How much do you spend on your kid's birthday party?

[Anonymous]

$500- $600 on the party that doesn't include gifts from us. We have 2 children with birthday's the same week, they are 3 years apart and different genders so no luck in combining birthdays. No chance I am having them at home. This is our first year with 2 parties (DC #1 will be 4 and #2 will be 1) I am guessing we are looking at about about $1500 for both parties and presents.

We don't do anything fancy but like other posters I like everyone well fed and with adult beverages for the parents.

[Anonymous]

We absolutely send thank-you cards. I wrote them myself when Kidd were young, but now they write them.

[Anonymous]

I think we spent around $100 - $150 for decorations, plates, goodie bags, - we did a luau party and I bought most stuff at the dollar store.

Then we made food at our house, drinks, cake which was probably another $75.

We only have about 4 kids plus the adults. My daughter turned 4.

I was really trying to keep it cheap and not spend more than $150 but it was kind of hard. And I shopped all the discount stores with buying a few limited items at Party City.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spend way more than $500 on our bdays. Think pony rides and a petting zoo, literally. I don't do goody bags anymore since I am a major hater of more cheap plastic crap. I do an item. A book per child, lollipops, etc. I have food and drinks for the kids and adults since we usually have some adults. I buy a cake, don't have time to bake and decorate a cake. We budget for it and it is our choice how we spend our money, why should anyone else care? Kids and adults have a great time at our parties and we have fun memories from all of them.

I'm totally with you on this. I agree on the goody "item" idea and believe you have to have food for adults and children (if adults are staying). I find it so tacky when adults are staying at a party and the host just puts out a bowl of chips and salsa for them and then feeds the kids pizza (offering none to the adults).

I'm with both of you on this.

Totally agree on this. I also try to do a nice goody bag (within reason). I don't need anymore plastic rings, fake spiders and all the crap that people buy from Oriental Trading. I try to do things like crayons, some sort of craft items, paints, etc. you can go to the dollar store and get some decent things for $1 and at least the kids can do something with it. Seriously, a plastic spider?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like having parties, and we budget about $1000/month for parties in general. My child has not yet turned four, but we probably spent about $300 for her first birthday (strict budget that year), $600 for her second, and $700 for her third. They were all afternoon/evening parties with casual dinner and drinks, mostly adult (approx. 50 adults throughout the day/night and 10 kids), at home where my husband and I do all cooking and making of party favors (homemade lollipops that match the theme last year, among other things), craft projects using materials from AC Moore, handcrafted signs, invitations, hats and menus, and lots of drinks using ingredients that match the theme. It takes a ton of work, and I will not compromise with the quality of the materials (but buy the cheapest I can of the appropriate quality. But, we love it!

This year we are struggling to figure out what to do because we think we need more space than available in our small condo to accomodate the larger number of kids expected. We may end up doing two - one similar to our prior and another just for kids somewhere outside of the house. Most likely this would make us break the $1,000 mark in total, but we have a lot of people who really like our parties, and we love the project, so I would hate to stop them.

I love people who love to entertain - it's really a lost art and most people don't want to bother having people at their house or doing anything. We love to entertain too and am looking forward to when the kids are a little older so that we can at least enjoy our company. We have a 4 and a 2 year old and it's a little hard to manage that and be good hosts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say about $300 if you include every last thing, including thank you notes and stamps for after the party!

I a the kind of person that sends a thank you note for pretty much everything but have yet to receive one from any of the parties DD has been to. Do people not send out thank you cards for kids parties? Or do you wait until your kid can do it him/herself? DD is only four and so far we've only had more "adult" parties for her birthday but I've always sent a thank you for any gifts she received. What do you do?

We always sent TY cards. I have made them each year and this year when DD turned 4 i had her help me "write" the cards. I asked her what she wanted to say to the people abut the gift they got her. Some of it was really funny and didn't always make sense but I included it. I also printed out pictures of DD for the family that lived out of town so they could see her on her b-day. We did a luau theme and she looked so cute in her lei.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who has retreated from the birthday party scene. DD is five and has been to some birthday parties. I think she had a good time but was always more enthusiastic about a playdate or an outing and we could do a nice weekend away for the cost of a party. The parties we have attended ended up sucking up way more of our weekends than I ever imagined so I'm calling a halt before elementary school gets going. In addition, our younger daughter has special needs and has always been excluded from the birthday parties of her peers, so parties are always going to be difficult and lopsided in our house.

For what it is worth, I have a Muslim friend who has four children and does not have them attend parties for religious parties. They are among the nicest, most well-adjusted children I've ever met so I don't believe lack of parties does any harm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who has retreated from the birthday party scene. DD is five and has been to some birthday parties. I think she had a good time but was always more enthusiastic about a playdate or an outing and we could do a nice weekend away for the cost of a party. The parties we have attended ended up sucking up way more of our weekends than I ever imagined so I'm calling a halt before elementary school gets going. In addition, our younger daughter has special needs and has always been excluded from the birthday parties of her peers, so parties are always going to be difficult and lopsided in our house.

For what it is worth, I have a Muslim friend who has four children and does not have them attend parties for religious parties. They are among the nicest, most well-adjusted children I've ever met so I don't believe lack of parties does any harm.

Your Muslim friend does not allow her children to attend birthday parties for religious reasons? Sounds like an excuse to me. I grew up in a very conservative Muslim country and many, many of my Muslim friends came to my b-day parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say about $300 if you include every last thing, including thank you notes and stamps for after the party!

I a the kind of person that sends a thank you note for pretty much everything but have yet to receive one from any of the parties DD has been to. Do people not send out thank you cards for kids parties? Or do you wait until your kid can do it him/herself? DD is only four and so far we've only had more "adult" parties for her birthday but I've always sent a thank you for any gifts she received. What do you do?

My kids, twins also 4, have gotten several thank you cards from birthday parties. I've always written them in the past, but for their 4th birthday I had them sign the ones I wrote. Although only one of my girls can write her name, the other girl traced her name on the cards.

[Anonymous]

six year old
at home
$100 for activity
$15 for cupcakes (little ones from whole foods)
$40 pizza (i ordered too much)
$50 assorted snacks, goodie bag stuff, invitations (we made them)

even that is $200+ and i was trying to be really careful

i don't buy my son presents for his birthday as he gets so many from friends/relatives

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say about $300 if you include every last thing, including thank you notes and stamps for after the party!

I a the kind of person that sends a thank you note for pretty much everything but have yet to receive one from any of the parties DD has been to. Do people not send out thank you cards for kids parties? Or do you wait until your kid can do it him/herself? DD is only four and so far we've only had more "adult" parties for her birthday but I've always sent a thank you for any gifts she received. What do you do?

Yes, I've always sent thank you notes on behalf of my children.

[Anonymous]

"Just because you have a lot of money doesn't mean you need to spend all of your money. "

DCUMers do it for the bragging rights, pay attention!

[Anonymous]

"$500- $600 on the party that doesn't include gifts from us."

Insane.

[Anonymous]

"DD's birthday party at the park cost about $500. And no, it didn't break the bank. And yes, we are saving a lot. And yes, we served pizza and there were no goodie bags. "

How are you saving a lot?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who has retreated from the birthday party scene. DD is five and has been to some birthday parties. I think she had a good time but was always more enthusiastic about a playdate or an outing and we could do a nice weekend away for the cost of a party. The parties we have attended ended up sucking up way more of our weekends than I ever imagined so I'm calling a halt before elementary school gets going. In addition, our younger daughter has special needs and has always been excluded from the birthday parties of her peers, so parties are always going to be difficult and lopsided in our house.

For what it is worth, I have a Muslim friend who has four children and does not have them attend parties for religious parties. They are among the nicest, most well-adjusted children I've ever met so I don't believe lack of parties does any harm.

Ditto for the JW kids I know.