Birthday party help

We are organizing a b-day party for my 5 year old boy and are exploring
idea on venue and entertainment. We are expecting 50 kids + their
parents so it will be pretty big. Any good suggestion?

Sue...

Those bouncy houses are a huge hit with kids and will keep them occupied for
a long time. As far as themes go, what is your son interested in? Get his
input on what he would like for a theme and go from there. Have fun.

Laura Faussone...

There are bouncy house venues where the (huge) party room has
several different inflatable bouncy things, like slides and mazes.

Tracey...

50 kids? You are nuts. It will likely be chaos with that many kids, and
overwhelming for most of the 5 year olds.
My best suggestion would be to cut WAY back on how many kids you are going
to have. 15-20 tops. Seriously.

npardue...

I've seen sources suggesting that one child per year of age is a good
number. So, for a 5 year old, 5 kids is plenty. (Though, if you really
want to invite the kid's whole preschool or kindergarten class, 15 or
so might be tolerable -- esp. since they won't all probably come.)

But yes, the first thing the OP needs to do is re-evaluate her plans.
Why would anyone want to invite 50 kids (plus their parents!) to a 5
year old's party? How many kids this age are actually good friends with
50 other children?

enigma...

why are you doing this to your child? this is way too huge a
bash for a 5 year old birtday party.

hobbes...

No kidding. Inviting that many kids is just plain over the top. Totally
overwhelming. Kids really often are happiest with a more simple formula.
Let your kid pick a theme. Invite 5-10 of his closest friends, have a simple
meal or finger foods and cake. Have a game or two, maybe an art project.
Blow up some balloons and decorate a bit (let your son help). Then just let
the kids play.

Hiring an entertainer is okay, but not necessary at all. I'd look in the
yellow pages for someone local.

Nan...

No doubt. A party that huge is more for the parents to show off, imo.

tedneeley...

Not so quick! In some cultures it's customary to have huuuuugggge party
for first birthday. May be it's something similar. They don't have to
be really rich or pompous to invite that many people either. It's based
on culture, background, circle etc.. I personally have attended huge
birthday parties for kids because it's just how it's done. YMMV.

Nan...

xkatx...

Last I checked, a 5 year old's birthday was never their first birthday.

toypup...

tedneely gave a first b-day as an example of how it could be cultural. It
could be cultural for OP to have large parties in general.

Okay, in my opinion, it is pompous. The OP hasn't specified it is a
cultural issue, if it is, I may change my opinion on this case.

Kindly send me contacts of good entertainers. Have tried to search
online for the last 5 hours!!

bizby40...

Where are you, and how much money are you willing to spend? Also, are
all kids going to have parents staying? Are you planning to feed
everyone?

For that number of kids, I'd probably want to turn the whole party
over to the professionals. There are a number of venues in my town
where you pretty much just show up, and they take care of the rest.
There aren't many that can handle that many though. The only one I
can think of here is a....well, it started out as a health club, but
they seem to have really branched out into kid care as well,
specializing in activities for school-aged kids.

If you can't afford that, then I'd say to have them all meet you at
the park or playground. Give them some play equipment and a bunch of
friends, and they're bound to have fun.

enigma...

what is the 5 year old the party is supposedly for interested
in? trains? dinosaurs? pirates?
you theme a party to the child's interest. you invite the
number of children that won't overwhelm the child. does this
kid really have 50 close friends?
it's a good idea to plan the party first & then invite
guests...
lee

Rosalie B....

My dd#2 had a very large party for her dh's graduation from law school
and her ds's bday (IIRC it was the 6th). She had it in her own yard.

She invited neighbors, some children from her ds's school class, all
her dh's relatives (she didn't have any relatives of her own where she
lived, although I happened to be there), and work colleagues of hers
and her dh's. She hired a tent and tables and chairs.

The kids part of the party was earlier - they had pizza and cake.
The adult part of the party was later - she hired someone to do BBQ.

For the kids, she hired a bouncy house. She already had in the yard
a climbing gym and a pool. She had me act as a lifeguard/supervisor
for the pool. Prior to the party, they filled a LARGE number of water
balloons.

I can't remember any more details than that - this was 6 years ago.

Dave {Reply Address In.sig}...

Doesn't that rather depend on where you are? If you try to get an
entertainer from too far away then it's going to cost quite a bit.

xkatx...

I don't know about anyone else, but even if I had to, I'm not sure if I
could round up 50 kids I know, nevermind anywhere between 50 and 100
parents.

Sue...

I could. If you invited the whole kindergarten class, that would be about 26
kids, then add close friends and relatives with children, I wouldn't be
surprised at all to come up with 50 kids.

I know I didn't have 50 friends when I was 5 - I think my kindergarden class
was *maybe* 16-18 kids, and not all of them were my friends, but at
birthdays like that, you just invite all and see who can make it and who
wants to go.

I, personally, like the 1 child per age for birthday parties. It makes

bizby40...

I don't. I don't really think it makes much sense at all. I think it
makes much more sense to invite the child's friends, regardless of how
many there are at any given age. If the child is really popular, or
wants to invite more than you feel you can host, limit it to what you
can comfortably handle.

sense to me and it's not so much insanity with a gazillion kids and adults
running around. You can't even have anywhere near 50 kids in one of those
bouncing houses (as has been suggested) and how fun is it to stand and wait
in a line or have a time limit on how much time you get in the house because
there's a lineup 3 times around the house of 40 other kids waiting.

bizby40...

It's not like the kids would want to sit there and bounce for 2 hours
solid. And of course you'd have other things for them to do, even if
the other things were just things like playing on the swing set or
running around in the grass.

I'd never host a party this big either, but I do think the OP has
rather gotten beaten up about the size of her party, and she didn't
ask for advice about that.