Every day I open Instagram and see some elaborate birthday party set-up for an influencer’s kid. Color-coordinated candy bars. Drink carts with bartenders for parents. Tablescapes that look straight out of an interior design magazine. It’s all picture-perfect and beautiful, but it sets an unrealistic tone for what a kid’s birthday party should look like and cost.
I’ll admit, it’s easy to think about going overboard with birthday parties. There’s a pressure to “keep up” with what you see on social media, as well as a pressure to match the types of parties your child gets invited to.
But I grew up with backyard birthday parties in the late ’80s and ’90s and always had a blast. I’ve decided to do the same with my girls. It saves us money and is still fun; I don’t feel like my kids are being slighted by not having a bigger bash.
Kids’ birthday parties get expensive, fast
When I looked into various options around town where I could host a birthday party, I was shocked by the price tags. I live in Raleigh, NC, and the play places I looked at averaged between $350 and $400 to book the space. I’ve heard friends in bigger cities like New York say that having a birthday party at a similar play place can run up to $1,000.
The play areas serve as an awesome built-in entertainment option for kids, but the price tag is before adding extras like cake, pizza, or decorations. Some parents also do goodie bags, which increases the price even further.
I want my girls to feel special during their birthday party, but I don’t want the event to blow our budget. By having the party at our house, I save the booking fee. I still end up spending around $350 for the party, but that’s half of what I would spend if we didn’t host it at our house.
Kids get to do a craft and play in the backyard
One trade-off of having a birthday party at home is that I need to entertain the kids. My daughters have birthdays in late October and mid-December, so if the weather is nice enough, the kids spend a large portion of the party simply playing in the backyard. We have a swing set and a playhouse that they can enjoy while they run around.
The weather isn’t always nice, though, so I also always plan a craft or two for the kids to make. I don’t give out goody bags, but the kids get to take the crafts home with them.
This year, my daughter turned 5. I got plastic ornaments, and guests got to fill them with pom-poms as a craft. They also got to decorate jumbo cupcakes and eat them. Last year, kids decorated foam crowns with jewel stickers, and the year before, they decorated tea cups and hats.
It takes time for me to think of crafts, but sites like Pinterest are helpful for brainstorming ideas. The kids enjoy doing them, and I like that they have something to remember the party by.
It’s more prep work for me to have a party at our house, but it’s worth it
A major perk of having a birthday party at a play place is that you don’t have to do any setup, and there’s minimal clean-up. Hosting at our house means significantly more work on both ends, between making the house presentable before the party and putting it back together after.
Even though kids play outside for part of the party, they often end up playing in our living room too. It seems like every toy from our play area gets taken out, and the house is always a mess after the kids leave. I’m usually tired after the party ends and don’t enjoy the clean-up, but the cost savings justify the effort.
Kid birthday parties don’t have to be elaborate to be fun or memorable. At the end of the day, kids seem to care the most about playing with their friends and eating a giant slice of cake. They don’t care if that happens at a play place or in a backyard, so for our family, it makes sense to save money and have it at our house.
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