How to plan a kids birthday party at home ?
Do you want to host a kids birthday party at home? You are at the right place. As our name suggests, we specialize in organizing birthday parties for children. We decided to create a complete guide to help you plan the most beautiful, original and fun birthday party for your child.
Here you will find the best tips and ideas for a successful birthday party. Make sure your kid has a good time and a memorable event. Below are a few tips on how to organize and plan a birthday party.
Indeed, organizing a birthday party requires a lot of organization. Follow our guide to make sure you don’t forget anything and make this big day a real success.
Stay organized with a birthday party planning timeline
6 to 8 weeks before your kids birthday party
The first thing to do is to set up a list with the different tasks that need to be thought out in advance:
- Set a date: what day will you choose to celebrate this party: a Wednesday, a weekend or during the vacations?
- the location of the party: where will the party take place? At your home, (indoors or outdoors), at the park, or a rental hall?
- guest list: start preparing the list of friends your child would like to invite to the birthday party.
- the theme of your party: you can read our article about the different possible themes for a birthday party. It will help you come up with some ideas.
- how many adults will you have to manage the group of children?
3 to 5 weeks before your kids birthday party
- Prepare the invitations: you can choose to buy them, print them on our website or even make them yourself which can be a real moment of creativity and manual activity to share with your child. Write and send the invitations about 3 weeks before the date. This is a good time for families to get organized.
- Choosing the party cakes and treats: Set up your menu. Make your list of things you will need to buy.
- Think about the activities you will propose to keep everyone busy! Prepare the games and activities that you will propose to the children. Based on your choices, make a list of items you may need to purchase for your event.
- Think already about the decoration…
- When the theme is chosen, think about your decoration. Balloons, banners and other decorations will put the children in a festive mood as soon as they arrive. It is best to choose a decoration adapted to the theme of your party.
A few days before your kids birthday party
- Contact guests who may not have responded to have an accurate list of the number of children attending.
- Buy the necessary materials for your activities.
- Shop for party supplies, such as decorations and items you need.
- Buy the cakes (or the necessary to make them), candies, small gifts for the day of the party.
- Foresee the necessary for your table such as plates, cups, napkins, candles to set a pretty table.
- Prepare small gifts or sweets for the guests in individual bags for each child.
- Notify the neighbors. Indeed, if you organize the birthday party in your garden, with about ten children, your neighbors will appreciate being warned in advance of the inconvenience that could be caused.
- If you have a pet, perhaps a friend or neighbor can keep it during the party. Indeed, a dozen children shouting and having fun can irritate a dog that could have a bad reaction.
1 day before the party
- Charge the batteries of your camera, phone or video camera.
- Prepare the room or the garden: remove fragile or dangerous objects that could hurt the children. Make sure everything is clean! Don’t hesitate to lock rooms where children should not go or to put a barrier to protect the stairs.
- Start decorating the room by hanging banners and other decorations you have planned. Balloons will be blown up that morning.
- Make the cakes or pick up the cake you reserved at the bakery. Find lots of original decoration or cake ideas on Pinterest.
D-Day
- Finalize the decoration of the room including inflating the balloons.
- Prepare the table: put the tablecloth and place the plates, glasses and salad bowls with some candies. Put on a protective film while the children arrive.
- Set up the games and activities you have prepared.
- Place a sign at the entrance of your home to indicate the party location, such as balloons.
- Prepare music to welcome guests.
Ideas of games and animations to organize your kids birthday party
The treasure hunt
The treasure hunt is the perfect birthday activity for children. Indeed, children play together and share a great moment of adventure to find a real treasure. It is a very fun activity where children will have to work together to complete their adventure. Discover all our treasure hunting games. Turnkey, they will allow you to organize a great game of an hour to an hour and a half in no time. In about 20 minutes, the game is ready. You only have to choose your hiding places and for the rest, follow the guide!
This type of animation is very popular with children and will allow you to put on a successful animation without stress and without too much preparation. It allows you to take care of one less thing and considering the list above, it is not negligible.
Discover all our “turnkey” treasure hunt games for birthday animation.
Police investigation
A police mystery is also a very popular activity for children who will put themselves in the shoes of real detectives to solve a mystery. With the help of their investigation sheet, children will have to find the clues and solve the riddles that will allow them to find the culprit or solve a mystery.
Discover all our investigation games for children from 4 to 12 years old.
A home escape room
What about an escape room? Still based on the same principle of turnkey animation, this time the children will have to carry out a mission within a given time. They will pool their skills to solve each riddle that will allow them to escape from a place or to solve a mission. But time is running!
Start the timer at the beginning of the game. The children have 1h30 to complete the mission that is asked of them.
The time is calculated so that the children really have time to complete the mission. The goal is of course that they successfully complete their mission. But beware, it is still possible to lose if the time is up before the children have completed their mission.
Discover our selection of escape room kits to play at home!
Indoor or outdoor games for your kids birthday party
We invite you to visit our website gathering all our ideas of games and animations useful to organize a birthday party. Thanks to it, you will not lack ideas to animate your party.
You will find games to set up both indoors and outdoors such as race games, observation games, skill and balance games, imitation games or musical games.
By clicking on a game, you will obtain its detailed card with the rules, the supplies, the number of players and the possible variations of the game.
You will also find many games that you can set up for a return to calm while waiting for the arrival of the parents.
For example, Wink Murder is a game that always appeals to children: one child will be designated to play the role of the murder. He or she must “kill” his or her friends by winking at them. The detective will have to find out who it is.
Find traditional games such as Blind Man’s Bluff, Capture the flag, hopscotch, Freeze dance, exquisite corpse, but also original games such as Indians and Outlaws, Pass It On game or the human knot game…
You will be sure to find what you are looking for.
Tips for a successful party
- Background music: think about putting on music when you welcome the children or at other times during your party, for example during the discovery of the treasure if you organize a treasure hunt. Indeed, if you are having a birthday party with a theme such as Star Wars, pirates, knights or princesses, then it will be easy to find music adapted to your theme that will allow the children to be even more immersed in the imaginary world you have created.
- Come dressed up: don’t hesitate to ask the kids to come dressed up. Children love to dress up. This is a great opportunity for everyone to dress up in their best costumes. So knights, pirates or princesses will be delighted to come dressed up in the theme of your party.
- Ask if there are no allergies: it is important to ask the parents if the children are allergic to any food that might be in the ingredients of your birthday cake. The parents will surely think of telling you on their own but you never know: it’s better to be safe than sorry!
- Ask for the phone number of each parent: prepare a small notebook on which the parents will put the child’s first name and their phone number in order to be contacted in case of emergency. Again, don’t panic, these are just precautions. If anything happens, you will be able to easily notify the concerned parent without running after the phone number or even worse if you don’t have it!
- Remember to take pictures: a few days after the party, your child can hand out a small thank you card with a picture of all the friends gathered on the day of the party. The children will be delighted to have a nice souvenir of the day and of their friends. You can also send some pictures by email if the parents wish.
Organizing a child’s birthday party requires some groundwork, but with a little preparation, you’ll be able to put together a great party that will leave your child with great memories!
