Best Children's Party Ideas of 2016

With big themed bashes marking the key trend of the last decade for children’s parties, it seems choosing the right entertainment for the right price can be a challenging task. Gone are the days when jelly and ice-cream would do, blasting some fun songs from the cassette player. Today, themed parties from cakes to cups, decorations and entertainment must scream something to remember. Of course, if you haven’t done any of this before, choosing the right theme and party food can be quite the task without going overboard. Whether it's teddy bear making kits, crafts or baking, here are some great but cost effective ideas for your party.

Teddy Bear Party

For younger children, this kind of party is an easy one to do as it means you don’t have to be so picky when it comes to the food and decorations. Bear-making kits are an affordable and very memorable way for children to entertain themselves come rain or shine. Instead of doing party bags, the bear would offer something much better to remember and will last so much longer. Today, bear making kits are very child friendly, letting them build without supervision. You can even ask the children to bring their favourite bear along to give them something to share. For food, bear crisps, bear head sandwiches and gummy bears for treats.

Craft Party

A craft party is a particularly affordable way to theme a party. Instead of the norm of colour pens and paper, now would be great time to think outside the box. Jewellery boxes, pottery and ‘make your own’ jewellery are easy to source. For this, you’ll need to plan ahead and shop around as it means buying lots of little bits. However, it’s all worth it when you seeing the kids having so much fun letting their little characters and personalities run wild.

Scavenger or Treasure Hunt

A favourite for boys and girls is the treasure hunt party. Hide their leaving gifts (instead of party bags) around the garden and the ground floor of the house and watch the kids entertain them themselves. It adds a lucky dip feel to gifts when they have no idea what they’re looking for. If you want to make it competitive, you can split the party into two teams, with two prizes. They’ll race against each other to find their prize first (but they’ll both get a prize at the end of it).

A Baking Party

Prepare all the ingredients in advance and arrange into neat and easy amounts for cupcakes. Get the children involved in mixing up all the ingredients and putting them into trays before playing party games when they’re baking and cooling. Afterwards the real fun begins; you cans ask each child to decorate a cake to take home. Get in plenty of colourful icing, sweet toppings like strawberry laces and chocolate buttons etc. and the kids do their own thing!