Boy was born on Boxing Day. As birth stories go, it’s a long one, but I won’t bore you with the details – suffice it to say there was no way in hell I was letting that baby out on Christmas day.
In any case, for the last three years this has meant two consecutive days of being bombarded with presents and attention: wandering around in wrapping paper up to his knees with his eyes glazed over, stoned into a pudding and birthday cake haze.
To boot, in Mother’s Group that I am part of, all of the children have birthdays in December – which means packed-in parties from November to January. We haven’t done the birthday thing yet, as we’re always away with family in Sydney, but this year everyone’s coming to us for Christmas, so there’s time to throw a proper kiddie birthday party.
Perhaps insanely, I recently asked Boy what kind of a four-year-old party he wants. The kids would arrive on circus animals. There would be a Thomas the Tank engine train riding around the house and garden on specially laid tracks, and he would be the driver. There would be continous kids shows, all of which he would be the star. The lolly bags would be as big as shopping bags and have a tub of ice-cream in them. Everybody we have ever met on earth would come. Oh - and the party would never end.
'Umm...you've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you darling?'
I now find myself looking at the article I wrote for Kindred some time ago on planning child-friendly parties. Of course, now I’m looking back it was so easy to write these fantastic ideas, and maybe might not be quite so easy to pull them off.
At the moment I’m thinking of an African drumming party (but would have to pay for a 'host' who would bring a drum for each child and teach them some beats) or a craft party…which I could host solely on my own, but which could get very messy. I’d love to hear from people about their kiddie party nightmares and triumphs.
Two words: Jumping Castle. They'll have a blast and they'll be exhausted at the end of the day which would mean an early night in for you...hopefully.
ReplyDeleteThe BEST party I ever DIDN'T organise was last year's, when I text messaged (TEXT. MESSAGED. So classy) my entire address book a week before the day and said something desperate like "I suck, wanna meet us for cake and ice cream at MacDonald's next week?".
ReplyDeleteI bought a cake, made up some gift bags and...that's it.
About a bajillion people showed up. It wasn't a MacDonald's Official Birthday Party, it was BETTER than a MOBP. The kids ran around and the grown ups sat around yapping and the last people left HOURS later and there was NO PRESSURE on ANYONE. We all had a great time and, no kidding, it was deemed THE Party Of The Year.
Bonus points: I didn't have to clean up. Huzzah.
Pro Tip: Let MacDonald's management know you've invited a shitload of people on Certain Day at Certain time. They'll add extra staff as necessary, and good times will be had by all. Trust.