Let me preface this by saying that by no means do I declare myself the hostess with the mostest. But, I learned a lot this past week when putting together a birthday party for my two-year-old son, some of which I thought might be helpful to pass on. If you have an upcoming event to plan for your children, here are some tips on how to make your party a little easier on you:
– When picking a theme for your party, don’t do what I did: I casually browsed online for invitations and picked a farm theme. Then went to Party City and realized you can’t buy a darn thing for a party unless it has Cinderella’s or Elmo’s face on it. Not that I needed to go all out with my theme. I just would have liked to carry out the concept a little further than the invitation. Lesson? If you want a theme, go to the store you plan to buy things from first, then pick your invitation.
– I’m a big believer in providing alcohol at weddings. And for Christmas morning breakfast. And at a two-year-old’s birthday party. And just to clarify before I start getting hate mail, we didn’t serve alcohol to the children. I just believe that whenever you are bringing different groups of people together that don’t know each other, sometimes a little booze can break the ice.
– Remember the KISS principle. In journalism school, one of the main concepts that was drilled into our heads was KISS – Keep it simple, Stupid. That transitions very well to baby/toddler parties. I think it’s key to keep in mind that regardless of how much fun the birthday boy appears to be having at his party, he probably won’t remember it the next day, never mind five years from now. So do what’s important to you. If you’re a cake person, get a great cake. If you’re a foodie, have a great meal, if you’re into seeing the kids have a great time, pick a location that matters to them. But keep in mind, you don’t have to do it all. You’ll just make the rest of us look bad!
– Save money where you can. These things can get way out of hand. At the party I hosted, I found that we could save money with the cake and the food. Although it would have been delightful to have a custom cake from a bakery, we ended up getting one from BJ’s. It still tasted great, had a nice filling, served the 40 or so guests and cost $20. Can’t beat that. And as tempting as it was to grill out for everyone, we decided to order pizza instead. Browse online for coupons, place the order the night before, and it magically shows up at your location the next day hot and ready to eat. No grocery shopping or food prep, and most importantly you won’t miss the party while you’re slaving over a hot grill!
Feel free to comment if you have any added suggestions for birthday parties!
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