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My sons just turned 4 and 8 (their birthdays are two weeks apart). I have only had home parties. Two reasons: I can't afford a party somewhere; The few times we lived in an area with options for a hosted party, it didn't seem like there would be much time for group play.
And that, my friends, is my kind of party.
I myself prefer home parties; but this is because I am indeed influenced by my culture of origins (to answer one of the OP's original questions).
Granted, my kids are 5 and 2...but we really do prefer the intimacy of smaller, at-home parties, mainly because my kids' friends are really the children of our best friends. At least so far; we'd give anything for things to stay this way but this might be difficult as they grow up.
I've only done one party so far. My son turned 1 in early December, so we held it at the local Children's Museum. With the rental and food, we probably spent about $300 total.
I'm not super creative, so I'm not sure how a home party would go. And honestly, our house isn't that big, so there's no way we could have hosted his party at home. We invited five other toddlers plus their parents, my parents, my three best friends, etc. And because his birthday is in early December, it's too cold to go outside. If his birthday was in the spring, summer or fall, I would love to have people over because everyone wouldn't be trapped in a tiny house.
I imagine we'll have parties somewhere else until he is at the age where parents can just drop their kids off. I can handle six or seven kids at home. I can't handle them AND all of their parents.
I always throw my kids party outside of the home at a party place like Jumpnaisum, funplex, pool party, zoo (I've thrown a lot of parties and try to not use the same place). To me its just so much easier I dont have to ever worry about feeding people, entertaining everyone, Cleaning up before and after, and all the while hoping no one break anything. My daughter just turned 10 and it was her last party after this we will do something small cake and pizza at home with a couple of family and her friends but thats it... well until her Sweet 15. Then that a BIG BIG to do
As for price I paid anywhere from 200.00 - 400.00. But think its so worth it
I have spent $150 (just sleepover with 5-10 girls with pizza, drinks and cake/ice cream) on a party and I have also spent somewhere between $1000-$1500 (cant recall the exact number but there were many more kids) on another party with a professional dj, fire dancers, cake, tent, pizza. Just depends on the birthday, year, what she feels like doing, etc. This does not include the family dinner this is just for the friends. But when she was 3-9 years old I probably generally spent $200-$300, one year it was a clown with food, etc, another year a magician, another year laser tag, one year an exotic pet store brought all sorts of wild animals to our house including a baby gator (LOL), you get the point.
its his 2 little friends, their sister (friend of my daughter) and the girl next door (maybe)
spent maybe $20 on decorations, $16 on his cake and a little over $100 on presents (his bike taking a big chunk out of that).
The kids can play outside if its nice (probably will be) - we have a trampoline, playset, lots of land to run and play on, or to kick a ball around on, or we can stick in toy story if its too cold or rainy or something, and they can play on the floor while watching it.
i think over the top parties are just really unnecessary.
I live in the burbs; there's a public park, that's actually just a half-block, square playground with slide/climbing blocks, a big grassy area where people can put up a volleyball net or play softball (there's no diamond so you'd have to bring your own sandbag bases), and big metallic swingset.
What I've seen for the older side of that age group (the 8-9 year old set) is a party table brought to the park, decorated with the plastic tablecloths, and one of those 4-foot subs from the supermarket (made to order - you can have pretty much anything on it that you want so if your crew is veggie, or an end needs to be no cheese, they can accommodate that just fine). The fixins go in containers, fly-umbrellas get brought for the potato salad (do they still make those?). While the kids are gathering at the house, prior to walking to the park, one of the adults is out there spray-painting a few rocks and putting them in random spots around the park. Gifts are left at the house, and then everyone goes to the park.
The very first game for the kids - find the colored rocks - and one of them might have a star painted on it. The kids aren't told that there's one with a star, but they're told there will be a prize. The rocks are then used to hold down the tablecloth, and the stack of napkins, and the pile of paper plates, so the wind doesn't blow them away. The kid who finds the rock with the star painted on it wins a little prize. Maybe he gets to keep one of the decorations from the cake or the bouquet of balloons, or a big plastic terrarium to put all the painted rocks in for his mom's garden.
The rest of the day is spent exactly how kids spend the day at the park, with the exception of the "eating of the sub" and the "consuming of the cake."
Then, everyone pitches in to clean up the park and make sure all their stuff is thrown in garbage bags, which get put in the huge park trash barrels at either end of the park. And then everyone goes back to the house, they do the gift opening thing, and everyone goes home. Leftovers are distributed to whoever wants to schlep them home.
Inexpensive, simple, and fun. As long as no one is putting up a tent, they don't even need a permit.
I'm a little nervous about answering this question because I'm going to get some feedback. I have four children all under the age of nine so I have had numerous parties over the years. We try to do parties every other year and the girls get to pick the theme and we plan around that. Their parties usually range around the $650-800 range and my husband blames it on the nice party favors and decorations. This was a party year:
For 5th birthday, we did a Tinkerbell theme. Each girl received fairy wings and "Tinkerbell" entertained them with facepainting and games. The party was at home in my backyard.
For 7th birthday, she wanted a Candyland theme. This was also in my backyard. We did a bunch of Candyland themed games and cookie decorating. We had a popcorn and cotton candy machine as well as a candy buffet. (This party was over the top). The parents really loved me.
For 9th birthday, we had a Grease theme. All the girls came dressed in Grease costumes and we had a dance party, then we went to a 50s diner for dinner and returned to our house to watch Grease and have a sleepover. (This was a really inexpensive party!)
For 4th birthday, she did a Hello Kitty theme in our backyard. We had a a bounce house and face painting. My friend owns a party company so she gave me a discount on everything and this party was around really inexpensive. I think the food was the most expensive thing because we fed everyone breakfast (it was a morning party).
Since we're only doing parties every other year, my girls have lots of time to plan and be creative and I'd rather have that than the cookie-cutter party. I am so impressed when I read all these posts about people who do such inventive home parties. They are my heroes.
(Sorry, I'll try to be gentle.)
Grease for 8 and 9-year-olds? And no parents had a problem with that? It's PG-13, with underage sex involving busted condoms and a pregnancy scare.
We didn't expose our kids to that kind of entertainment until well after their 9th birthday. We would have had a problem with a mismatch of values if a friend's parent had that as the theme for a party. I can't say whether we would have taken her away, (after leaving the gift, of course) or whether we would have left her reluctantly. Probably we would have resigned ourselves to the fact that we would likely find ourselves explaining about what happens when a condom breaks. Our kids already knew the basics plus some, but not such details.
Our daughter was very upset that we didn't let her see Titanic when she was nine. We just felt that certain themes and images were better left until she were older. By the time she was 16, she felt the same way as we did because she understood why we didn't want her and her brother to see sex and violence as entertainment.
I'll hear from plenty of people too, I expect.
BTW, our birthday parties were usually at the skating rink. It was the place to be, plus easy and reasonable. I can't imagine why anyone would spend thousands of dollars over the years for parties. We'd rather take a family trip.
My kids grew up with kids whose parent had money. Big money. Like rent-an-elephant and hire-valets-for-parking-for-the-party money. No way we could compete with that and I had no desire to. So I was the one and only Mom who had the kids play pin-the-tale-on-the-donkey, bob for apples, musical chairs. Stuffed 'em full of cake and Hawaiian punch. I actually had a mother come over and tell me how "brave" I was to go "retro".
Grease for 8 and 9-year-olds? And no parents had a problem with that? It's PG-13, with underage sex involving busted condoms and a pregnancy scare.
We didn't expose our kids to that kind of entertainment until well after their 9th birthday. We would have had a problem with a mismatch of values if a friend's parent had that as the theme for a party. I can't say whether we would have taken her away, (after leaving the gift, of course) or whether we would have left her reluctantly. Probably we would have resigned ourselves to the fact that we would likely find ourselves explaining about what happens when a condom breaks. Our kids already knew the basics plus some, but not such details.
Our daughter was very upset that we didn't let her see Titanic when she was nine. We just felt that certain themes and images were better left until she were older. By the time she was 16, she felt the same way as we did because she understood why we didn't want her and her brother to see sex and violence as entertainment.
I'll hear from plenty of people too, I expect.
BTW, our birthday parties were usually at the skating rink. It was the place to be, plus easy and reasonable. I can't imagine why anyone would spend thousands of dollars over the years for parties. We'd rather take a family trip.
Many people just don't think about these things. I was over 30 when I saw Grease and that was when a niece's high school did the play. I couldn't believe the story line and that so many people loved this movie. The same goes for Mama Mia. Charming.
My son is only a few months old and we'll have a big party at home for his first birthday. I imagine his parties when he's a little older (and they're more for him lol) will still be at home. If a gymboree type place is reasonable and he really wants it I can see doing that once in a while.
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