After reading the flood of opinions about different sorts of children’s parties here on http://miss-britt.com/2008/04/the-great-birthday-debate/ I start to think about it. The problem seems to me to be that some parents find it convenient to just pour money into the event, and this leads to the keep up with the Jones’ style parents to follow suit. This leaves the other parents feeling like they need to follow suit or face social ostracism.

So I thought I might come up with some ideas for children’s parties that are reasonable in price, because if the first group of parents had ideas for how to throw a memorable party without having to pour large amounts of money into it, I think they would go for it.

So the key ingredients for a successful children’s party would appear to be

• A location to hold it.
• Decorations.
• Food and Drink.
• Entertainment.

The location is probably the trickiest part, but at least there is a decent number of options. If you are able to hold the party at home, then it can be quite simple and cheap. If holding it at home is not an option, or you would rather hold it elsewhere then you need to look at the season.

Bear in mind that you need to consider if the option works for the season your child’s party is in.

As a child my most memorable party was when my parents booked a tennis court for four hours on a saturday afternoon. The benefits of this would be that there is room to run around, while at the same time tennis courts usually have a high fence, so you don’t need to worry about escapees. You can always bring a couple of rackets and balls, and the children can have a hit if they want to, for a game not usually played at children’s parties there is pacman, where a child is in, and they have to run along the lines with the last child to be tipped being the winner. The total cost for renting the courts was to memory $3/h, so $12.

What are your local outdoor swimming facilities like? Is there a grassy area you could set up with a picnic blanket? Are the children old enough that they are all able to swim safely with your supervision? At my local pools entry for children is $2 a head, just make sure you call ahead first and they are alright with the idea of you bringing the children for a swim and a picnic party.

A third summer suggestion would be the pricier one of miniature golf, however if you invite the children your child actually plays with rather than just every child they are spent time with in the past year the cost will not be that bad. An example of how to work it would be to get a family ticket, I know at my local one a family ticket is $65 for 12 games, so if you break that down, you could have 4 children playing 3 games, 6 children playing 2 games or 12 children for one game.

Renting a space that is already set up with everything for a child’s party will always be more expensive than renting a venue and setting it up yourself. A generally cheaper idea is to hire a scout or guide hall, bring your own music and decorations, and make sure you clean up afterwards. I know at my local one the cost for hiring it for an afternoon is roughly $60, with a $100 deposit you get back if you leave it clean. This has a real benefit because they will always have a kitchen and bathroom facilities. I had a friend who had her party there when we were 12, her parents booked it overnight for a massive 25 child sleepover, and her parents stayed the night to supervise us watching movies.

Those are just some suggestions, but utilise google, see what is available in your area, and if you are really lucky your area might even have a site like this http://www.waverley.nsw.gov.au/venuehire/ where you can see all the halls and function centres in your area.

I will do some research on decorations, themes, food, drink and entertainment and put up a follow up post soon.