We know organising your child’s birthday party can be a little overwhelming. There’s so many things to think about and you want to get it right, to create great memories for your child and their friends. With our 10 tips for a successful kid’s birthday party, you’ll be well on your way to organising a great kid’s birthday party. Whether it’s your first or 10th time you’ve organised a party, we’re here to help!
At Gumnut Dance, we love the magic of kid’s birthday parties and do everything we can to help you plan a great birthday party for your child. With our know-how and experience, we have everything you need for a successful birthday party.
Don’t worry – we’ve got you!
TIPS:
1. BUDGET
Decide on how much you’d like to spend on the birthday party. You need to consider food, drinks, entertainment, venue hire, etc. You can work out your cost per child or just do an overall amount you’re happy to spend.
Don’t forget to budget for your time. What’s your time worth on a weekend? Are you happy to spend half a day tidying the house and then two hours cleaning up after the party, or would you prefer to have the party at another location and spend more time enjoying yourself?
Ask us about our Concierge Service package that includes set up (full tableware), pack up and clean up, so you don’t need to worry about anything except bringing the food!
2. GUEST LIST
Once you’ve decided the budget, you can work out how many kids to invite. There might be a desire for younger children to invite their whole class, plus other friends. This is fine if you have the budget and energy for a big group, but if not, ask your child to choose their top ten friends and work from there.
Are all the guests on the list friends or just acquaintances? What we hear from parents is that they prefer ‘quality over quantity,’ of friends on the guest list, so that might be a way to help reduce a large number of guests.
Are you happy for parents to stay? At younger children’s parties (ages 3-4 years), parents are more likely to want to stay. At Gumnut Dance, you can organise the set up of a parent’s table for $50. We allow one parent per guest, so the group doesn’t become unmanageable.
3. LOCATION
Will you have the party at home, at a venue or outdoors?
If you decide on a venue, will it be a community hall (check hire costs) or will you go to a party place?
Will the venue cater for the number of guests well and will the kids be entertained?
If you have the party at home, think about the preparation and cleaning up involved.
With an outdoor party, you’ll need a Plan B for bad weather and might need to provide extra shade.
If you decide to book your party with Gumnut Dance, we only run one birthday party at a time, meaning you don’t need to share with other noisy party groups.
Our Gumnut Dance venue is designed for kids and is kid and family friendly. We have a dedicated birthday party room and dance studio with disco lights. You also have your own party host who looks after the party and entertains the kids for you. And of course, being inside and climate controlled, your party will be able to run no matter what the weather.
4. DATE/TIME/DURATION
Decide on the day/date of the party.
Think about when your guests will be available. Many kids are involved in activities on a Saturday, so Saturday morning may not be the best time. Long weekends and school holidays can also be tricky as people might be out of town.
Parties generally run for two hours. Any longer than this, and younger guests get very tired.
Gumnut Dance parties run from 4:00pm-6:00pm on Fridays and 10:00am-12noon on Sundays. Set up and pack up time is before and after the party time, so no party time is wasted.
5. THEME
Themes for parties are so much fun! They also make it easier to decide on tableware, decorations and even activities.
If you have trouble deciding on a theme, you can choose from one of ours or you can base one on your child’s interests. You can also try looking at resources like Pinterest for ideas.
We can accommodate any theme and we understand that sometimes, small people like to change their minds, so we are also flexible.
Gumnut Dance party themes:
- Rainbow Magic
- In the Wild
- Pop Star
- Imagination
- Snow Queen
- Fancy High Tea
We’ve seen many themes at Gumnut Dance, so if you’d like more inspiration, here are some past party ideas:
- Ballerina party
- Emma Wiggle
- Moana
- Unicorns
- Fairies
- Princess
- Dress ups
- Super heroes
- TV shows – e.g. Miraculous, Paw Patrol
- Dinosaurs
- Nerf
- Parisian high tea
Whatever you decide, if you book with us, we’ll help you bring your theme to reality and make sure your child has a great birthday party.
6. SEND INVITATIONS
Invite your guests about three to five weeks out from the party, so they have plenty of time to know about the date and get organised.
Invitations are sent in a variety of ways these days – e.g. text, email, message group, video, paper. Decide what suits you best and what suits your theme. You can mock up your own invitations using a design app like Canva. If you’d like to get creative and create a video, Inshot and iMovie are handy phone video apps.
If that all sounds like too much, we provide you with free, colourful, paper party invitations as part of our party package.
If your child is handing out paper invitations at school (some schools don’t allow this anymore, so it’s a good idea to check), get them to give the invitations close to the end of school, so they go straight into school bags. You might also like to hand them to kids/parents at drop off or pick up time yourself, if you’re able to.
7. ARRANGE FOOD/CAKE
Will you be cooking and preparing all the food and the cake, or will you outsource this?
It’s good to have some healthy options such as fruit, as well as ‘traditional’ party foods. You’ll need to check for food allergies and cater accordingly.
At Gumnut Dance, you need to provide the food and cake for the party. We have a fridge/freezer and microwave that you can use to store and heat food.
Will you be providing food and/or tea/coffee for parents? If so, ask us about our parent table option.
Will you make or buy the birthday cake? If you’d like to buy a cake, we have cake companies we can recommend, just ask us. You can also do something simple like buy a cake ready made from The Cheesecake Shop.
One trend we’re seeing is individual cupcakes, rather than a big cake. The birthday kid then blows out the candle on their cupcake only. This is a great idea to stay COVID Safe.
We recommend sticking to the ages-old tradition of serving cake towards the end of the party (last 20 minutes). This signals the end of the party for your guests and also the sugar rush doesn’t hit half way through the party, making your life easier.
8. DECORATIONS/TABLEWARE
Once you have your theme, it’s easier to decide on decorations. Our party room has bunting, fairy lights and other decorations that you can add to with your own (e.g. helium balloons). We recommend avoiding confetti or loose glitter and don’t allow these at our venue due to the clean up involved.
If you would like to save your time and energy and get us to do the tableware, you can choose our Concierge Service package and we’ll do it all for you. We supply, set up, clean and pack up the following:
- plates, cake bowls, cups (reusable)
- tablecloths & napkins (in your preferred colour)
- cutlery
- serving tongs
- jugs
- platters
- stands (think high tea)
- serving bowls
- cake knife
If you’d like to buy your own tableware, Kmart, Big W, Target, Spotlight and discount stores are all good places to look.
Please note our Fancy High Tea theme requires the Concierge Service package.
9. PARTY ACTIVITIES/ENTERTAINMENT
Entertainment is key to a great birthday party.
What games/activities would your child like to have at their party? Will you run the games or get an entertainer? How much would an entertainer cost? Will you have craft? Would your child like a face painter?
Our party hosts entertain the guests with games and activities when children are in the dance studio. We also choreograph a dance to your child’s favourite song and everyone learns the dance! If you have a particular game you’d like included, we can do that too. We can also provide craft activities to add extra fun.
We can recommend a face painter we have used for events, just ask us.
10. PARTY BAGS
Kids love loot bags and party favours!
Whether you decide to include lollies is up to you, but it’s best to have wrapped lollies for the bags.
We provide a complimentary activity pack for each guest, so if you’re short on time you don’t need to worry about separate loot bags. You can choose to put some lollies in the bags if you like. Too easy!
We hope our 10 tips for a successful kid’s birthday party have helped you plan your child’s birthday party.
If you’d like more information about Gumnut Dance birthday parties, or would like to book a time to view our venue, please contact us on info@gumnutdance.com.au or call 0438863144. You can also send a query through our party booking form https://www.gumnutdance.com.au/birthday-parties/
