Tell Disney Party your top tips on how to create the best children’s parties - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

Is it party planning time? Is one of your DC’s birthdays coming up? Perhaps there is a baby shower on the horizon or maybe you’re throwing a tea party or simply hosting a BBQ? Whatever the event, Disney Party can help you create the perfect Disney themed celebration and want to know your top tips on how you create/plan the best parties.

Here’s what Disney have to say about Disney Party:
"Disney Party is the one-stop shop for all things needed to create the perfect party. The site provides free and easy scheduling tools and of course, the extensive party shop with everything from plates and napkins to banners and balloons. There are party game ideas, free invitations, a free party planning service and some delicious recipes which are great for little ones. Visit Disney Party and let us know what you think via Instagram using #DisneyParty"

Do you start planning months in advance or is improvisation key? Do you or don’t you open presents with the party guests? How do you go about choosing the right date? Party rings, finger sandwiches or cheese and pineapple sticks…what’s your go-to party food? Is it better to hire a venue or host it in your home? Do you have a schedule for the day or simply go with the flow?

Whatever your tips are to create the best party, Disney Party want to hear them. Share it on the thread below and you’ll be entered into a prize draw with a chance of winning a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

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The best parties seem to be with minimal fuss, i.e a game of pass the parcel, birthday tea with sandwiches and buns then out in the garden to play loudly!

I love a traditional style party at home, I always hire a bouncy castle for the garden for parties in the better weather, a few party games & home made birthday cake...not forgetting the cheese & pineapple on cocktail sticks

We always do it ourselves at our house and just limit numbers to 8 or so. You just need to be creative and confident that you can control a group of kids. My top tip is not to go all out in food. Kids want to eat sandwiches, pizza, crisps, biscuits and cake at a party. I always put a token plate of grapes and veg sticks out but it's largely ignored.

Last year was the first year I hosted my first kids party... all others before were in playcenters where you just turn up and its all there for you.

My son wanted a halloween themed party so we hired a magician, made it fancy dress and I put on a themed buffet. Mummy sausage rolls, ghost shapes sandwiches, white chocolate dipped ghosty strawberries, multicoloures cakes. Halloween plates, cups, tables cloths etc. It was brilliant and worth the effort.

My kids favourite parties have been the ones I organised myself, the key is plenty of finger food, some of which can easily be themed to go with the party and their are plenty of themed food ideas online, make sure you have disposable everything for quick clearing up and have games like pass the parcel, musical statues ( less chance of tears than musical chairs) we had a pirate theme party where we played musical islands wehad island shapes cut out and the children had to be standing on an individual island when the pirate music stopped they all loved that! We open the present after the party rather than during as it can be quite chaotic otherside and we lose track of who gave what. Above all else have fun and join in with the kids!!

Best party we ever did was for my DD's 5th birthday - teddy bear making party. We hid the 'outers' around the room, so they had to find one when the party started - they were lovely and quiet, kept busy stuffing their teds. We then cleared up and had a Teddy Bears Picnic for the food bit and played pass the parcel with the teddies. No need for party bags - as they all took their new friend home!

I plan in advance, and ask my little girl what theme she would like
Ithen have a good look around to look for ideas and props/ toys that could be used as part of the party theme
I have bowls of fruit, cartons of juice, individual bottles of water and food in 'luchbags' - this means, the children can take what they don't eat home, there is very little to clean up
We don't do party bags as such, we choose a gift to say thank you and goodbye - last year with gave away gymnastics ribbons, which went down a treat

We have found that what children adore more than anything else are games - where they can really get involved. We start planning early but keep it simple. We have a range of foods - similar to an adult buffet. Everything from carrot sticks to chicken to finger sandwiches. For games we put squares of paper in a bowl for the kids to pick out and act on. Things like "push a cornflake across the room with your nose - pick someone to race with".

I found Pinterest invaluable for my DC's last party (Octonauts themed). I could collect loads of ideas and put my own spin on them. Get a good playlist on Spotify that you can use for the slightly dead bit of the party after the games and food but before home time. I buy a few bits of party food each week in the online shop for 2 months or so before to spread the cost. And I pay for a cake to be made - I am crap at decorating them and I don't have the time to be stressing about it!

Keep it simple, some decorations, music, good food and cake. Good friends and party bags.

If the food isn't good then no matter what you do then your party will be rubbish. This is the same for adult or kids parties.

I also like to have an element of surprise on the day. So the activity might be a birthday tea- but I'd do cute favours for each of the attendees.
Or if it's a sledging party- we'd maybe do a 'customise your own hot chocolate' afterwards.
Something themed but not OTT!

Local church hall, so they can run about doing knee slides! Traditional games, they love them. Make sure there is juice available as the kids get so dehydrated and when it gets to feeding them, just give them what they enjoy, it's a party. At the end always give them a generous party bag.

WE always have a theme and then cut sandwiches according to the theme (crowns and dresses for princess party, dinosaurs for the Dino party).

We add as much colour into the food as possible, think veg platters/fruit platter on white clothes for our rainbow party, strawberries and marshmallows on pink plates for princess party and bowls of chocolate (Dino poop) drops for the boys party.

I love party planning and getting the theme together.

Then we play traditional party games; pass the parcel, hope potato, musical statues.

And then my favourite party of the party- handing out home made favours or setting up sweet bowls as a thank you for our guests.

We recently had DD's 7th birthday party. It was at the bowling alley with everything included, even party bags. All we had to do was show up with a cake. Stress and mess free, I'd never try to do my own food and hosting again.

I'm awful for leaving stuff to last minute. Fortunately always managed throw a good bash. Typical party food. Party bags and games. Kids LOVE it

party bags and a good cake :P

Ive always liked doing things more hands on, including kids parties, for my kids as their birthdays are only 3 days apart, 4 years age difference we always have a joint birthday when its the weekend so I always know for the next year when ill be doing the party, theme will consist of sometimes they both love the same thing so we have one but if there is to be a difference in themes to compromise, one has one of their themes is cups and plates, the other is napkins and extra cups! always needed! etc. and both themes will have decorations all round the house I will start with the invitations in advance with a note to parents saying I'm doing it all myself so if possible as I know not always getting an idea of numbers helps and of course a date to get in touch by, I admit I don't make the cake as I'm not great at cake making, but when it comes to food I always do a buffet of many things, some warm some cold, such as sandwiches and carrot sticks, grapes crisps etc, warm being sausage rolls, chicken nuggets, so theres a mixture for everyone. I always prepare what can be for cold day before such as pineapple and cheese sticks and sandwiches. The warm food ill start about an hour before feeding so cooled down enough to eat and still warm.
Games are always popular so we love to get creative with ideas of making games, such as if the theme was Minnie, we actually drew and made our own" pin the tail on the donkey" by doing pin the bow on Minnie, which even led to put the headband on me!
If its a nice day take it outside so the kids cab run round and have room to play creating games for outside and the piniata. I find homemade games go down so well especially when the adult joins in and becomes part of the game.
And party bags are a huge must! this I make very simple and well in advance, I avoid themes here incase the kids change their mind coming up to party on theme and make boy/girls bags and make sure put a slice of cake in the bag, and having a good variety of items is important and try to source new items they may not had or seen before as we live in a little town.
The most important tip is making the kids laugh! they laugh they have had fun and being apart of it where possible, playing the games or being the game

Have Frozen on standby ready to play or one of those interactive DVD games by Scene-It? When the sugar rush is getting too much pop the partiers in front of the screen and go off for a quite 5 and try not to pull your hair out ...

I like to pick a theme and then stick to it. I find looking on Pinterest has loads of great ideas to make at home! You can rope the whole family in to help

I kept it simple this year by hosting a gym party for each DD and their classmates. They had an hour to play some games, run around and have fun. The party bags were prepared in advance so once the party finished and the bags handed out and we were done and dusted! These were the most stress-free parties I've ever organised!!

The one good thing about an August birthday is DD has her party in the garden! We always do it in July before school breaks up so all her friends are still here.
Food - for the last few years I have just done pizza and crisps with carrot/cucumber sticks. A cupcake fondue was a great success - mini cupcakes 2 bowls of buttercream and tonnes of sprinkles.

I find planning is key!!! Make it as big as you want it to be or as big as your budget allows... my son was recently 5 and he wanted a Pokemon party and we went all out! A lot of the things I had to make because you couldn't get it here but I used Pinterest a lot for ideas and done it myself.

Lots of different flavours of crisps, in bowls for them to help themselves. Or at least that's what I was told was the best thing about DS's party one year!!

Food is probably the biggest thing that needs to be planned when we do a party. We invite all the wider family, who eat a lot, so we need to make sure there is enough for everyone and that everyone's tastes and needs are catered for.

Always have a theme. Last year was Paw Patrol. Table settings and decorations were all Paw Patrol, as well as traditional games prizes and goodie bags. Next year I think it's going to be Shopkins!