Think Ahead Thursday: Birthday Parties
used with permission Flickr, Creative Commons, author qwrrty
Well, with my first child having a first birthday next week you can guess that this topic has been on my brain a bit. I thought it might be a little self-seeking again to ask you about this but then again all of you have birthdays and possibly children with birthdays so maybe you want to hear what others have to say as well.
With it being the first child and all I am realizing that there are some things that I really don’t know. Like what is birthday party etiquette as the hostess? Must/should you provide goody bags for the children in attendance? Who should be invited? What could I possibly be forgetting?
I just have a first birthday party and I know the answers sometimes vary by age. But do any of you have some good advice on throwing a birthday party? Good birthday party hostess etiquette? Staying sane without going overboard? Sticking to a budget? If so, please include a comment below. If you have written a post on the subject, please feel free to leave it below in the comments section as well.
In the meantime, here are a few posts that I found that peaked my interest:
- 5 Ways to Stretch a Buck: Birthday Parties
- Budget Birthday Ideas
- Celebrate Big without Spending Big
- Saving Money While Planning a Birthday Party – Money 4 Moms Blog Talk Radio Show
Here is what we do as far as who to invite…if you are 1 then 1 friend (or family), 2 then 2 friends, etc. We did that until this year when my son is in school and we needed to invite all the boys in his class to be nice. We have always done our parties at our house or at a park. And I do always give some sort of goody bag. I usually pick a theme and have everything match…like polka-dots, firetrucks, farm, carnival, etc. And I always make my own invitations to save money. I pray that is goes well. Love you blog!
I was just talking to the hubs about sous chef #1′s fourth birthday party…they seem to get bigger as they get older!\n\nFor a first birthday we always kept it really simple. Just family, food, cupcakes of course, and fun. The most important thing is to read your child. Try planning around naps so they don’t get cranky. And ALWAYS let them have a cake to destroy all on their own…and get lots of pics!\n\nI have seen on the web a lot of BIG parties for the first birthday and it just seems a little much to me.\n\nFor our daughter who will be 4, we are planning on doing what we did last year. Rent a shelter at a park, get bubbles, sidewalk chalk and let kids go to town. Little goodie bags are great for this age, this year I am thinking of making crayon roll-ups for everyone…but I may be in over my head!\n\nWhew, this is a long comment!
Hello……my daughter is 10 now and she still brings up her purple party which happened to be her first. I really don’t believe she remembers it but what made it special is it was a color themed party. It was only our small extended family there but everyone participated in the wearing of the color theme and it made for some really cute family pictures….the purple balloons in every shade added to the punch of color in the photos. Some of the uncles didn’t own a purple shirt…so white was okay too…If you have little ones…it helps to use only pastel colored frosting on the cake as we learned that deep purple frosting isn’t fun to clean up!!} It also helps to have a time frame for the party on the invitations. I have learned at that young age… an all day party can be too much. Have a wonderful time!
[...] weeks ago I asked you about birthday parties. I asked, among many reasons, because I had a first birthday party coming up and this is a whole [...]