5 Party Planning Tips

Planning your child’s birthday party can be extremely fun, yet stressful. This past month, with the help of a very creative mother and sister, we planned my son’s first birthday party. Following a few simple guidelines and adding some creativity, the party proved successful.

5 Party Planning Tips

1. Choose a theme – Center your party on your child’s interests. My son LOVES animals, so choosing an animal theme for his party was a no-brainer. Incorporate this theme throughout the entire party – invitations, food, games, decor, etc. Here’s how I incorporated my theme into my child’s party through food and decorations.

2. Plan a schedule for your party – Make sure that your party isn’t too short or too long; you don’t want your guests looking at the clock counting down the minutes until they can leave. Parties around 1 1/2 hours provide your guests the perfect amount of time to mingle, enjoy, play a few games, and eat. For my son’s party, we started out the evening by eating a light meal (finger foods work well and don’t require silverware), played 2 games, ate cake and icecream, and opened presents.

3. Keep things moving – When kids are involved, it is important to keep the party moving so no one gets bored. Planning a schedule helps accomplish this goal. You don’t want to have too many games or try to pack to many activities into a short amount of time. I found that two games helped my guests have fun, enjoy, but not feel rushed. For my son’s two games, we kept with the animal theme; for his first game, I created animal tails from felt. Using clothes pins, I told the guests to pin them to their back pocket. The game had one rule: the last person with their tail won. The guests had a fun time running around the yard trying to pull off others’ tails. For the second game, I gave all the children balloons, foam paper shapes, and tape and allowed them to create fun animals. The children enjoyed creating giraffes, penguins, pigs, etc.

4. Delegate – If others offer to help with your party, let them. I felt so much stress lifted off my shoulders as I was able to delegate different tasks to my mother and sister.

5. Enjoy – Planning your party ahead of time can help you enjoy the party. You don’t want to “over-do” things to the point that you can’t enjoy your child’s special day. By scheduling events in an order of choice and delegating what you can, you can sit back and have a great time!