Is your little one about turn 1? Having a hard time planning their first birthday party? Here’s a full guide to help you!
by Atomic Mommy Editors
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Planning a first birthday party for your child can be a joyous yet daunting task. You want it to be memorable, fun, and, most importantly – unique. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the first year of their life and to show them just how special they are.
If you’re not sure how to go about planning your child’s first birthday party, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s a complete guide to creating the best first birthday party that will keep the stress at bay, provide great fun, and super memorable experience for all attendees. Let’s get started!
Understand Your Little One’s Interests
The first step in planning a unique first birthday party is understanding your child’s interests. What are their must have toys? Do they love animals? Are they a fan of superheroes or princesses? What is their favorite song and TV show?
Once you know their preferences, you can choose a birthday theme that aligns with their passions. This will ensure that the party caters to your child’s individuality and will surely make for great photos!
Select the Perfect Venue
The next step is choosing a party venue. Many parents often choose to have their child’s first birthday party at home, but you can also choose to have it a child-friendly location such as a bounce house or gymnastics center.
Choosing the right venue depends on two things: your budget and the ages of the other children you are inviting. If you’re mostly inviting adults and there will only be one or two other kids at the party, then you wouldn’t want to host your little one’s first birthday party at a bounce house.
If you’re considering having the birthday party at your house, you’ll need to ensure you have enough space for the guests and the planned activities. This means making sure you have extra chairs, kitchenware, and plenty of indoor or outdoor space for any entertainment.
Alternatively, you could rent a venue like a local community center, VFW, church, park, or zoo! These locations often have lower rental rates. They come bare meaning they don’t have decorations in place and also have regulations about the kind of decorations you put up. Another thing to consider if you choose one of these locales is whether their fees include tables and chairs. You wouldn’t want to pay for something based on any assumptions.
Planning Fun Activities
It would be best if you had engaging activities to create fun for all the children who attend your child’s first birthday party. Remember, you might be inviting friends and family that have older kids. To better prepare for this, try to choose age-appropriate entertainment.
For example, if mostly teenagers are coming to your home, then be sure to set up a TV or game room for them to hang out in away from the parents. After all, no teen wants to hang around their parental units. On the flip side, if the children who are coming to your child’s first birthday party are under 10, then you’ll want to have entertainment that keeps their interest. Some ideas include: magicians, clowns, bubble show, circus acrobats, animal balloon artist, face painter, a DIY craft station, carnival games, etc.
Remember, you’ll want to space out the entertainment so that the children are entertained throughout the entire party. Bored kids tend to get into more trouble than occupied children.
Choosing the Right Decorations
Decorations play a crucial role in setting the mood for the party. From balloons to banners, table settings to party hats, the right decor can bring your theme to life. This is where children’s party suppliers come in handy.
Party suppliers offer a wide range of themed decorations that can transform your venue into a magical setting. In case one supplier doesn’t have what you’re looking for, you can always shop around. This is also a good idea to do in case one supplier is cheaper than another.
Serve Delicious Food
Every party needs food. But what food you get depends on several factors like age of children attending, what your own child likes, cost, and health preferences. Considering all of this, choosing food to serve at the party will take some serious planning. In our opinion, the best way to do this is to send with your invitation is a separate food card. This can be digitally sent via text, an app, or even physically by mail.
On that card, you’ll want to ask parents to tell you whether their child has any food allergies, food preferences, and ingredient preferences. This will help you in planning out your child’s first birthday party menu.
In addition to doing that, once you’ve gathered all of the data, it’ll be time to decide whether you want to have your party catered or if you want to do all the cooking. You can also opt to offer foods that are raw such as fruits, vegetables, chips, salads, antipasto plates, and other dishes.
Regardless of what you decide, you’ll ned to have a full head count of how many adults, infants, toddlers, school aged kids, and teens, that will be attending your child’s party. This will also be useful in knowing because then you can plan specific items to offer based on who is attending.
You’ll also want to have plenty of desserts. While most parents are okay with their kids having sweets, some are not. So, again you’ll need to ask your guests if they are okay with cookies, cupcakes, and other sweet treats being handed out at the party. Of course, you can always opt to offer these treats regardless, because after all, it is your child’s first birthday party.
For the birthday cake – considering it’s the highlight of every child’s party, you should aim for it to be as elegant or minimally designed as you deem. And if you have a theme that your party is centered around, be sure to order your cake’s design to match as it will add a final pop of excitement to the end the party with.
Provide Memorable Party Favors
Party favors are an excellent way to thank your guests for celebrating your child’s first birthday with you. These favors should be fun, age-appropriate, tied into your party theme, and, ideally, fully useable after the party ends. Of course, which party favors you offer will entirely depend on the age group of your guests that you are targeting.
If you want to thank the adults only, then you should opt for favors they can actually use. These can include favors like bottle or wine openers, wine corks, key rings, food favors, $5 or $10 gift cards to stores like Amazon or Target, little bottles of champagne or apple juice, etc.
If you want to specifically target the kids with your favors, then you should opt for favors that kids tend to love like key chain games, candy or cookies, pencils, stickers, bracelets, glow in the dark bounce balls, fidget spinners, etc. Honestly, the list of favors you could gives is pretty long.
Regardless of what age group you decide to cater your favors to, just be sure to have plenty of them to go around. You wouldn’t want a child crying over not getting a goodie bag or party favor. And you wouldn’t want the adults to feel like they’re not being thanked properly for attending.
The Role of Reliable Party Suppliers
Planning the best first birthday party for your child involves many moving parts, and having a reliable children’s party supplier can make the process much smoother. They can provide everything from themed decorations to party favors to paper goods, saving you a ton of time, effort, stress, and even money.
One such supplier is Party Bulk, an eCommerce store specializing in selling party supplies in bulk across the U.S. Their extensive range of products caters to various themes and age groups, ensuring you find exactly what you need to make your child’s birthday party unique and unforgettable.
Bonus Tips:
Planning a unique first birthday party for your child involves a great deal of planning. And while the above tips will definitely help you in planning it successfully, it’s important to note that the following is also important to remember:
- Keep your little one’s nap time in mind. A tired child is a cranky one.
- Plan enough entertainment to keep both kids and parents entertained.
- Delicious food is a must, but make sure you also have plenty for second helpings.
- Choose child-friendly decorations. You wouldn’t anyone getting hurt from sharp decor.
- Don’t forget to serve food and beverages for the adults so they’re happy, too.
- Offer up a photo station for families to take photos together.
- Get a cake that has a high probability of everyone enjoying, like chocolate.
- Be sure to have music playing and confirm that it has child-friendly language.
- Have plenty of garbage cans around to keep trash off your floors and property.
- Try to invite more children than adults, so your little one can learn new social skills.
- Try to plan the party around your pediatrician’s hours or an urgent care’s hours.
- Before the party starts, stock up on bandaids, ice packs, kids allergy medicine, bug repellent, and any other emergency supplies that children tend to need.
- If you’re not a party planner or don’t want the extra stress, it’s perfectly OKAY to hire a party planner for your child’s first birthday party.
In Conclusion
Your child’s first birthday is a huge deal! Rather than trying to remember all the tips above, save or print this guide to keep with you during the planning phase. This way you can look back through this guide and cross off each tip as you complete them. And don’t forget that you can save tons of money on supplies with the help of reliable party suppliers like Party Bulk. By using all of the tips above, you will ensure your child’s first birthday party will be a hit!
Happy First Birthday to your little one!
