Looking for kids’ birthday party ideas and feeling stressed? I feel your pain. Planning a birthday party for your child is never easy. Not only do you want to make sure your kid and their friends have a great time, but you want to do it without breaking the bank.
But how do you come up with fun ideas for kids birthday parties that don’t cost a fortune? Should you just ask your kid? That could lead to disappointment if their idea involves going somewhere that’s out of your price range.
As someone that’s gone through this process dozens of times, I understand what you’re going through. And as we move through the rest of this post, we’re going to take a look at six birthday parties ideas for kids that won’t cost an arm and a leg.
1Host at Home
The first question you ask yourself when trying to come up with ideas for kids birthday parties is, “Where should we have the party?”. And while it’s easy to default to a party room at a local recreation or entertainment center, renting these spaces could easily set you back $250-$500.
Worse yet, renting elsewhere means you’ll be on a time constraint. As parents, we’ve all had to give the dreaded, “ok, we have to leave,” speech when our kids are having a blast. By hosting at home, you can avoid this issue altogether.
Worried about cleanup? Hire a local cleaning service. Most cleaning services only charge between $50-$100 for an hour or two of work, so you’ll still see significant savings even if you don’t want to handle cleanup on your own.
2Have a Joint Party
If you have multiple kids that share the same birthday month, or they have friends that do, joint birthday parties are a great money saving option. While this can be a bit of a challenge when dealing with kids that have vastly different interests, there are plenty of work arounds.
Let’s take a look at some tips for making it work:
● Get a Cake for Each Child. It’s also a good idea to sing happy birthday to each child to prevent jealousy issues.
● Do Gift Opening After the Party. Speaking of jealousy issues, waiting until after the party to have each kid open their gifts will help prevent the, “their gifts were bigger than mine!”, banter.
● Combine Themes. If the kids involved in the joint party don’t agree on a singular theme, consider combining two themes.
The overall goal of a joint party is to allow each child to feel special while cutting down on costs. While it may take some extra planning and ingenuity, the savings makes it well worth it.
3Buy Decorations Online
When you’re looking for decorating ideas for kids birthday, it’s easy to wait until the last minute to go to a local party store. In most cases, however, you can save quite a bit of money by purchasing online.
Here’s a few places you can find affordable kids birthday party decorations online:
● Ebay
● Amazon
● Birthday Direct
● Oriental Trading
4Utilize Free Games and Activities
Looking for game and activity ideas for kids birthday parties? Here’s a list of great options that won’t set you back anymore than $20:
● Scavenger Hunts. Create teams and have the kids work together to use clues to find small prizes that they can share (candy and other sweets work great as a low cost prize).
● Craft Making. Use Pinterest to find different craft ideas that your kids and their guests can create and take home with them.
● Sports. If you have the room, arranging a kickball, basketball, or wiffleball game is a great way to keep the kids both happy and busy.
5Use a ‘Gift Bar’
Gift baskets for guests can come at a hefty price if you’re not careful. To help cut down on costs, you can create a ‘gift bar’. Here’s how it works:
1. Give each kid a basket to put their gifts in
2. Have a row of 5-8 baskets that feature different items or types of candy (this is your ‘gift bar’)
3. Allow each kid to choose one item from each basket to put in their own basket
What you include in your ‘gift bar’ will generally depend on the interests of the kids in attendance. At ours, we stick to simple items that can be purchased cheap and in bulk online. Some examples include:
● Small candy bars
● Hershey kisses
● Mini squirt guns
● Sunglasses
● Bracelets
● Animal figurines
● Small metal cars or trucks
6Prepare DIY Snacks
If you need snack ideas for kids birthday parties, you’ll find plenty of DIY ideas (along with the instructions on how to make them) on social media platforms like Pinterest. And while snack favorites like pizza and fruit are both staples of birthday parties, you can often avoid having to put together an entire meal by scheduling your party between 2PM-5PM.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it’s important to realize that your child’s number one priority is to have fun with friends and family. And, with the low budget birthday ideas listed above, you should have more than enough ammunition to help them do just that without breaking the bank. Good luck!
