Do-it-yourself parties
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If you're choosing to 'Do-it-yourself' you've got a few options:
We've split the ideas we received into the different areas you'll need to think about: Top Tip: Do not forget to prepare your camera for the event. Here are some great photography tips. |
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I did a pizza party for my 6 year old, where we made pizzas with 5 children. We made pizza hats first which they decorated, then wore their own aprons. The dough was pre-prepared using a bread machine then they rolled it out and spread the sauce and cheese on themselves. I nearly had a problem as one child couldn't eat tomato sauce, but she made a bread roll 'hedgehog' instead with cheese on top. Just remember to have spare bags for them to take it home if they can't finish it. "In the summer you could have a "come in your oldest clothes" painting party outside in the garden!" "A farm theme is a good one for a young child's party, outdoors in the garden, especially at Easter time. Hay bales arranged for clambering on rather than seating; picnic type food served in little baskets or wrapped in red and white spotted handkerchiefs; any outdoor type ride-on toys; a sand pit with all digging-type toys. Children to come dressed as farmers / farmers wives, or farm animals; face painting (farm animal theme). Fill a paddling pool with shredded newspaper and hide Easter eggs in it. Each child has a turn to find one to take home." "Have a colour theme party, e.g. blue or red. Ask all the children to wear this colour. Decorate the room using crepe paper etc and serve coloured food, e.g. for red, strawberry jelly, raspberries, salmon sandwiches and slices tomato." "If you're having a party for boys, a Spiderman party is a good idea. You can make spider's webs, paint them black and hang them around. You can have fake plastic bugs everywhere and you can have that horrible goo stuff and arrange it on a plastic tablecloth. You can also make spiders and hang them from the ceiling or even get the children to make them themselves. You can also use face paints to paint the Spiderman mask on the children's faces." "This year for my little girl's 3rd birthday we are going to give her a 'shiny show' party. Every one invited has to wear something shiny/sparkly and wrap any presents in shiny paper. Everything in the party will be shiny inspired, gold / silver food colouring where appropriate or served on sparkly plates with fizzy white lemonade." "How about an Hawaiian party. Kids love to dress up in bright coloured clothes, and a buffet of all different fruits. Lots of fun and healthy food!" "Any sort of dressing up party is a must but to add to the excitement, do some certificates on the computer, "best jelly eater" etc. You can also print out some stickers with favourites on. Again these are easy to do, cheap and make the party more special as all kids love to get certificates or stickers!!" "To tie in with the BBC Big Read campaign, you could have a fancy dress party with characters from favourite books, e.g. Spot or Teletubbies. Instead of party bags you could give book vouchers or bookmarks and all the games could be book themes." "What about a Winnie the Pooh or a Teletubbies party." "A Pyjama Party - the party is held during the day, as usual, but the children arrive wearing their favourite pyjamas!" "A brilliant idea would be a Pirate theme. A cake shaped like a boat or decorated as a pirate's face or a treasure chest. Skull & crossbones cookies, sausage boats, parrot food (nuts, raisins & chopped muesli biscuits.) Kids could wear masks and come in fancy dress. Party game involving treasure maps." "Pirates are a good theme for 3-5 year olds, this can be fairly simple for the invited children, (shorts, stripy t-shirts and bare feet) the birthday child's parents can make bandana's out of a piece of bright material for their heads and face paints can be used on arrival for the eye patch. Swords etc I find are best avoided! Party food can be served on sea themed plates and drawings of skull and cross bones etc can be put around the room. The party bags can be filled with chocolate 'piece of eight', the bandana and other treasure." "For my son's 4th birthday we had a Halloween themed party as his birthday is 19th October. It was a group of 30 children so we hired a hall and I asked 2 of my friends to help as team leaders, we had 3 teams ghost, pumpkin and witch. As the children came in we painted their faces white, green or orange depending on their team (teams had been worked out beforehand and I'd printed labels depicting which team and the child's name, essential preparation!) this alone created a buzz with the children.
I spoke to the children en masse and told them the games we were going to play, that they could watch or join in and deliberately avoided any competitive feeling. Each team played a different game and rotated so momentum was kept, the games were:
When it came to pass the parcel we played in our 3 groups with 3 parcels, I said it was a new version where we pass it along to the person who hasn't opened it if it lands on us twice and then the present goes to whoever is lucky enough to get it again at the end. The children, aged between 2 and 5 were fantastic, well behaved and encouraging each other, it was completely manic but I'm now planning my daughter's mermaid themed 3rd birthday! Don't forget wine for the adults forced to stay, we served up pumpkin soup and rolls for the adults, and the usual array of over sugared party food for the children!" "You can hire a bouncy castle for the day for as little as £30. The children always love them and they are great for tiring out little ones." Click here to go to a directory of local hire companies. "We organised our own party for my son's 3rd birthday - the highlight for the children was the clown who kept 30 children entralled for over an hour and a half - money well spent!" You should be able to find a list of local children's entertainers in the Yellow Pages. Alternatively ask around for recommendations including at your local playgroup or nursery." "A treasure hunt is always a great idea at a party - you could hide chocolate coins or coloured pegs or go for a more complex type where the children solve clues or collect items from around the house." "Why not have different activities in different parts of the home / garden (with adult supervision) such as paddling pool / ball pool, colouring in competition, face painting, blackboard and chalks, cake baking with lots of different decorations, dressing up, Lego / Megablock building." "If you're lucky enough to have a big garden you could organise some sports day events like an obstacle course, egg and spoon races, three legged races, running races etc. You'll need a few adults to hang around though too as it does take a bit of organising especially if you've got a large group of children." "My idea for a children's party: When playing elimination games, have a box of sweets (Haribo-size) to give to children who are 'out'. They are more likely to leave gracefully!" "An idea for a party game - get a poster of a popular character, e.g. Sully from Monsters Inc, get your children to make paper tails for him, (they can colour them too), and write the name of a child on the back of each. Attach the poster to a pin board/notice board, and then play 'Pin The Tail on the Monster'. My kids love it, and insist it is played at every party they have!" "My daughter wanted a disco as part of her party. Her friends brought along their favourite CDs and a couple of disco lights. All we needed was our portable CD player. They even played a few musical games too towards the end."
"I found that much of the food that I did for my first son's early parties was wasted so I came up with a few presentation ideas that really did the trick. Each of them are simple ideas, don't require you to be a master cook and went down brilliantly with young children. I now know that fairly plain fillings for sandwiches are best for example ham, cheese spread, jam and one of the favourites for this age is good old paste! I used to make the sandwiches from brown and white bread then instead of just cutting them into quarters cut them with a cookie shape cutter. I used to have girl shapes, boy shapes, teddy bear shapes and there are loads of others you can get. There was never waste on the plate only the crust that had already been cut off by the cookie cutters. The children used to love them and they picked them first instead of the cakes and choccie fingers! Some children like cherry tomatoes and I found that most liked seedless grapes and these both make the table more colourful. They look lovely in sundae dishes dotted about the table. I would have chocolate fingers in the centre of the table in wine glasses enough all along the table and the children would have them after everything else. The trick to get children to pick something themselves is to put everything in many small dishes dotted about including crisps, cheddars, skips, wotsits. All of the party food I have mentioned can be prepared and set out on the table in very little time and will be enjoyed as much as anything else if the presentation is right. I think plain white plates and cups are ample with a packet of bright serviettes to jazz up the table and on the plates. Orange juice and different flavour low sugar squashes for drinks and you are sorted without too much worrying!!" Your comments and ViewsYou mention giving children grapes as part of their party food, which is a good idea but were you aware that on first aid courses now they are advising people of the choking hazard of grapes? Apparently they are very dnagerous and should always be cut in half to avoid choking. I think it's because of the waxy skin, which means that they can be 'swallowed' by accident, causing choking. T Allen Support Link
OrganixOrganix is a caring company; their spirit and values are the things that make them different from the rest. To read more about Organix visit their site for support and advice on providing healthy nutritional snacks at your parties. Organix crunchy carrot sticks, reduced salt rings, and raisins are just some of the perfect food for parties. Have a look to see their ideas on how to cater for your little ones. www.organix.com Information about Organix and their products can be found on our Organix pages |
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