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Party Consultant Michelle Hylton

How To Host a Child's Home Birthday Party

Written By: Michelle Hylton

Your child's birthday is fast approaching.  You want to do a home party, but you're not sure how long the party should be, worried about keeping the children occupied, what games to play or if you should have a theme or not.

Start by choosing a theme, why?  Having a theme helps pull a party together. You can decorate easily with a theme, play themed games and find favors easily.  A theme can be anything from a movie, TV character, color, a sport, or related to the season.  You can find theme ideas on my website.

Now that you have a theme, it's time to plan you party.  Think of your party as a production. You have to set the scene and create a format. Your scene is your home, but you need to decide if the party will be inside or outside or both.  Do you have a room large enough for playing party games? Is your kitchen table large enough for all guests to take part in the cake celebration or are you better off setting up portable tables and seating?  Always have a backup plan to move outside parties inside, in case bad weather is a threat.   

Now that you are the Director of this production you need to set your format or acts of your celebration.  If this is a pre-teen/teen party, assign your teen the duty of Assistant Director and plan the party together.   Your acts will depend on the length of time you have set for your party. Most children's party with cake celebration are 2 hours long.  If you would like to serve lunch or dinner at your celebration, plan on adding another 30 minutes to your party.

Follow these acts for a standard 2 hour celebration and your party will be a hit!

Act I - Party Introduction/Opening Activity (10 - 15 minutes)

Greet your guest as they arrive.  You may want to put name tags on younger children.  If your theme requires a special costume piece for your guest this is the time to put that on. For a pirate theme, greet each guest with an eye patch and colored bandana which will later symbolize what pirate team they are on. For a princess party, let the guess pick out a boa or some jewels.  For a luau, greet each guest with lei. You may want to set up an opening activity such as a simple theme craft that the guest can start as they wait for others to arrive. For teens, have them sign a Birthday T-shirt with fabric markers.

Scene - Front Door entrance, with a basket of name tags or costume accessories.  For an opening craft, have table set up with individual supplies already separated into stations and shared supplies in the middle of the table for all to reach.  Tip: Always have a pre-made craft for display, to show the children what they are making. 

Act II- It's game time! (45 minutes)

Prior to the party carefully select games that will fill this time slot. My experience found that with a party of 12 children, 4-5 games were enough for this amount of time.  You may need to adjust for your guest list number; smaller groups will finish games faster. Have all the necessary pieces for playing the games out, so there is no set up time during the celebration.  You will also need to decide whether prizes will be awarded or winners just praised.  In my experience, most parents preferred no prizes and spent more on fun party favors. 

What games should you play?  Get creative by taking the most common party games and reworking them for your theme.  For younger children, games like Pin The Tail, Musical Chairs, Hot Potato, Relay Races and hunts can be converted into any theme.  For that "Dora The Explorer" party, Pin The Tail becomes Pin the Boot on Boots and Hot Potato becomes Pass Backpack.  Just a little thought and you'll have some fun games for your guest to remember.  For teen parties, trivia type games are a hit. 

Tip: If the kids really loved a game, play it again, if you need to fill time in this act. 

Act III - It's Time To Eat Cake!  (20 minutes)

Okay gather the guest around for a round of "Happy Birthday" and a cake celebration.  To help this run smoother, have your table preset before the party starts, have candles, lighter and knife within reach.  Don't forget the camera! 

Tip: For younger children, a fun theme place card helps them find their seat and not fight over whom sits next to the Birthday child. You could discuss with your child before the party whom they prefer sit on either side of them. 

Act IV - Gift Celebration (20-30 minutes)

My secret to a successful gift opening celebration is to set up a gift corner or area in the room.  Create a theme scene behind 2 chairs and place gifts around the scene as guest arrive.  This is the time for the Birthday Child to feel special and also to personally thank his/her guest for their gifts (it’s never to early to instill manners).  When it is time, ask guest to create a semi-circle around the gift corner or area. They may have form a 2 person deep semi-circle.  Have the birthday child sit on one of the chairs.  You as the Director, call up one guest to pick up their gift, hand it to the birthday child and sit next to them as they open it.  For smaller children who may not be able to read, you may want an adult to sit near by and read the cards, otherwise have them open the card and show everyone the cover.  Continue to call guest up to present their gifts. This gives each guest a special feeling too! Prior to the party, talk with your child about saying "thank you" after opening the gift, if they received a duplicate gift, have them say something like "cool, I have two now." You can work out the logistics of returns after the party. This way no feelings are hurt. 

Here are two sure ways to remember what gift each guest gave. 

1. Gift/Thank You Tracking Sheet.  Make 3 columns titled, "Guest's Name", "Gift Received", and "Thank You Sent." Create this prior to the party  with all guest names listed.  Place on a clip board near the gift center with a pen.  You can direct another adult at the party to help and mark gifts received and then later use this as a check off list for your thank you cards.

2. Capture it on film - Using either a Polaroid, digital or film camera, take a photo after the birthday child has opened the gift with the guest sitting next to them.  You won't forget what they gave you, since you caught it on camera.  You could also video tape, but with a camera you send the photo with the thank you card and kids love that.

One final note, if you choose not to open gifts at your party, then you need to make Act IV another activity. This could be a hunt, piñata, or a more involved craft.

Act V - Closing Act - It's time to wrap up your production! (10-15 minutes)

The celebration is coming to a close. If Act IV, was on schedule you should have a several minutes to finish up with one more activity like a piñata, hunt, or final game.  This is also the time for kids to get their favors. Don't give it out too early or they may start opening them and with younger children they could easily mix up their favors.  Thank your guest as they leave.

Take a bow - You had a successful Birthday Celebration!

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