Themed Birthday Parties
August 13, 2006 by Lei
Filed under General Play Library Goodies
My son just celebrated his fourth birthday and I must confess that I did diddly squat. Lots of excuses but in the end, I basically didn’t know if it would be worth the hassle. Clearly, I am not like most of today’s parents who are throwing elaborate themed birthday parties. I can’t believe the party favors like this Bratz Fashion Fierce Favor Box that come with a pink leopard print cosmetic case, cell phone lip gloss, platform shoe keychain, gemstone ring, assorted body crystals, glitter bracelet and Bratz Fashion Fierce sticker sheet.
And check out what Mary Wasakie, assistant superintendent of Chenango Valley schools in New York, did for her little 10-year-old Harry Potter maniac.
[She hired a Harry Potter lookalike.] Waskie also arranged for games of Harry Potter bingo and, with the help of her college-age daughter, a homemade Harry Potter Jeopardy game. They made up an arts and crafts activity that involved making wizard wands out of clear plastic tubes stuffed with symbolic Potter items such as black glitter (”dementia dust”), gold glitter (”Gringott’s gold”) and more.
Other birthday party themes:
- Bear in the Big Blue House
- Tractors
- Star Wars with a Death Star piñata, pin the light saber on Yoda game
- Thomas the Tank Engine
- Wild animals
- Scooby-Doo
- Soccer
- Kitchen Science
- Dinosaur dig
- Narnia
- Pirates
- Over the Hedge
- Garfield
- Madagascar
- Blue’s Clues
- Bratz
I suck.
What kind of birthday parties do you throw for your kids?
Press & Sun Bulletin, August 13, 2006
Technorati Tags: birthday, birthday parties, party, children, kids, harry potter
Cheap. heehee. But fun, too. Cooking parties are fun.
I usually spring for the paper plates/cups/napkins in whatever theme the kid is loving currently.
And if I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll try making/decorating a cake. Somewhere there’s a photo of my version of Pikachu. It looks like something yellow splatted onto a sheet of tinfoil-wrapped cardboard, and died. The kiddo loved it.
Sometimes there are balloons and streamers. We sing Happy Birthday, eat cake & ice-cream, the kid opens presents (not necessarily in that order).
Those insane birthday parties are not (in my opinion) about the kids at all, but some messed up status symbol in certain parenting circles.
We as kids loved the crazy parties, but we all had an equally fun time trying to beat each other at “drop the clothespin” or “musical chairs”. And when I was a kid? Everyone might have gotten a party favor, as in a single item, but only the winners of the games got Prizes.
A prize isn’t worth diddly squat if everyone gets it.
mm, forgot to say that I’ve only once hosted a birthday party. That was for my oldest son, when he was in first grade. I think 2 kids actually came, and we just played games in the livingroom, ate pizza, cake & ice-cream, did the present opening, and I did make little party favor bags.
Kerri: What’s a cooking party?
Deb: Oh, I totally agree that it’s a parent-thing and not a kid thing so much. S was thrilled just to have candles on a homemade cake! hehehe
We played a few party games for the first time recently and the kids had fun. One of the moms and I were laughing that the pass the parcel game is not the same as when she was a kid. Nowadays, whenever each kid unwraps a layer, a chocolate falls out until the main prize is unwrapped. She said, there just used to be the one prize and noc chocolates.
I’m noticing so much over-the-top parenting behavior this time back in California. I’ll have to organize my thoughts and write about it.
A party where you let them cook.
Put on all their pizza toppings, decorate cupcakes. They have a blast, I don’t mind messes, and it’s relatively cheap.
I’d never heard of pass the parcel! May have to introduce that around here.