One of the most frequent questions I get after performing over 34 years and thousands of Birthday parties is “How can I have a great Birthday party for my child? “ The answer is in the timing of the party and the quality of the entertainment. What do I mean? In planning a successful party lay out the timing of the party. Is your child one to three years old? Do they still nap? Are most of the guests who are coming have children who nap? If you answered yes then your party should be early time ranging 10 am -1:00 pm. Why? It's the best time of the day for kids that age. Scheduling a party during nap time or later in the day puts you at the risk of very unhappy B-Day Kids. You can serve Breakfast foods, then have some type of entertainment { age appropriate}, and end with the cake or cupcakes. Keep in mind kids don’t eat much so your menu should be kid friendly but mostly geared toward adults.
Is your child 4-6 years old? Then you have two choices, you can schedule the party to include lunch at 12:00 pm. Always allow half an hour for everyone to get there. Remember stuff happens when you have small children. Then serve lunch, provide entertainment, and end the party with cake or cupcakes. At this age, you’ll have parents dropping them off or staying so provide enough food for both possibilities. The second choice which is my favorite because it saves you money plus it’s an easy party is the 2:00 to 4:00 pm time slot. This time eliminates the need for lunch or dinner and you can have entertainment first then cake and ice cream. Perfect!
This is where a party goes from a nice party to a fantastic party! Have a craft for your guests to do ahead of time while guests continue to arrive, coloring pages, a toy playroom, or an outside play area. Something to keep the kid’s busy till everyone arrives.
If you are having a theme party play games that correspond to that theme. For example pin the hat on a Pirate, the crown on a princess, or the Tail on a donkey. When setting up where the entertainment will perform ask them about their needs first. Do you need electricity? Need shade? Where do you want the children? In chairs? On the ground on blankets? Don’t set yourself and the entertainers up for failure by putting them in a toy room surrounded by toys! Best performing areas are empty ones! Big open rooms for kids to dance, run and move!
Do not feed the children while the entertainers are performing! I have experienced kids knocking over juice boxes, stepping on pizza and cupcakes, choking because they are laughing so hard, and trying to clap while they have food in their hands. I even had a child throw a cupcake at the stage!
Before the show… try to nicely ask the adults to keep conversations to a low whisper or take the conversation away from the show. I have experienced many of children asking their parents to be quiet because they were talking too loud and couldn’t hear the show!
Get your monie’s worth and follow these basic rules and you will have a successful B-day party. If you really want to Guarantee a great party then hire Puppet Pizzazz they have been entertaining kids for over 34 years and they entertain all ages at the same time, even the adults love it!
www.puppetspizzazz.com or call 267-879-3407