Guest Post: Tips for Hosting 5-8 Year Old Children’s Birthday Parties

It's Kiddo's birthday this month, so I am ALL about this topic! 

Lisa, at The Party Works, has some great ideas that I wanted to share with you too!

Early on in your child’s life hosting a birthday party is a pretty simple affair.

It’s more about the family getting together and having a meal. 

Once you hit the kindergarten age birthdays are a whole other ball game and the festivities begin to revolve around the birthday boy or girl, and creating an experience they will never forget. (okay, that's not us, we've been doing that since Kiddo was 3! LOL)

Here are a few tips and ideas for hosting these formative social events for

your child.

1. Limit the Guest List

There are no social etiquette rules that mandate the entire class or troop has to be invited to the birthday party and in fact this would be quite overwhelming for both you and your child. Keep the guest list at a manageable number and a good rule of thumb is to take the age your kid is turning and add 1, so a 5 year-old needs no more than 6 guests at their party.

2. Pick a Theme and Run With It

The structure of a theme can help you decide on decorations, activities, crafts, games and so forth. If your son loves video games, then you can do up the house with Super Mario party supplies and have the kids dress up in overalls with green or red shirts and hand out goodie bags filled with chocolate gold coins. Or, if your daughter is really into mermaids you can have an under the sea party with seashell crafts and a scavenger hunt for sunken treasure in the backyard. In the end you’ll find the structure of a theme helps you stay on task.


If your son loves video games, then you can do up the house with Super Mario party suppliesand have the kids dress up in overalls with green or red shirts and hand out goodie bags filled with chocolate gold coins.   

3. Food Choices

You can make it super easy on yourself with pizza, sodas and a special ordered cake from the bakery. You can go medium, with hot dogs and homemade cupcakes, or you can go hard and get really customized with your food, snack and dessert choices. Just be realistic about your time frame. Also, you will want to check with parents to make sure there aren’t any allergies to certain foods that you’ll want to avoid.

Notes: 

In the end you will just want to make sure that you have a couple of things planned and a movie back up in case you need to quiet everyone down for a while. 


Enlist the help of a friend or relative to help you keep up with things too, you don’t want to be so busy, you can’t take pictures and savor the moments of your child’s birthday party.