Party Planning Made Easy!

Throw a winning birthday bash without the fuss by following these ideas.

Table of Contents

Be Organized

Plan ahead – think about what you want to do a few months in advance and set a budget.
Decide whether the party will be on the actual date or the weekend, whether you’ll celebrate at home or somewhere else and how many guests you will invite (experts say the number should be about the same as the child’s age).
Decide how much work you want to do — make and decorate a cake, or order one from a bakery? Elaborate decorations or simple crepe streamers and balloons? Get your birthday child involved in party preparations — the guest of honor will enjoy helping with tasks like decorating or measuring ingredients for a cake.
Keep in mind that an at-home party is less expensive, but requires more work, and if you choose a party venue, you turn the work over to professionals. If an at-home party seems daunting but you can’t budget for a party venue, consider holding the celebration in a neighborhood park.
When choosing a party venue, book well in advance to secure your date. If cost is a factor, check whether the party package costs less on weekdays, and plan accordingly, or consider a dual party for siblings, cousins or friends who have birthdays close together.

Ask for help from friends and family. You’ll need other adults to help with decorating and supervising the party — offer to help with their child’s party if they help with yours. Plus, friends might have ideas you can use in planning.
Plan to hire a teenager or two to help with supervision if friends and family aren’t available.
You’ll want to have photos of the party, so put someone else in charge of photography. You can’t be a hostess and photographer at the same time, and wouldn’t it be nice to have photos of your child with each guest as they arrive?

Pick a party theme based on your child’s interests — having a focus will make plans and decorating easier. See our top party theme ideas!
If your child is altruistic by nature, consider collecting donations in lieu of gifts. Ask for toys or books to donate to a women’s and children’s shelter or choose a local animal shelter and ask for pet supplies to be donated.
Look for decorating ideas to suit your theme, and then use items you might already have to keep costs down. For instance, pull out the lawn chairs, beach towels and sand pails for a beach party theme.
Plan the party menu with your theme in mind — hotdogs are great for a baseball-themed party. Serve cake or cupcakes decorated like a baseball, jersey or bat. Have popcorn and peanuts for snacking.
Come up with fun games or a craft to fit your party theme — make pirate hats or princess crowns, dig for “dinosaur bones” in a sand box, have a mummy race where kids compete wrapped in toilet paper.
Hire professional entertainers to add to the fun of the party — a clown who creates balloon animals, a reptile show or a musical act.
Avoid the time and expense of making goodie bags, and consider giving a single item instead, a “magic wand” for a fairy tale theme, a small bag of chocolate gold coins for a pirate theme, a toy car for a NASCAR theme.
Once that’s all set, plan to send electronic invitations a few weeks in advance, using a website such as evite.com. Specify party hours.

Make a timeline for tasks so you won’t forget details and so you can space out chores.
Go shopping and do party prep before the day of the event. Make sure to confirm the head count and finish the decorations; finish make-ahead food prep and house cleaning — including putting away breakables — two days in advance, and baking or picking up the cake the day before the party.
On the day of the party, allow more time than you think you’ll need for getting everyone dressed and for last-minute preparations, such as blowing up helium balloons or setting places at the table.

Decide when your child will open gifts — most parties end with gift opening, but sometimes parents opt to open gifts after guests go home or as guests arrive.
Make sure your child is schooled in proper etiquette and acknowledges gifts with a smile, even if he doesn’t like the gift, or has a toy just like the one he’s received.
Assign someone to keep a list of who gave what as the gifts are opened. Your child should write thank you notes after the party, and you may not remember each child’s gift.

Be sure everyone gets a good night’s sleep before the big day — a tired party child or parent can’t enjoy the party.
Have a contingency plan for mini-disasters — a first-aid kit for scrapes and cuts, a backup craft or game if the first attempt falls flat, a list of parents’ phone numbers if a party guest wants to go home immediately.

-Amanda Miller Allen