9 y/o girl winter bday party - help me do it on a budget?

[Anonymous]

I would definitely do the upside down sugar cone decorating instead of the gingerbread house.

I would have a hot cocoa station. Crockpot full of cocoa. Then marshmallows, big and small--candy canes, sprinkles, whipped cream.

Then have them make "cocoa spoons" to take home as favors. Plastic spoons, melted chocolate (milk and white), maybe in smaller crocpkpots--borrow from friends. Cooled on parchment paper, then wrapped in plastic to take home.

Snacks: goldfish, cheese sticks, pretzels. Nothing sweet. Go to Aldi to save.

Agree on the 2-4pm.

We always do simple parties. So much fun and saves a ton of money!

[Anonymous]

If you are going until 5pm, I would expect dinner to be served. Can you do 2-4 or 1:30-4?

You could make it into a winter pajama party and have them bring squish mallows, blanket or sleeping bag, do snacks and movie, plus cookie decorating. Or maybe have cookie decorating first and then do hot chocolate and movie? Would be cute if they could each take a small box or a few cookies home.

[Anonymous]

No to outside in december. Feed a meal. Get pizza hut pizza - $7 for a value pizza and a $20-25 costco cake. Add some fresh fruit and veggies and under $60 for food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is too many kids. Tell your kid to lower it. I think only have snacks available is very odd and distasteful. You can buy a couple of pizzas for the kids. Look, if you don’t have the money, it’s cool, just don’t have the party. Feed the kids!

Agree with the pizzas. And it won’t cost much more than snacks. Pizza, drinks, bottled water, maybe chips and fruit or fruit salad, cake, ice cream. Or even just pizza, s’mores, cake and ice cream . The entertainment can be craft activities, including the gingerbread houses. Don’t forget sturdy bags or some kind of containers for the kids taking the gingerbread houses home.

[Anonymous]

For the house, attach graham crackers to a small empty milk carton base with frosting. Alternatively, you could have gingerbread men for them to decorate.

Three hours seems a bit long for an afternoon party. Two hours, or maybe 2 1/2 hours might be easier to manage.

I wouldn’t expect dinner for an afternoon party ending at 5:00 (they’ll be home when their families are eating dinner), but if they’re making gingerbread houses (and sampling the decorations) followed by S’mores or cake, something to balance all that sugar might be a good idea.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate what you're trying to do OP. It's totally reasonable to have a budget for kids birthday parties but I would be more realistic here. You're trying to skip serving a meal and do s'mores (which is part of the "entertainment") and skip cake. If you hire a teen to help that's going to use 10-15% of your budget just to pay them. You either need to scale down the guest list or choose simpler activities. Organizing 14 kids to decorate gingerbread houses when you mentioned in your post that you often splurge on entertainment because you get nervous about entertaining so many kids is setting yourself up to fail. And a bouncy house for 4 year olds is not going to entertain 14 8/9 year olds. Movie nights are popular because they're easy to execute and cheap whether you have 5 kids or 15 kids. Keep the party to 2 hrs, serve hot chocolate, s'mores and some snacks and have a few simple crafts (ones that don't require a lot of adult supervision). And serve cupcakes or a cake. Boxed mix is fine.

[Anonymous]

Agree that keeping it as simple as possible is great and limiting it to 2ish hours even better -- and understandable -- with that large of a crowd. Hot cocoa bar, fire pit/s'mores, pretzels and simple snacks as well as cookies, crafts, and music are all you need if you keep it under 2 1/2hrs. Decorating mugs or simple gingerbread cookies a great idea. No need to do party favors as it is just more junk for the kids and the parents. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

We did a pajama party for our 3rd grader. 5-8:30, Kids played, ate pizza and cupcakes, watched movie and the end. Super simple and easy. Kids came in pjs with favorite stuffie and all had a blast. But I would cut down on the number of kids. We had about 10 and that was more than enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your budget??

Do you have people who can help you?

No

This wasn't OP - I already responded

[Anonymous]

I always do a scavenger hunt for my December birthday kid. (Did it at ages 5, 7, 8, and 9–now he says he’s bored with it, but it was great while it lasted!). We have a tight knit neighborhood, so I typically ask neighbors if I can leave clues on their front stoops, and then the kids race around piecing together clues. The prize at the end of the scavenger hunt is typically the big party activity (such as new game to play) or the party favors. One year they actually gathered all the party snacks. The scavenger hunt usually takes 30+ minutes, and costs virtually nothing. Actually, twice now I’ve given them all a clue sheet when they arrive, so they spend 20+ minutes working on the clues as people arrive, and then they set out on the hunt, where they pick up pieces, so it ends up occupying them for a long time.

Anyway, I’m bummed that my December kid doesn’t want one again this year, but now my November kid is asking for one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always do a scavenger hunt for my December birthday kid. (Did it at ages 5, 7, 8, and 9–now he says he’s bored with it, but it was great while it lasted!). We have a tight knit neighborhood, so I typically ask neighbors if I can leave clues on their front stoops, and then the kids race around piecing together clues. The prize at the end of the scavenger hunt is typically the big party activity (such as new game to play) or the party favors. One year they actually gathered all the party snacks. The scavenger hunt usually takes 30+ minutes, and costs virtually nothing. Actually, twice now I’ve given them all a clue sheet when they arrive, so they spend 20+ minutes working on the clues as people arrive, and then they set out on the hunt, where they pick up pieces, so it ends up occupying them for a long time.

Anyway, I’m bummed that my December kid doesn’t want one again this year, but now my November kid is asking for one.

Not the op but I love this idea, can you give an example of clues you give? And what kind of game was at the end?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always do a scavenger hunt for my December birthday kid. (Did it at ages 5, 7, 8, and 9–now he says he’s bored with it, but it was great while it lasted!). We have a tight knit neighborhood, so I typically ask neighbors if I can leave clues on their front stoops, and then the kids race around piecing together clues. The prize at the end of the scavenger hunt is typically the big party activity (such as new game to play) or the party favors. One year they actually gathered all the party snacks. The scavenger hunt usually takes 30+ minutes, and costs virtually nothing. Actually, twice now I’ve given them all a clue sheet when they arrive, so they spend 20+ minutes working on the clues as people arrive, and then they set out on the hunt, where they pick up pieces, so it ends up occupying them for a long time.

Anyway, I’m bummed that my December kid doesn’t want one again this year, but now my November kid is asking for one.

Not the op but I love this idea, can you give an example of clues you give? And what kind of game was at the end?

We actually do a lot of scavenger hunts, and I have a bunch of different models. The best birthday one was probably for my sports loving kid, when we happened to live in a neighborhood where all the streets were named for colleges and universities. I asked about 8 neighbors if I could leave stuff on their porches. Then I made up a worksheet that had clues to their addresses, and the clues were all sports riddles, so “points scored by a field goal + players on the court for a basketball game + Michael Jordan’s number + the city where the university of Michigan is located” would get the answer 3523 Ann Arbor Ln. They each had a worksheet like that. Obviously, they had to work together and ask for adult help occasionally because they were eight, and the clues were hard.

Once a critical mass had filled out the worksheets, we set off around the neighborhood looking for those addresses. At each house, they got a bag of stuff that was one of the goodies to go in their goody bags. When we got home, they spread it all out on a table and packed their own goody bags.

Sometimes I’ve done address clues like that, and at each house, they get a puzzle piece, and when they put the pieces together, it’s a picture of where the prize is waiting for them.

I’ve also done many scavenger hunts with rhyming stanzas. We did one all around our town (walkable, inside the beltway suburb), at various familiar landmarks—little free libraries, elementary school sign, etc. For those, I might write “next to the books that are free / where the juiciest berries might be / from the soccer field you will see / our favorite mulberry [blank].” As the clue would lead you to believe, there’s a very familiar mulberry tree by the soccer field and the little free library, and I would have left another note by its base. That note would have another rhyming stanza, and we’d go through about 6-10 of those until we of course end up on a friend/neighbor’s porch, where the goods are hiding.

Anyway, those are just a couple fun ways to do scavenger hunts. I see you also asked about the game that was the prize from one—I had just bought 3 different kinds of games, including a board game, a ninja warrior kind of game, and one of those disgusting jelly belly games. Some of the kids played those, and some just kept running around.

[Anonymous]

Costco sells the premade gingerbread houses. I am not sure how much they cost. I have tried and failed putting any houses together. I have tried to ones that come with all the pieces and ones we just tried to make with graham crackers and they always fall apart.

You could do cookie decorating as an alternative. 13 kids seems like a lot for this type of activity but if you don’t mind a mess. It should be fun.

I think you need to serve food if the party is until 5. I always think it is a bad party if you leave a party hungry, especially if it bumps into a meal. A play date is different but I personally think parties should serve food.

If you don’t want to serve food, maybe make the party 1:30-4.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. I think this of adult parties as well. If we show up to a party at 7 and no meal is served, I leave the party hungry and think it is a bad party.

[Anonymous]

Pp again. If you are on a budget, just have the kids do s’mores and hot cocoa and let them hang out. I would only invite actual friends. They don’t even need entertainment.