How amazing are birthdays! We loved them when we were kids, and when we have kids we look forward to them with equal measure of anticipation and anxiety. Right?
If you have a toddler’s birthday coming up, be sure you have these basics covered.
1. Party Venue: While we personally prefer hosting hosting kids’ parties at home, sometimes the logistics are easier to manage at a community hall, or restaurant with a private area, or even at an indoor play area. Depending on your budget and the number of guests, pick a location which works for you.
Try and keep the commute for a majority of the guests at a minimum especially in the metros where traffic can play spoilsport. If you’re planning to host the party outside of the home, then make sure you check your desired venue for the time and date you want to hold the party. You may want to look at weekends rather than the actually birthday for the sake of convenience.
2. Invitations: Once your date and venue are decided, it’s time to let the guests know. The ideal time to send out party invites is around 10 days before the date; that gives people enough time to plan their calendars, without being too far away to be forgotten.
You can send out a jpg image or text message on whatsapp or an via sms. For image based invites, you can use a photo of some art-work done by the Birthday baby for a more personal touch.
Just make sure your written invite covers critical information like date, address, timing, and directions. You can follow up with a phone call for confirmation, but it is important for people to have this written down for later reference.
3. Decor: You can either get a party planner to do up the venue, or try some DIYs from YouTube (but be prepared for trials, failures and re-trials!).
Alternatively, for more popular themes you can get a lot of decor online at party stores like Party Hunterz, MadCap Party Shop, or even Amazon. Your basic decor would include some wall hangings, a ‘Happy Birthday’ bunting, and some knick knacks to place on tables.
Balloons are always a hit with kids, but unless you have the lung power or a pump you should definitely get a balloon-waala even for 50-100 balloons. There is a lot more that can be done for decor of course, including a photo booth, character cut-outs (if it is a theme party), photos and art work of the family and so on.
The only limit is your imagination!
4. Activities: Even though you may feel that it’s just a kids’ party, have a rough idea of how you want the evening to proceed. You can find some fun activities on Pinterest to keep kids of various ages engaged. For smaller toddlers, keep the plan simple and be prepared for nothing going as per plan!
Ideally, you should start with some free time for the guests to come in and mingle, followed by half an hour to one hour of organised games or activities, followed by the piñata (or Khoi bag) if you want, and then cake cutting. Food can then be served, which can be either heavy snacks or a meal depending on the timing of your party.
5. Return Gifts: Personalised return gifts are all the rage, but bear in mind that they tend be quite an expensive proposition. Peppa Pig Clocks, Dinosaur shaped chalk boards, Elsa & Anna colouring books, Car shaped Cushions, and many more are available to order online and can have the recipient’s name printed on them at additional costs.
You can also go with a hamper of smaller items, coordinated with the theme of the party like a pencil case with stickers, and small toys, along with some candy and bubble makers.
6. Eats & Drinks: As with activities, for food also focus on convenience and an uncomplicated fare. For a kids-only party, keep the menu as heavy snacks rather than main course items. Little ones are happy to nibble on things like mini idlis, mini pizzas, chips and so on. The safest bet for drinks is to keep water, and small tetra packs of juice in mixed flavours. The idea is that each child should be able to manage their food and drinks with less supervision and no mess!
Of course, there are lots more things one can add to the list, but if you get these building blocks planned out well then your little one and you are sure to have a wonderful celebration!
