had another thought. Do any moms watch the Sprout channel? They have great, creative birthday party ideas on air several times a day that are very inexpensive. They show the child creating the decorations or goodies with their parent and then they show the party with the guests making the themed craft or playing the themed games. Very cute! Of course they all tie in some way to the characters on their shows, but they are sweet homemade parties. Even their feature of letting you send in homemade birthday cards for your child is great. Our youngest was watching Kipper on the evening of his 3rd birthday and heard his name and saw his card read by Kevin the birthday host. His artistic sister (the teenager) made it for him and sent it in two months before. It had his picture in it, so he saw himself on TV. He was delighted. The only thing is, you do have to send them in early. On their website (www.sproutletsgrow.com) they have the guidelines. A very sweet idea.

Creativity doesn’t cost much, you’d be surprised. All the party ideas I used for my kids were very inexpensive. 6 sets of fedoras, glasses and mustache/noses and silly string and a pancake breakfast at a diner won’t run you too much. What made it special, was the surprise element for the guests and our son. Taking one other child plus yours to a character stage show or a museum and lunch, also not a huge expense. What made all of the parties fun through the years was the home-made sensibility of the invites (always something we did with construction paper and then later on our home computer with the kids) and the concept. At the time that my oldest kids were little (the early ’90s) the trend was parties at Chuck E cheese and other kiddie places. That was not my style. Just too chaotic for me. So I really saw our parties as a throw-back to what I grew up with–home parties, but just with a little more creativity thrown in beyond pin the tail on the donkey. Always with an activity or craft for the kids. The April Fool’s party, likewise was cheap and easy, and fun. Same for the art party for 7 6-year-old girls. (We stuck with the party child’s age plus 1 in terms of # of guests most of the time). Blank t-shirts and mugs, fabric paint, ceramic paint and stickers from a local craft store–again, not an arm and a leg. The key is making it special and memorable, because kids do remember. Do it between 4 and 12. Before that they usually don’t know what’s going on and certainly may not remember it. And after 12, they can do without the fanfare and family acknowledgment is just fine. Not a thing wrong with celebrating in a special way, and there is nothing that says to get creative and make it special you have to spend a ton of money.

I think this was a bit too much for a one year birthday party. When I grew up we had great parties by doing games and just playing. I don’t think it’s necessary to have these huge parties.
Like Lilybett said little children are happy with a cardboard box and having a cake to make a mess of!

The experiences we have as children stick with us (i.e. only having one person show up to a party), so I can totally see why she wants to make a big deal out of her kids birthday. We all have our little things. But when does it become too much? All I have to say is good luck making each kids every birthday “magical and monumental”. If you go overboard, you you very well may end up with a teenager expecting a sweet 16 bash that rivals a wedding with a range rover parked outside with a big bow on it.

My only comment is, what kind of money do people have to have to have huge theme parties for kids year after year?

I grew up with cake and ice cream with family, and friends sleeping over. We never went anywhere, my mom made the cake and they had small goody bags. We were pretty broke and when I got invited to parties like that I always felt bad that I didn’t have those. I dont care now, lol.

For my son’s first birthday, he had an Elmo cake, plates napkins, cups, hats, and thats it. I made food, and we had friends and family. Will he remember? No. Why go so nuts for a 1 year old? Honestly do I have the funds? No. This year I’m making a Cars birthday cake, and we will be having some playmates over, as well as family. For my other son’s 1st birthday this year, we will be doing just the same.

I have a toddler boy, a tween-just-turned teen boy and a teen girl. Thru the years I’ve had a lot of fun with their birthdays. My youngest has yet to benefit from my birthday ideas, but there’s time. I think the best time to do themed b-days is btween 4 or 5 and 12. My daughter had a traditional Tea Party with dolls and party dresses at 5; they made their own tea sandwiches and decorated cupcakes; She had an Art Party at 7 (where a long table was decked out with supplies to decorate T-shirts and mugs and to create their own stationery). In the end, they also created a signed group mural on craft paper the length of the table that my teen still has today and at 9 she had a museum party for just her and one other friend where we did a treasure hunt of sorts finding clues in the art as we explored the museum and ended with a grown-up lunch in a nice restaurant. When my middle son was turning 4, we took him and one friend to see Barney on stage and pizza after (talk about a long day; thank goodness my current 3-year-old is NOT a Barney fan). Our middle son is born on April 1st and is quite the family prankster, so for his 7th birthday, we did an April Fool’s party with wacky invites using outrageous what, when, where info on the invite and the real details on the back. Then we asked party guests to come dressed with backwards clothes and served upside down foods and foods that looked like one thing, but were really another. And played silly games. For his 9th birthday we did a baseball theme with the invites, paper goods, decor and cake and then took the guests out to a batting cage. But the best party ever, I think, was this middle son’s 10th party. We themed it “Mission: Surprise.” We told our son he wasn’t having a party that year, but we sent a spy-style “secret file” invite to the parents of six of his friends and swore them to secrecy. Early on a Saturday morning we went to each guest’s house and surprised THEM in their beds (their parents had secretly prepared a bag with change of clothes/toiietries). We whisked them into our car and outfitted them with a fedora, dark shades, a fake nose/moustache, a can of silly string and “file” on the secret mission of surprising our son. On the drive to our home the boys were trading ideas on the best surprise attack. It was so funny hearing them get into the idea. Once home, they quietly entered the house, snuck upstairs and burst into our still sleeping son’s room and sprayed him with silly string. It was the best prank on the house prankster. We took them to a diner for a still-early morning pancake breakfast dressed in their PJS and disguises and then they came home and changed clothes and hung out all day playing video games and sports outside. He is 13 now and friends still talk about that party. My daughter will be 16 next year, so now there’s another kind of party pressure. She has already been to two lavish sweet sixteens. But she is such a smart girl. She is already talking about how much more fun it would be to just do something special with a few friends than have a big blow-out. I am all for that (smile).

Am I the only one who finds the whole idea totally creepy? Maybe if the child’s parents weren’t famous and she wasn’t actually going to be projected into the limelight whether she wants to be or not in later life, it could have been a fun idea. But as things stand… well I couldn’t throw such a party for my child if I was famous that’s all.

I like kids birthday parties, but I find themed first birthdays somewhat silly. The child won’t remember it, for starters. Secondly, it seems more about the mother than anything else. Thirdly, it’s usually a lot of money that is wasted when the guest of honour would be happy with a cardboard box to play with and a cake to mash their fist in.

When I grew up we had a big party when we were 5 or 6 (however old we were in kindergarten) and when we were 13 and 18. In between we had family celebrations with cake and presents etc. I guess don’t understand why people throw enormous parties for their child every year of their lives.

My daughter’s 1st birthday party was polka dots. Everything, from decorations to the cake, even her dress was polka dots. For her second birthday, we are doing a Pretty, Pretty, Princess theme, with tiaras, and dress up princess dresses.