How to plan a birthday party for a 7 year old girl
Children’s parties are more popular than ever, but you don’t need to hire a party planner or go to extravagant expense to make your child’s party magical and memorable. Our seven top party-planning tips will show you how to ensure a successful birthday party.
Tip 1: Involve the birthday girl in planning her party
Surprise parties can work really well … but why take a unnecessary risk?
You’ve got an opportunity to involve the birthday girl in planning her own party to make sure it the event she’s dreamed of. And that doesn’t mean you have to give in to every whim or flight or fancy.
It’s an opportunity to teach some useful life lessons like making choices and the art of negotiating … important skills for later in life.
Tip 2: Host the party at a community venue
Yes, you’ll have to pay for the privilege, but most community venues and village halls charge only a modest fee for hiring their premises. Depending on your location, prices can range from as little as £30 for 2-3 hours to £100+ if you want to hire the venue for a full day.
A community venue will have all the facilities you need: plenty of room for kids to run around; male and female toilets; and, usually, a fully equipped kitchen.
Another, often over-looked benefit, is the usually bland décor enjoyed by community venues. This is a blank canvass on which you can make your mark and transform the venue space with your inventive party décor.
You’ll need to tidy up after yourselves and remove any décor, but you’ll be able to enjoy your party safe in the knowledge that your prized possessions and favourite soft furnishings are safe from sticky fingers, glitter and melted chocolate.
Tip 3: Choose a theme
The most popular themes in 2018 for girls’ birthday parties in the 6-10 age range are: unicorn parties; mermaid parties or Under the Sea themed parties; princess parties.
New trends starting to emerge in 2018 are llamas, flamingos and other exotic birds like toucans. Toucans and also being combined with the current mania for pineapple-themed decor to create Caribbean or tropical island paradise parties.
Parties themed around Disney classics are always popular, particular Beauty and the Beast and Princess Belle at the moment.
The birthday girl is likely to have a view on the theme for her party, so make sure she’s fully involved in the decision. Even, if her theme isn’t what you had expected and is maybe a little unusual, go with it … you’ll be surprised how creative you can get and an unusual theme will stand out amongst a plethora of princess parties.
Tip 4: Understand your guests
You’ll need to think about the make-up of your guest list. Will all your guests be 7 year old girls, or will there be some boys? Will there be some younger or older children attending? The more varied the age-range and gender-mix, the more varied your party activities will need to be to ensure there’s something for everyone.
For a group of predominantly 6-7 year olds, you’ll need to organize lots of activities of between 10-20 minutes in length. Any longer and you risk losing the kids’ attention and the party may start to feel more like being at school than being at a fun party.
If you’ve got a higher proportion of 10 year olds, you’re likely to want to include some activities that will last up to half an hour so that they can get more involved in the detail of an activity, such as designing and creating their own princess crown.
Tip 5: Plan ahead
Give yourself plenty of time to organize your party and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Most of us have been in the position of trying to organize an event and struggling to get everything done in time.
Talk to friends and family in advance to see who’s ready, willing and able to help. You may uncover a few skills you weren’t aware of amongst your circle of friends that you can put to good use.
Do remember though that, at some point in the future, you’ll likely be called upon to return the favour by helping out at someone else’s event.
Tip 6: Set a budget
Start by thinking how much money you can realistically and reasonably afford to spend on this party. Then list all the different areas of expenditure and allocate part of your budget to each area. Add up all the separate items to make sure you’re not going to overspend.
Identify the items on your list that you are willing to compromise on. For example, you may really, really want to have a cake made specially for the birthday party, but if the budget is tight you may be willing to compromise and buy a pre-made novelty cake or even make the cake yourself.
Some of the expenditure items on your list are likely to include:
Party venue
Birthday cake
Party decorations – again, you can go all out and book a professional to decorate your venue, or you can make your own decorations in keeping with the theme of your party.
Activities and games – from craft activities such as designing and making princess crowns and tiars, to high-energy games or a bouncy castle that will leave the youngsters exhausted at the end of the party (and their parents will love you forever!)
Entertainment – this could be a DJ and disco, a magician, clown or balloon modeller. There are lots of options to choose from if you decide you want to hire a children’s entertainer.
Tip 7: Include something for the parents to enjoy too
If your party is for a large number of children and it is being held at your local community centre or village hall, it’s likely that you’ll want parents to stick around to help keep an eye on their children.
So, make sure you’ve got enough food to feed your adult guests too and arrange part of your venue space into a comfortable seating area where parents can get together to socialize amongst themselves.
About Melanie Allen CBA
Melanie Allen is a professional balloon artist and spends much of her time supporting parents and their children planning birthday parties. Melanie's role is to understand and interpret the themes and dreams for each special party and to design unique balloon decor in keeping with the vision for the occasion and the impact and message her clients want to convey with their event.
Melanie is the owner of Balloon Artworks and she works across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, as well as other parts of the East Midlands.
