Choose one of these one-of-a-kind parties, and your child will have a unique and unforgettable party. And [...]]]>

Looking for a dynamite birthday idea for your child this year?  Skip the cartoon-character-of-the-month birthday party. Every other kid on the block will have the same  party – same paper plates,  same streamers, maybe even the same games.

Choose one of these one-of-a-kind parties, and your child will have a unique and unforgettable party. And because of the timelessness of these ideas, you may even be able to recycle your efforts on a younger sibling’s party.

Jungle Party: Decorate the room with green streamers and lots of houseplants. As the children arrive, direct them to a table stocked with white paper plates,  construction paper, scissors, glue, pipe cleaners, and any other craft items you think the children would like.

Instruct them to make a mask of a jungle animal: tiger, elephant, monkey, lion, toucan, gorilla, etc. When they’ve finished their masks, attach elastic with a stapler and let them wear them.

Play a charades game in which the children act like different animals. For younger children, allow them to act out the animals that correspond with their masks.  Play “Pin the Tail on the Elephant.”

Decorate the cake with green frosting and plastic animals.

Tea Party: This is a favorite among little girls. Send out sophisticated-looking invitations to the children instructing them to come to the party all dressed up (preferably in their mother’s clothes) and to bring a companion (doll, teddy bear, etc.)

Your daughter will likely love the preparation involved for this party. She can make fancy place cards to put on the table and set the table with a lacy tablecloth, flowers, and pretty plates and cups.

Instead of musical chairs and pin-the-tail games, play croquet. If the birthday girl has willing siblings, dress them up like maids and butlers, and they can serve the  “ladies.”

Serve dainty pastries like éclairs or ladyfingers. Of course, don’t serve the girls tea, but they’ll love fancy lemonades with their birthday cake and ice cream.

Firefighter Party: Arrange with your local fire department to bring the children to the firehouse to look at the engines and talk with a firefighter. They’ll love  listening to the siren, and the firefighters may even let the climb up in the truck.

You can buy plastic red firefighter hats at party supply stores. Buy one for each child and write his or her name on it with a magic marker. They can wear their hats to the fire station and for the rest of the party.

Traditional birthday party games work well for this type of party. You can also play a variation of freeze tag in which the kids have to be sprayed with imaginary fire hoses to be “un-frozen.”

Decorate the birthday cake with fire hats and Dalmatians.

Arts-and-Crafts Party: If you have an artistic child, this may be the perfect party. Set up three or four tables with supplies for simple crafts. If you’re the type who doesn’t like to think up crafts on your own, check a book out of the library or search a kids’ site on the Internet.

The first table they go to should be equipped with brown paper bags, big enough to carry their crafts home in. They should write their names on the bags and decorate them with paints, stickers, glitter, string, crayons, and markers.

If you want this to be a real hands-on party, you could bake cupcakes instead of a big cake and allow the children to decorate their own cupcakes with frosting, candy, and sprinkles.

Water Party: Lucky is the child whose birthday falls in the summer months. On the invitations, tell the children to come in their swimsuits and bring a towel. You must have a yard equipped with a hose for this party, and you’ve got to have a back-up plan in case it rains on your child’s birthday.

Borrow or buy a “Wet Banana” or “Slip-and-Slide.” The kids can line up and run and slide down the slide. You can also play run-through-the-sprinklers games. The rainbow-type sprinklers are great for games. The children will just make the games up as they go along.

Set up a picnic table with a checkered tablecloth. If your party is scheduled for lunch or dinnertime, serve barbecued hot dogs, chips, and soda pop. Then follow the meal with cake and Popsicles.

The Instant Party is always fun to try and is so easy to do.

Get all of the party items first. After the children have arrived tell them you are going to celebrate that fact that you are all just here together. You will then split the children up into three groups.

Group one will be the interior decorators and they will be in charge of decorating for the party.

Group two will be the games group and they will be in charge of the afternoons activities. And last but not least, group three will be the treat team and they will be in charge of making sure that there are some wonderful snacks.

Give each team about 20 minutes to prepare with items that you have already bought.

When they are finished it will be time to PARTY!

Gather the kids at the end of the party and tell them how happy you are that they could all work together to make the party so much fun.

If none of these party ideas speaks to you or your child, examine your child’s interests. Does he love trains or picnics? Does she love rock climbing or dancing? You can design a party around virtually any interest, and if your child loves it his/her friends probably will  do, too.

So skip the cartoon characters and plan your child’s birthday party around an activity he/she loves. It may not be the trend of the week, but it just may be the party of  the year.

Original article: Written by Rachel Tolman Terry – © 2002 Pagewise

Whether you are celebrating the first birthday of your child or planning a wonderful theme party for your kid’s 16th birthday, I hope you will be able to come [...]]]>

Another New Year has dawned and there are birthday parties to be planned but I first have to say Happy New Year to all of you!

Whether you are celebrating the first birthday of your child or planning a wonderful theme party for your kid’s 16th birthday, I hope you will be able to come up with super ideas to make this day an unforgettable experience for your child.

As I have mentioned a few times, coming up with ideas for party favours can be quite a daunting task sometimes.

When you plan a theme party for your child’s birthday, you should always include him or her in the planning and preparations as much as possible.

Making friendship bracelets to hand out as party favours will not only include your child in the preparations but teach him/her the value of hand-made gifts and of giving and sharing something of him/herself with the party guests and close friends.

Depending on the age of your child, friendship bracelets can be as simple as a toddler using silver or gold pipe cleaners to thread coloured beads or a teenager planning a more intricate design.

Friendship bracelets need not be expensive, all you really need are a few beads and some shirring elastic for a really quick and easy friendship bracelet.

Beads come in all shapes and sizes these days and I personally like the small square ones with initials. It can lend a special touch to a friendship bracelet if you and your child use these to make a bracelet.

Making friendship bracelets can also double up as a party activity and then you won’t have to worry about finding something to give as a party favour.

Have fun planning your kid’s theme party!

1. They will play games and/or be entertained.

2. They will eat birthday cake and other snacks

3. They will see their presents get opened.

But they also know that when they leave the party, they will receive [...]]]>

Every child knows that when they go to their friend’s birthday parties, certain ritualistic events will occur.

1. They will play games and/or be entertained.

2. They will eat birthday cake and other snacks

3. They will see their presents get opened.

But they also know that when they leave the party, they will receive a favour or goody bag. The favour bag is usually considered the best part of a birthday theme party because it is something that they get to take home. Almost like their reward for attending their friend’s birthday theme party.

Don’t think you can just throw a couple of pieces of candy in a bag and hand them out as the children are leaving. The birthday child is usually judged by how cool their favour bags are. If the favour bags are exceptional, kids will look forward to the next themed birthday party.

Today’s kids are quite more sophisticated in their choice of favour bag items.  They often try to outdo each other when their respective parties roll around – take care or they will really press you to come up with expensive items for their favour bags. It can become more difficult each year to try and come up with ideas for party favours. Why not try  some fun new ideas that will leave them with something to remember and will make them feel good about attending your kid’s theme party.

Since most kids like to vent their creativity through a variety of art projects, it might be a good idea to provide white t-shirts and fabric paint for them, so that they can create their own masterpieces and have a lasting remembrance of the party, as well. This doubles as an activity and a party favour, making it ideal for kids who aren’t terribly young. Even in the case of those who are under the kindergarten age, similar projects can be done using fingerpaints that are designed for fabric.

Another arts and crafts idea involves purchasing wooden cut-out letters – using the first letter of each child’s name who’s attending the party. With these, a bit of glue and lots of decorative accessories, the kids can decorate their own initial with glitter, sequins, foam shapes, stickers, and any other bauble that you might find at the local craft store. If you prefer not to risk the mess of gluing decorations, then you can buy self-adhesive decorator items. They’re a bit pricier, but will eliminate the worry of clean-up.

Prior to the party, purchase enough small picture frames to give one to each of the party guests who attend. During the festivities, take a series of photos, making sure to include each child – and be sure that they’re instant photos, so that they don’t have to be taken out and developed – super easy with today’s digital cameras, a computer and your own printer. Let them decorate the frames themselves while you print out the photos – just before the party ends, hand over the respective photos so that they can put it in their decorated frames.

For those who still like the idea of sending a favour bag home with the children, you can make it a bit more interesting by allowing them to make their own goodies to go inside. For instance, using lollipop molds and the necessary ingredients, you can instruct the children to make their own pops early in the party, so that they’ll be ready to go when they leave. Other types of candy can also be made and taken with them, offering a fun activity during the party and a tasty treat afterward.

To make the lollipops extra special, print out some colourful butterflies, flowers or images that will suit the theme of the party. Cut two small slits in the picture and push the lollipop through. (See picture…)

Once you let your imagination go, you can come up with great ideas for favour bags for your kid’s theme party – you can either make the items yourself before the party, and choose to include it in the activities once the party is under way. In most cases, the party guests will have fun as well as have something to take home.

Have fun planning your kid’s theme party!

Kids’ birthdays are normally celebrated with fun theme parties, [...]]]>

I am still so much in a travelling mood after my recent holiday as mentioned in the previous post, that I just had to post this article here as well. Maybe you will find some inspiration to plan the upcoming theme party for your child’s birthday.

Kids’ birthdays are normally celebrated with fun theme parties, so let’s take a quick trip around the world to find out how people from major parts of the world celebrate their kids’ birthdays and how they practice it in general.

In the United States and many other parts of the world, we commonly celebrate kids’ birthday parties with themes of choice by the one celebrating his or her birthday.

It is a common practice to have the party at home, with decorations set up in place and common party fare includes cakes, candies, soda, hot dogs, marshmallows and other treats children enjoy. Games are played during the course of the party where guests participate and win prizes at the same time.

This is also a similar practice throughout the Western world and is one of the most awaited party activities for kids all over. In Africa, there is a tribe in Ghana that celebrate the birth of their children on the day of the week they were born.

They call it Krada, which means “soul day” as their way of giving tribute to the creator for giving them the gift of a child – another soul added to their family. Most tribes or communities do not celebrate the birth of their children and common celebrations only involve tribes – people celebrating the manhood of children, as they are ushered in to adulthood through certain rituals and traditional practices.

In the Middle East, specifically in Egypt, children’s birthdays are commonly celebrated with singing and dancing with the party venue decorated with fruits and flowers, which symbolizes life and growth as the years go on for those celebrating their birthdays.

However, people do not traditionally celebrate birthdays as part of their religious practice. In Israel, food is also prepared with guests invited to attend from family, friends and neighbours. The highlight of the party is to have the one celebrating the birthday sit on a chair adorned with fresh flowers as guests gather around the chair offering prayers and well wishes to the celebrator.

In Great Britain, birthday parties are also held in homes with food and drinks prepared for guests. The British practice their tradition of celebrating the birthday by sending out birthday cards to the birthday celebrator, a tradition that was begun more than a hundred years ago.

As part of their cultural tradition, an Irish child celebrates his or her birthday by gently getting hit on the floor of the home by family and friends on the day of his or her birthday. The Danish people, on the other hand, celebrate birthdays by expressing their love for their country as well.

The Danish proudly raise their country’s flag outside their home whenever somebody in the house celebrates a birthday. Russians, on the other hand, also celebrate birthdays with food and drinks, but the only difference is, they do not prepare cakes but would rather have pies.

In China, a child celebrating his or her birthday receives money as a gift from his parents, who in turn, pay his respects to them as tradition dictates. Family and friends are invited over for lunch, where noodles are served, which symbolizes productivity and long life.

In India, a birthday child is showered with colourful dresses and chocolates and the home decorated with colourful balloons and shredded colour paper. If it is a school day when the child celebrates a birthday, the birthday child gets to wear a colourful garment and passes out chocolates to friends and classmates.