Kids parties can work out to be very expensive, especially when you factor in the cost of the kids party food, table decorations, balloons and party bags, hiring the party venue, plus the cost of booking a children's entertainer if you choose to have one. A lot of parents budgets are already stretched to breaking point, so how do you host a fun party for your little one on a tight budget without it feeling like you are cutting corners?
Parents often try to cram as much activity and entertainment into the usual allotted two hours than they possibly can, and will normally prepare the kids party food in advance of the party. But why not make preparing the party food as much of the party as pass the parcel and musical statues. You could even save money by having this as the main activity rather than hire an entertainer.
If you are having your kids party at home, this is fine as you will be able to use your own kitchen. If you are hiring a village hall then check to see if use of the kitchen is included, most of the time it will be, and most will have a kettle, microwave and kitchen utensils you can use.
Make use of any large tables you can use within the hall, or if they do not have any to use, borrow some paste tables from your friends or the parents of the other children coming to the party. Put the tables together to make one large work surface and cover with disposable paper table cloths, or use a couple of large re-usable plastic coated table covers. These can be purchased quite cheaply from DIY shops. Covering the tables like this will mean an easy clean up at the end of the party. You can also pick up packs of plastic spoons and knives from party sections of most supermarkets, along with paper plates and napkins.
Kids sandwiches tend to be quite simple, so buy enough loaves of bread to make at least one sandwich per child, a large jar of chocolate spread will go down very well, and so will a tub of spreadable cream cheese. A fun thing to offer is to make open faced sandwiches that kids can actually turn into funny faces!
For example, with a chocolate spread sandwich you can make eyes from slices of banana, a nose from half a strawberry, and a smiling mouth can be formed from some blueberries. Soft fruit such as bananas and strawberries can easily be sliced by children using plastic knives. A cream cheese sandwich can have sliced hard boiled egg eyes, a cherry tomato nose, and a piece of sliced sweet red pepper for a mouth. Kids treats can be made easily, and here is where you would need use of the kitchen most.
Everyone is familiar with rice crispie cakes, so bring along a box of crispies, a few bars of chocolate, paper cake cases and plenty of plastic spoons. You can melt the chocolate in a microwave proof bowl in the microwave, or if the kitchen does not have one, on the kitchen hob in a bowl over a pan of hot water. If you have enough small cereal bowls to give one per child, then use these, or alternatively paper dishes can be picked up cheaply from the party ware section of supermarkets.
Divide the crispies between the children's bowls and pour a little melted chocolate into each bowl. I have to say that most of the mixture does not make the paper cake cases when I have done this before, instead it ends up being eaten sneakily straight from the bowl while I am not looking! However, you do end up with some neat little chocolate crispy cakes that the kids can eat themselves or take home with them.
Iced biscuits are simple and cheap to make, and to save time and money just buy some supermarket own brand plain biscuits. You will need some icing sugar and some small sweets or sugar sprinkles to decorate the tops of the biscuits. Let the children open the biscuit packets and divide them up, meanwhile make up a large bowl of icing in the kitchen, then pour some into smaller bowls or paper bowls for the children to use. They just spread over the icing and decorate to their liking.
Believe me when I say that time really does fly when you get the kids to make their own party food. It is really good fun, and very absorbing.
