Cheap party ideas

[LoraLoo]

So, I promised my 2 kids a 'proper' party this year... meaning a whole class type thing. William will be 7 and Alice 5.
Funds are pretty tight (ok really tight!) so Im thinking a community hall type party and doing food myself. Any ideas on entertainment that wont cost the earth? Cheap food and party bag ideas??
As its a joint party thetes going to be 60-70 kids

 

[Babybump87]

Joint party is a great start ! Saves paying twice for hall rental!

If you have a Home Bargains near you they do unisex party bags . Usual things DDs get in party bags are crayons, haribo , some sort of plastic toy ( whistle etc ) drink , cupcake , crisps and chocolate

Cheap food ideas , pizzas , Nuggetts , Crisps biscuits , fairy cakes , selection of sandwiches , sausage rolls.

Party entertainers where I live usually do a package. If you don’t mind doing it yourself you could just have a disco and do the music yourself. Face painting is usually a good one too and bouncy castles !

DD1 is after a party for her 6th birthday. I think we are going with a soft play centre for 2 hours and they provide food and music ! We are only inviting 20 kids though !

Good luck with the planning !

 

[wildflower79]

At that age you can get away with a bouncy castle and plenty of balloons and they'll have a great time just running around going crazy! I'd say you could do party games, but it might be hard work getting that many kids to cooperate You could have a table with some printed colouring pages and plenty of pens.... cheap and easy and a bit of a chill out area.

I had a little Bluetooth speaker hooked up to my phone for DD's party and we had a bit of a disco.

I've heard of people doing hotdogs and keeping the sausages warm in a slow cooker. Aldi frozen pizzas are cheap and nice and kids won't mind eating them cold. Lunch boxes are a good idea, but for that many kids it would cost a fortune!

DD has never complained about a party bag and some have had no more than a few penny sweets and a piece of cake in them. You could also get a big pack of balloons and put one in each.

 

[catty]

I did large bubble wands instead of party bags and I managed to get 3 for £1 and just tied some ribbon round them.

For entertainment we had a facepainter which cost £80 but realistically kids don't care how good it is so even if you knew someone that could do facepainting even one of your older children.
There also seems to be alot of people doing glitter tattoos at parties which I think are maybe cheaper than a facepainting.

I got banners of eBay for very cheap and food was done by different people in the family. They were all wanting to help though so some people brought cakes but the main part of the buffet was done myself.
I also got the cakes from Costco which was plenty for the 45 kids we had (2 cakes) and we had heaps and heaps left.
Altogether I was £70 for hall and bouncy castle, £80 for facepainter and maybe £25 on bubble wands. Food I didn't really price up.
That was for both my children

 

[SarahBear]

How about a dance party? You could have interactive songs too like chicken dance, hokey pokey, freeze, etc. You could also organize team games like spilt up into 4 groups and each group has to use a set of materials to cross the room without touching the ground.

 

[Eleanor ace]

You could keep it really low cost by avoiding any external entertainment and planning lots of party games. Balloon races, musical statues, obstacle courses, toilet roll mummies etc; lots of big team games, and having a disco (just sticking on some music and letting them go for it! Do you know anyone who's good at face painting? If so you could but some face paints and do those, that will thin the crowds out for games/dancing with some kids queuing.