There are those milestones in your children’s lives that you will look back on with a combination of happiness and sadness, but also relief. While your child’s first Christmas is a milestone that you will always remember, the preparation to make it as perfect as possible can be very, very, stressful! The same applies when it’s time for the annual birthday party. You may decide to make the first birthday a low-key, family affair, but when your child starts to make friends in playgroup, you might feel the pressure to put on a proper event. So here is how to do it with the minimum of fuss (and the minimum of stress)!
Time: Your Greatest Ally!
Like it even needs pointing out! The more time you allow yourself to prepare, the less stressful it will be in the long run. The things you need to think about doing, you should start roughly a month before. This gives you an opportunity to decide on a theme, draw up a guest list, and to confirm a date that is suitable for the important people in your child’s life, such as their best friend(s) and relatives.
Who Should I Invite?
Apart from your child’s best friend, the best way to avoid hurting any feelings is to invite everyone that is in your child’s nursery or class. This may sound like a lot, but it’s unlikely that everyone will turn up, but this is the best approach. When thinking in this respect, this will determine the venue you hold it. A lot of parents choose a village hall as a suitable venue, because it allows for a lot of space for the children to run around, and they will definitely like to run around!
The Food Prep
This can get somewhat out of hand, but the trick is to make it simple unless you are catering for a big event. The difficulty in doing food for a kids party is that it needs to cater for the adults too, so you will have to think carefully about the types of foods that people can and can’t eat. And if you are thinking about doing hot foods, it can get cold quickly. You may want to think about some catering equipment for the ease of transporting food, in this case, there are plenty of catering companies that supply these types of equipment. A company like Kitchen Solutions cooking equipment you can purchase equipment from that helps to store the food at the right temperature. So if you plan on having a mass party, this can help. For most people, with a guest list of around 30 children, you need to think about preparing for 90 people (this includes the two parents). In this respect it can be quite a mammoth task, so your choice of food is important, you need to think about gluten-free options, food that doesn’t have nuts or allergens, as well as vegetarian or vegan options.
Getting your legwork done at least a few weeks before the party will make for a lot less stress. And remember, although it is a party, and everyone will be having fun, get some rest the night before! If you’ve never done this before, you will be surprised how draining it actually is!