10 Tips For Planning The Best Kids Birthday Party

Birthdays are a big deal to children, so much so that it is most likely the biggest day of the year for your child. Yes there is Christmas and Easter, plus many other small festivities throughout the year but your child’s birthday is the one day that your child get’s all the attention and all the gifts.

I’m not sure about you, but my children talk about their birthdays all year long and the excitement running up to a birthday is intense. Birthday parties are taken very seriously by kids.

Here are some tips to help you plan your child’s birthday party, or even to help you get started as a kids birthday party planner.

1 Choose A Theme

The theme of the party is always the best place to start planning your birthday party since everything will revolve around the theme. From the invitations, to the cake and the decor. Choosing a theme isn’t hard and very often can just be something your child loves – such as Dinosaurs or Princesses. It can also be from the latest kids hit movie such as Moana or Trolls.

If your child is young you could pick 5 things you know your child loves and ask him to choose one of the options. If your child is old enough you may be able to just ask what theme he would like.

2 Plan The Guest List

Are you going to invite your child’s entire school class or just a few kids? If the children you plan to invite have siblings will they be invited too? If your child has brothers or sisters will they be able to invite a friend too?

3 The Venue

The venue is something that you need to consider along with the guest list. If you are going to have the party at home and you have enough space you will be able to invite a lot more kids. However if you are planning on using a venue you need to consider things like how many children they can accommodate, how safe is the venue and what the cost will be per child.

This could affect how many guests you invite since you don’t want to be responsible for 30 kids in a public area without any assistance!

Different options for venues come with certain pros and cons. Having a party at home will be much cheaper, but of course then you will be left with a messy, sticky home afterwards.

Having a party at a restaurant means that you won’t have to do any cleaning, but it will work out more costly for you and you will have to keep a closer eye on all the kids since you are in a public place.

4 Invitations

Invitations are easy to arrange. You can buy packs of invitations and write them out, or you can design them online and print them out. Designing your own invitations online is quick and easy with Canva, that is how I design not only my kids birthday invitations but all my images for my blogs and online marketing.

Important information on the invites should include the date, time and venue. Don’t forget to give important information such as telling your guests to bring their swimsuit and towel if there will be swimming, or to dress up if it is a dress up party.

Let them know if the parents should accompany children.

5 Entertainment

It is important to have something for the children to do. If you choose a restaurant as a venue make sure it is a kid friendly restaurant with a good play area.

If you are having a birthday party at home you can’t go wrong with hiring a bounce house, they are always a winner. Bounce houses come with different designs, some the kids can just jump on, but other more top of the range bounce houses have slides, water pools and more to keep the kids occupied and entertained.

Having a pool birthday party will always be a hit in summer. You can also arrange games (think musical chairs or pin the tail on the donkey) or hire an entertainer such as a clown or a puppet show to keep the kids amused.

6 Decor

Balloons are always a winner and having themed table cloths, party plates, cups and serviettes will set the scene for a fun birthday party.

7 Party Packs

It is very common for party packs to be given to guests to take home when they leave, or to have when they are at the party. Party packs consist of sweets, snacks and a drink and very often include things like a party hat, streamers, bubbles or anything else small that can amuse the kids.

8 Food

While kids birthday parties are renowned for having lots of sweets and cake it is a good idea to get some proper food into the kids before they start on anything with sugar. Remember the more sugar the kids get into them the more melt downs you are bound to have, especially with younger kids.

Finger foods are the easiest for children so think along the lines of chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza or hamburgers.

Try to avoid anything fancy, kids can be very fussy eaters so keep it simple. Also avoid high allergen foods such as nuts. Remember that a 3 year old won’t know to tell you about an allergy. Better safe than sorry!

The cake and cupcakes are usually the focus point of every child’s birthday party. Making sure you have a lovely cake will make your child very happy and make him the envy of all his friends.

9 Get Help For The Day

Being the only person responsible for a gang of kids that are pumped full of sugar and excitement is no small feat for anyone so don’t go it alone! Ask your mom, mother in law, sister and/ or friends to help you. Trust me you are going to need it, especially if the parents are not staying with the kids at the party.

10 Be Prepared

Make sure that you have a first aid kit, wetwipes, tissues and any other important things close on hand during the party. It is also essential that you have the contact numbers of all the parents if the children are left in your care.

Make sure that you are prepared for the melt downs that are sure to occur.

If you have pets keep them away from the party so that your pets are not disturbed by all the kids and to ensure that the children are not scared by your pets. You may have a dog with a gentle nature, but when there are lots of noisy kids running around poking your dog … It is simply best to be safe and keep your pets away from a kids party.