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Welcome to our Birthday Party Helpful Hints Page.

Organising a birthday party? Here's a few hints and tips to get you going. If you have some of your own hints or tips, or want to read everyone else's, just scroll down to the page!

Our tips for that perfect Kids Birthday Party:

Are you going to have a theme? Kids love dressing up when they're little, but as they get a bit older, they grow out of it.

What venue, the number of kids will help decide this. If you've got a full class of them from your little darlings' school, consider hiring a bouncy castle and an old church hall somewhere. We used to have two parties, one like this, and one for close friends and family - usually in a local play pub.

Once you have a party venue, you'll need to invite everyone - not that we are bias, but we think that the best way to get great looking invitations is to print them yourself. Our Wizard is great at creating dozens of printable birthday invitations in just a couple of minutes and, best of all, there's no need to write them all out as the Wizard puts one guest name on each invite, and gives you some blank spares as well!

Who should you invite? This is a tough one. If you are inviting class mates it can get a bit sticky when someone is left out. It's a tough call that only you can make!

When you hand them out, usually at school, try to give them to the mums or dads as kids have a great ability to lose them. Take a pen with you as most parents will be able to tell you whether they are coming or not. If they can't give you an answer try to get contact details, or a time for them to call you.

When you have the confirmed guests, pass this onto the venue, and make sure they are happy.

If your hiring a hall and having food, make sure there's going to be enough, we usually multiply what we think by another half at least!

If your doing the catering yourself, you'll need tables, paper plates and cups. Lots of paper towel as the drink IS going everywhere, and a load of dustbin bags too! Don't spend a fortune on expensive fizzy pop, just get a trade size bottle of dilute pop, and some large jugs - we never once had a complaint!

Oh, one last thing for the 'hiring a hall' party - you'll need your own entertainment. We used to take along a ghetto blaster, but if you hire a disco or magician etc make sure that the venue are happy for them to plug in.

Here's a quick list of do's and don'ts, including the don't forgets!!

- Do print your own invites with our Wizard (wha and you didn't expect it!)
- Do take a straw poll of who can/can't come, well before the party
- Do book your venue well in advance, once you have a reasonable idea of who's coming!
- Don't forget the party bags, love them or loathe them, a party is not the same without them, and
it helps to put a full stop on the party - ie you hand them out as they leave!!!
- Do check out the venue, don't just book it over the phone!
- Do have your party at home - BEFORE YOU DECORATE!
- Don't manage it all by yourself, kids get out of hand pretty quickly when your back is turned!
- Don't forget the cake, candles, a knife, - AND SOME MATCHES!
- Do take some cleaning stuff, bin bags and paper towels.
- Don't forget to cut the cake in time to add it to the party bags, you'll need a load of napkins for this!
- Do make up the party bags the night before, let the kids do it - Ho Ho Ho!

Why not add your own helpful hints!

Nov 09
Hi, just thought I'd add my bit..
For the younger kids party, party games are the key to success, "pass the parcel" always keeps them amuzed, and if you have a towel or two spare, try "apple bobbing" - if you can get em to eat it afterwords, it's at least one of their 5 a day!!
Andy,
Shropshire