Party Tips and Advice
Our top ten tips to having a fantastic children's party are:
1. Be organised - start planning your party at least 3 months in advance to ensure that you can make all the venue and entertainer bookings you want. Guernsey is only a small island and companies do get booked up!
2. Think carefully about the guest list. You may feel pressured to invite the whole class but be assured that plenty of people don't! Inviting just the girls, just the boys or just your child's top 10 friends from their school year group is perfectly acceptable and common practice. Sometimes having a smaller number opens up the opportunities available and can mean that you can afford to provide a higher quality and more enjoyable party.
3. Choose a theme. By arranging all the party details around a theme, it helps to tie everything in together and creates a much more exciting and interesting event. Check out our theme ideas here
4. Time the party so that it fits around a natural mealtime. 11-1pm or 3-5pm work really well as it means you can serve a party lunch or tea at a time when children will be hungry. See here for our food menus which we have constructed from experience of finding out what children will and won't eat!
5. Ensure that you have something for children to do when the arrive - it can take 10 to 15 minutes for all the guests to arrive so an introductory activity before the main party entertainment is a good idea. Whether it is playing on a bouncy castle, colouring, balloons or a hunting game it will help to keep hyperactive mayhem to a minimum and make it easier for parents of shy children to leave!
6. Plan more games than you know you will need so that you are prepared and do not end up with half an hour to fill! Our party assistants always have a wide selection of games ready which they can pick and choose from depending how energetic or settled the children are.
7. Incorporate a craft activity. This gives a quiet time and also provides something extra for the children to take home.
8. Accept that after they have eaten children become lively and will need to run around!
9. Collect a list of emergency contact numbers because you just don't know when a child will get hurt, become unwell or upset and need you to call someone.
10. Recruit enough helpers! For younger groups of children it is likely parents will stay, but otherwise we recommend that 1 adult is present for at least every 8 children aged 5 and above, younger children will need more supervision but their parents are likely to stay with them.
.....and finally, enjoy it! If you are prepared and have put careful thought into the party then you should be able to enjoy it as much as your child!
To help you remember everything you need for a spectacular party, use our handy free checklist....
Planning
- Book venue (- as far in advance as possible!)
- Book entertainers and bouncy castles
- Write a guest list and purchase invitations to send out 3-4 weeks before the party
- Organise professional catering or draw up a menu and shopping list
- Order a birthday cake, reseach a homemade design and recipe or purchase from the supermarket
- Purchase materials for a craft activity
- Purchase party tableware, decorations, prizes and party bag gifts
- Confirm all bookings you have made 1 week before the party
- Charge your camera or video camera batteries
On the day make sure you take....
- Party plates, cups, table covers, napkins (including extra ones for wrapping up cake for party bags if needed)
- Decorations and blu-tak
- Party bags
- Prizes - make sure you have plenty to avoid melt down situations, any leftovers can be used up as gifts!
- Music - CD player and suitable CDs or an ipod and ipod dock
- Sticky labels for childrens names - children respond better when you can call them by their name
- Cake candles, lighter/matches and a sharp knife
- Pen and paper for writing down parents emergency phone numbers
- Binbags for rubbish and taking presents home
- Camera and/or video camera plus spare batteries
- A first aid kit - or at least a supply of plasters!
- Balloons - an ideal distractor or emergency entertainment!
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