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A pile of feather boas and a basket of goodies greet guests to a little
girl's fashion-themed birthday party.
Now that school is back in session, your grade-schooler is busy making new friends and becoming reacquainted with pals from last year. So when it’s time to plan the next birthday party, it’s often surprising to see just how many kids your child wants to invite.
Many schools insist that if you hand out invitations on school property, you have to include everyone in the class. But with an average of 15 to 20 students per class, the guest list can get out of hand before you even think about inviting relatives or friends from outside your child’s school.
One solution is to choose those students your child is particularly close to and mail invitations directly to their homes. But if half the class attends a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's on Saturday, chances are there’ll be some talk of it at school on Monday, and you still risk hurting someone’s feelings.
Though you’ll still need to deliver invitations outside of school hours, limiting your guest list to “just the boys” or “just the girls” can keep the size of the party manageable. For girls, it could be a salon or fashion-show theme. For boys, outdoor or military themes can be a good place to start. There still may be some discussion about the party in school on Monday, but the boys won’t be hurt that they didn’t get their hair crimped over the weekend, and the girls probably won’t be sorry that they missed out on racing Hot Wheels.*
Some themes for girls include:
Salon – Ask a few of your own friends to volunteer to help curl hair and paint fingernails, then send everyone home with a goodie-bag filled with hair ties, lip glosses, and a nail file or two. Make sure you take photos to include in your thank you notes.
Fashion show – You don’t have to have a bunch of fancy costumes, but do make sure you have accessories like jewelry, scarves, hats, and handbags for the girls to mix and match. Designate a small section of the floor as the catwalk and let everyone take a turn. Take-home gifts can include beads, sunglasses, or inexpensive tote bags. Take a group photo that you can tuck into the thank you cards later!
Baking – Let your child’s guests create a full-course meal! Start with a salad (you may need to pre-slice the cucumbers and tomatoes) then let the kids make their own pizzas. Follow it up with cookies or cupcakes that they can decorate themselves, or provide a sundae bar. A cookie cutter with a recipe or two would make a nice souvenir.
Some themes for boys include:
Military – Provide your child’s guests with a map and some clues and send them on a rescue mission in the backyard. Help them camouflage themselves using face paint, green t-shirts, or leaves and branches from outdoors before playing hide and seek. Hand out camo bandanas for guests to wear and take home.
Dinosaur – Set up a dinosaur dig on the porch or in the garage using a small sandbox filled with “buried artifacts.” Hide small toys like plastic bugs or bouncy balls inside dinosaur “eggs” (mix 1 part salt, 1 part sand, 2 parts flour, and 2 parts used coffee grounds with enough water to make a dough, then let air dry). Hide them indoors or out, and let guests find them and break them open to reveal the prizes they get to keep.
Aliens – Use glow-in-the-dark paint on black poster board to create stars, planets, or alien spaceships that come to life when the lights are turned down. Alien Maker kits are available (they’re odor-free and require no heat lamps or baking) so guests can take turns creating their own Martians to take home as souvenirs.
For more info: *While gender-based themes can help you tailor an event to your child’s interests, there are probably plenty of girls who’d enjoy a game of paintball and a fair share of boys who wouldn’t mind painting a flowerpot. Click here for tips on how to make your child’s party appealing to boys and girls in case you DO want to invite the whole class!
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