something simple if the children were younger - like musical chairs, tailing the donkey, pass the parcel.

When they were older, I had craft making parties - where they made a bracelet or something to take home.

[flamingtoaster]

Themed parties put additional pressure on the parents of the guests to come up with the right costume. We tended just to have parties at which some of the elements - the paper cups/plates, the cake etc. had the current favourite character on. You can also work the character into the games - for pin the donkey change it to a nasty character from the themed story, etc. Our best party was one where every single invited guest accepted the invitation (much to our surprise!) and we realized we didn't have enough room to seat them all at the table. I bought a large plastic tablecloth (themed) and we put it on the floor and the children had a picnic - it was a real hit!

[voyager50]

If you can, spread the cost and organisation by joining up with another child who has a birthday close to your child's.

Don't spend too much on party bags, they only end up in the bin away - instead, if you can, buy one better quality item per child.

Have some structured activities like pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey etc but let them have time to play.

When it's getting close to home time - a game of sleeping lions works wonders to calm them down!

[OnMyShoulders]

Party bags are my bug bear. I hate them but I don't have the balls to ditch them . To keep the cost down though, I've bought multipacks of books from the Book People and one summer, I did a pirate theme party and wrapped a big box in piratey wrapping paper, cut a hole in the top and filled it with gold tissue paper and toys costing only about £1 each. Things like yoyos and water pistols. The kids each picked something on the way out and it went down really well.

[GetKnitted]

Theme the cake rather than the party, that way you won't be stuck with an uncool party table cloth three years down the line that your second child doesn't want for their party!

[Mouseface]

We had a simple play day with friends all joining in to make our treats. We made crispy cakes with a mixture of both buttons melted together, with a few raisins added for a bit of chewiness.

Once set, we used half white buttons for ears to make mouse 🐭 ears! Then small marshmallows cut in half for noses and eyes, cut up strawberry laces for whiskers, with a final dot of black ready made black icing for the details on the ears and eyes, and voilà! Mousey treats made by a mini mouse for a few friends!!

Sorry no pics, just could not get them to attach 😡

[PoppyMumsnet]

Thank you all for your comments. The winner of the £200 Love2Shop voucher is Lasplin84. Congratulations!