How To Plan a Stress-Free Kids Party

Welcome to the world of birthday parties! It’s such an exciting time planning the perfect birthday for a little one in your life, but it can be nice and stressful to. Do you have enough food? Where will I host it? How should I decorate? Don’t worry, we’re here to help save the day and make it as stress-free as possible. Whether this is your first kids party, or your 50^th, there’s always something to new to learn when it comes to party planning.

Here’s our tips to help you plan the perfect kids’ birthday.

Do your research

Before you even jump online to buy party gear, you need to first do your research and plan ahead for the day. Think about what your little (or big!) one is interested in and start search for a theme. A theme is the perfect way to bring everything together on the day and can really help you reign it in when it comes to party shopping. Trust us, it’s easy to go overboard and get carried away.

There are so many options when it comes to party themes, but you will find some are harder to find party supplies for than others. Take a look at what others have pulled together and see where they found their props and party decorations. Our website is just perfect for this! You can browse parties by themes and see where people shopped their look and start planning your own party preparations as you search.

It always helps to have an idea in your mind of what you’re hoping to create on the day.

Pick a venue

The next thing you need to do is decide on a venue. Whether you’re hosting at home, at a venue, in a community hall, or at a park, it will completely change your set up and the party supplies you need. For example, if you host a bowling birthday party, it often comes inclusive of food and entire party room set up and ready to go, meaning you don’t have to bring much!

A park on the other hand, can be a little trickier, as you need to consider how you transport things. You might need to consider things like cupcake boxes to get everything to the venue. The type of decoration you use, will also have to be modified to fit an outdoor place.

If you’re hosting at home, you have a lot more freedom when it comes to the decorations and look and feel of the party – although it does come with the clean-up, too!

Choose a backdrop

This is an often overlooked step for many, but it can make all the difference to your party planning! A simple backdrop, whether it’s a poster you stick to the wall or a balloon garland kit that frames the party table, creates the perfect centrepiece to the party.

It is the perfect focal point when people walk into the party, and can pull the rest of the decorations together. The great thing is, with a well chosen backdrop, you don’t have to go overboard with the party decorations. Just a few on-theme pieces will complete the look and make for a wow-worthy feature.

Search for decorations

Now’s the time to shop for those party decorations! You will find decorations to suit every theme, for example:

You can buy complete sets, which come with everything you need from plates and cups to balloons, backdrops and more. Instead, you might find one or two feature pieces and work around those to bring your theme together. You want to plan this spend for about 2-4 months out from the party. This means you have enough time to source all the party supplies you need, with plenty of time for them to arrive in the post (or to head instore to collect them).

Plan the food

The one thing you will have to do at a party: feed your guests!

If you haven’t already, it’s important to decide on a time for your party. If you would rather avoid hungry guests expecting a feast, opt for times away from main food periods. For example, 12pm-2pm is prime lunch time, and guests will likely come hungry. If you organise a party for 2pm onwards, be sure to finish before dinner time! Unless of course, you’re happy to provide a feast.

Your options are endless when it comes to food ideas. You could find something in theme, for example, this Mermaid Party Food, Watermelon Shark, Fruit Salad Baby Carriage, or Hedgehog Cheese Dip. Easy!

You can also keep the whole tribe fed with an amazing grazing platter. Include all the goodies you like, and party guests can graze away at their leisure.

Pick some entertainment

Hosting a party is lots of fun, and if you have a great outdoor space, like a park, set as the venue, that’s entertainment at your fingertips!

If you’re picked a party hall, or perhaps even your home, it helps to choose some entertainment options to keep the kids busy. Depending how many kids are invited, it can be tricky to bring on the fun without a little planning.

You might choose to go old school with some DIY party games, or prefer to hire a face painter, magician, or other entertainer to do all the hard work for you.

Of course, the final option is to pick a venue that handles the entertainment for you, such as a gymnastics party, ninja party, or something else in your local area.

Send out invites

Once you know, when and where you’re going to hold the party and what entertainment will be there, it’s time to send out the invitations and set the date.

Important things that need to be included:

Child’s name and age: especially helps for school parties when parents have kids in different years!
Where the party is.
What time it is at.
Whether there is a theme (do you want kids to dress up).
RSVP options and date.

While it’s nice to think everyone will get back to you in the right time period, this doesn’t always happen. It can help to send out a final reminder the day after your RSVPs are due. And always cater for an extra child or two who might respond last minute.

It’s best to send out the invitations about a month before the party to save the date.

Get baking

Now with all the details out of the way, you get to rest a little until the week of the party. Once that rolls around it’s time to get organised so it can go off without a hitch.

Start off in the kitchen, preparing food for the big day. Think about anything that can be frozen ahead of time, such as sausage rolls, party pies, quiche and so on. They make perfect party finger foods and can be done ahead of time.

Also think about the cake. Are you making it yourself? Or perhaps you have outsourced and saved yourself the stress – well done!

If you’re making it yourself, you can do this ahead of time and simply pop it into the freezer until you need it. Once you’re ready to decorate, pop it on a cake board and you’re ready to go. One less stress ahead of the big day.

Not much of a decorator? Keep things simple and add a statement cake topper instead!

Make party bags

Another thing you can organise ahead of time is the party favours. It helps to shop for your party bags ahead of time, so you have everything ready to go ahead of the day.

Spend the days beforehand popping the favours into the bag and labelling them with guest’s names. If helps to put names on them, so you ensure everyone receives one! Often, unaccounted for siblings come to parties as well, so it can always be handy to have a few spares without names on them as well. This way, no-one misses out.

Delegate and celebrate!

The big day is here and it’s time to have fun! Remember, you don’t have to do everything yourself. Ask friends and family to pitch in with some handy jobs around the place and they will have a ball helping out as well.

And most importantly, be sure to take lots of photos. Your hard work will be rewarded with big smile’s on the birthday child’s face!

Now that you know how to throw an epic kids’ party, it’s over to you! To make things as easy as possible we have put together a DIY party planning checklist. It covers everything you need to make your next party a huge success, so you can tick off as you go. Easy!