5 Tips For Planning A Kid’s Party

We recently celebrated kiddo number two’s second birthday. In the past few years, we’ve had to figure out ways to make the day special for the kiddos, a way for them to enjoy the day. Even now that things have opened up again, it is still a learning curve to making sure their special day is one they spend happily.

Since I’ve started having to plan children’s birthdays, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks that I try to implement to make the time leading up to the big day easy for everyone. A way to ensure that the kiddos – both mine and any invited (or spent with) are entertained.

In true “I’m so proud of myself” fashion, I’ve put together a little list for anyone who may find themselves in a position to need it.

• START PLANNING EARLY.
  Probably my biggest tip, the most important thing I could stress on, is to settle on your theme at least a few months in advance. Both G & S have their birthdays in the first quarter of the year, and so I try to have a fixed theme by mid-October at the latest. This allows me to take advantage of the end of year sales for backpresents, party decorations, cake toppers – anything I might need. I also have the time to tinker with invites and/or thank you notes, get anything printed I may need, and plan a menu.
  Additional tip: start a Pinterest board or something similar to collect any ideas and inspiration you may have in one place.
  
• ONLINE SHOPS ARE YOUR FRIENDS.
  Honestly. What it says on the tin. It made my life SO MUCH EASIER than browsing shops – especially now, with my health only just recovering from my change in MS meds – to search online for the things I needed. You can almost always find exactly what you are looking for.
  
• WORK WITHIN YOUR LIMITS.
  It can be tempting to want to organise and put on a very elaborate celebration for your child. After all, we only want what’s best for them, right? We want them to be happy. But it is perfectly alright – encouraged, even – to tone down the ambitiousness and be realistic about both our capabilties and capacity. Doing the best with what we have, with what we can, is more than enough.
  
• YOU CAN RARELY GO WRONG WITH COLOURING PAGES AND CHOCOLATES.
  Kids at most ages enjoy both chocolates and colouring, and it is easy to find both. There are multiple free pages online to download, or you can do what I did one year and try and design your own. Whichever works for you. I almost always print a few pages to add to the party packs I send to school for the kids’ classmates, or when we celebrated at home for a couple of years pre-pandemic, I set up a table with colouring pencils and papers for the kids. It was a hit.
  
• ASKING FOR HELP IS OKAY.
  It may seem like you have to do everything on your own. Like you’re failing as a parent or guardian if you cannot handle it all. But you don’t have to do it alone. You can – and should! – ask for help when you need it. Delegate, split up the work, and lean on the people who are around you. No one will judge you for it.

These days, we’ve not been hosting parties at home. There are not many kids in our community, and so the kiddos have been celebrating in school with their friends. This means it’s basically been cake and party packs on my part. But when you are hosting the party at home, I’d suggest choosing on location to set up a feature wall. Focus your main decorations here, take your photos here, set up your cake table here – and keep the rest of the decorations minimal. It’s less work, and it looks FANTASTIC.

• Have you ever planned a kid’s party?
• Growing up, did you ever want a certain type of party that you may or may not have gotten?
• What’s your favourite birthday party you’ve had or been to?

I hope these have been helpful in any sort of way. I also written about G’s 2nd birthday a few years ago, and you can read that post here. I was very proud of the way that party turned out.

Also, Happy Lunar New Year!

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