Winter park parties?
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Anonymous
| It's been so warm lately but I suppose that could change at any moment. Would you plan an outdoor park birthday party for December/January? This is for preschoolers, not young toddlers. Our house is so small but with Covid I don't want to book one of those germy bounce places either. |
Anonymous
No too cold. I have a feb kid and we always had grandparents or like 2 friends over. |
Anonymous
| Just be flexible with your date. Have an idea for a couple weekend date options and wait till you get around 10 days out and can see the weather. While the weather report with vary some it will give you a sense of it will be extreme or not. |
Anonymous
| I plan to do outdoors, keep it short (1 hour or less between starting/putting food out and cake; of course kids can stay later if they want), and provide a giant cauldron of mulled cider and coffee for the parents. |
Anonymous
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I don’t know many people who keep their kids inside all winter, so personally I think park parties are fine. Do I want to be standing around in the cold? No. Will I be doing it with my kid either way? Yup.
We did a park party in Feb last year. We got lucky and it was like 60 degrees. Before the forecast we had planned to do a hot chocolate bar, but ended up scrapping that. I’ve been to a couple of Dec park parties, one where the weather was mild (40ish) and another where it was actively sleeting. The latter was in Dec 2020 and everyone was pretty desperate for outdoor socializing despite the weather so turnout was great. People stayed like 20 min but it was still fun IMO. |
Anonymous
| We just got invites for two of these. I think it's way more acceptable than pre-pandemic. |
Anonymous
| I think it’s fine and I would totally go and so would my kid. We believe in wearing clothing appropriate for the weather. |
Anonymous
Late Jan birthday here as well. It is so frustrating. So many nature centers have attendance limits. Indoor places are going to charge per kid and so many people rsvp yes and then dont show up. We have looked at Pump It Up (500+) and Chuck E Cheese. Movie theatre parties limit to 12-15 kids. The place I have in mind is so far from our home location but it is one of the only spaces that is large enough and has a outdoor fire pit. |
Anonymous
| I personally wouldn't. I wouldn't want to put in so much effort for a party for people to only attend for 20 minutes because its cold. |
Anonymous
what food are you planning to serve or are you having a mid-day party? I was thinking 1-3 (highest temp of the day) and I am just not sure about food. I also hate feeling like I have to feed adults. With 30 kids, if 2 parents come thats 90 people to feed. |
Anonymous
Pizza and cake are always winners. |
Anonymous
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We attended one in late January and it was freezing. Like low 20s with whipping wind. I kept thinking they’d cancel and they never did. I took my DD since we said we would go and it was a mess. The birthday kid cried the whole time because it was cold. They had coffee/ hot chocolate but it started to freeze.
So do it, but cancel if it’s too cold. We stayed 45 minutes and it was way too long. |
Anonymous
+1 although I would be hesitant to schedule a party 1-3PM if any of the kids invited are young enough to still be napping |
Anonymous
If it’s cold, people may not want to take off their gloves/mittens to eat. We went to a cold playground party and no one even touched the cake because it meant removing layers. So that could save you money right there! |
Anonymous
| I would attend but I’d also be ok with not having real food. Pizza will be cold in 2 mins. Do cake and juice or hot chocolate. If you rent a spot with a grill you could do s’mores. |