Well done that mum!

Well done indeed!! Let's hope a few more Mums will follow suit!

The rot started to creep in when my DD was going to parties in the 70s. Back then, there was only one 'entertainer' locally, so he kept turning up at the various parties. The kids were bored witless, having had to keep still while he clowned, magicked etc. Then there was the party which had TWO entertainers. . . . - plus the party bags had cost more than the invitees had spent on the birthday boy, which caused embarrassment and annoyance in equal measure!

There were two of us who refused to go down that route and did the silly party games. Joined in with the children, who probably thought we'd lost our marbles, and they went home exhausted (which pleased the parents!), full of food and with a modest party bag. Guess which the children enjoyed most?!

Although not relevant, I forgot to say last time round balloons in party bags can kill. We had a young girl at school who inhaled the balloon as her mum was driving her home. It got stuck in her airway. Tragic.

My parents never let we kids mess around with uninflated balloons because of that very risk, Lillie.

We had a clown at one of our DD's parties - during the tea break, my OH (a doctor) and a Mum (also a doctor) were in the other room, where the clown had secreted himself, and were watching a new video of how to do a vasectomy - a very green clown staggered out of the door!

I do agree about parties though - they are OTT now. We only had the clown once - oh and a ball pool another time. Ah yes...little hint here - do not feed children yummy cakes and chocolate and then let them bounce in a ball pool, unless you want to spend the evening with your bath full of hundreds of balls and washing up liquid cleaning the vomit!

Our balloon was already blown up!

Good for her some parties are getting rediculous I don't think it's for kids its parents who want everyone to think they think more of their kids by giving these expensive parties most kids arnt bothered they just enjoy get together . I know some will say it's their money and they can spend what they want so I'll duck now

Lovely to hear about this unpretentious party. These days it seems that children's parties are often just another opportunity for a one-upmanship contest.

So glad to hear that 'proper' parties might be coming back. My girls look back at their parties with affection. Happy memories. Like the time I did a fairy party and put glitter/fairy dust into the invitations not thinking about when they would be opened at school. Glitter everywhere ....not the most popular mother with the teacher . Or the time I made a lovely castle cake for a princess party using doilies to make the Disney type spires on the towers. Unfortunately I didn't think about the flammability of said doilies and when I lit the candles the cake caught fire . My girls are in their late twenties now and they and their friends still remember and laugh about our parties.

I liked the suggestion made recently on GN about the books. Each child was asked to bring a 'lightly-used' book to swap at the party (instead of a present). Nice idea.

I like that idea very much, mcem. We also have done a puppet show using our accumulation of puppets and the wooden puppet theatre DH made for our own children long ago.

I really hope this kind of party is the new very long lasting trend. My DD bucked the trend of overnight visits to legoland, farm parties at the farm park and spa parties that were the norm at my DGDs school, my DGD 6th Birthday party( joint with her BF) was held in the local village hall,the whole class and the Rainbow pack were invited to enjoy a 'homemade' party. They child loved running and climbing in the hall garden. Quote of the party was one little girl telling my Dh that she "neeeeded more hummus"

For our son's eighth birthday we decided to have a breakfast party - got it over and done by noon. Conjuror with white doves entertained them but they were more interested in when the birds pooed. My husband vowed it was the last birthday party for boys - decided it would be better to have a special treat day with our son's closest friends in future.. This was in the late 80s.

Anya....that's just the sort of parties I did for my children back in the early 70s. I still remember the favourite game of eating the chocolate with a knife and fork (cold from the fridge) wearing large gloves ...trying to cram as much in as possible before the next person shook a six on the dice.You have just taken me down memory lane again. The party guests at my children's birthday parties only took home a slice of wrapped birthday cake (an extra slice of two if they had younger brothers or sisters at home) plus a balloon or two which were already inflated before the party started. Let's hope for more of these simple party,s .....less stress ....and heaps more fun.

JanaNana

Oh yes I remember these lovely parties for our DD. Pin the tail on the donkey, musical statues, musical chairs (oh the chaos), pass the parcel, fairy cakes, chocolate fingers. Bliss.

Thats the type of Birthday party we did for DGS here.
I have been organising a Promise Auction fundraiser, one of the items I auctioned my self was a traditional Childrens Birthday party.
A couple asked if I would do the same style for an adult, ok says me, and they put in a huge bid.
It is for a 50th birthday, and they want all the party games, ice cream and jelly etc.
I am really looking forward to doing it.

Couldn't agree more with you all. Have long thought that childrens' parties had gone way too far. The whole class invited, the ever more startling venues and themes, the extravagant party bags. Crazy! So expensive. I've watched - and helped - my daughters with such occasions, and thought longingly back to the parties they had, which were as Anya describes. I do remember a form of oneupmanship with the cakes, and tearing my hair out over ever more challenging shapes. Silly me!
There was one party when grandson was still at nursery which was held at home and little friends and siblings came. I stood in the kitchen cooking loads of chipolatas, potato smiles and baked beans. We'd made a cake in the shape of a train, were up very late the night before finishing it, and only noticed as the candles were lit that we'd got the number 4 the wrong way round.

My own birthday parties are like this. I send invitations to my youngest grandchildren. We have cakes and jelly and play my childhood games. They love it. Im horrified at what my DiL pays for parties. She once paid £70 for a fancy birthday cake. they go to all sorts of expensive venues or hire bouncy castles. Their mad the lot of them. I follow my MiL mantra 'see all, hear all, say nowt' I'm being polite the last word is rude.

Luckygirl stilling giggling about the clown!

My DD was considering and consequently worrying about a Craft Party at a local venue for such things which cost an absolute fortune. I was absolutely appalled at the paucity of the results I had seen from this particular type of party.

So we put together our own craft party, we sourced some very nice and cheap wooden fairy doors with hinges and clips from The Works internet site. We painted them pastel colours and then put the children around a large table full of all the decorative bits and pieces we could lay our hands on, plus glue and set them to it. For 6 year olds there were a lot of very creative doors and they loved doing it.

I had made a load of fairies from wooden clothes pegs and scraps of materials so they then played hunt the fairy and had one each to take home along with the fairy door. After homemade tea we played all those old fashioned games like musical chairs, what's the time mister wolf, tail on the donkey etc.

It is so much more satisfying for both parents and their helpers and the children to go to a party like this than sitting in an anonymous venue like McDs or a formal craft party etc.

My grandson had his highly popular 8 yr party for a selected few at GoApe with a picnic afterwards. Great, and at least they learn something, are exercised and learn about discipline in sport. Great photos too.

I am also thinking of an old fashioned party for my 70th with games and jelly and ice cream and oh those wonderful egg bridge rolls!!!

My three had all sorts of parties in the 80s, some at home, some not. But for a couple of DS's parties, we traipsed them all down the hill at the end of the street to play football and other games on the pitches in the fields, then we had a picnic. Whatever we did, we made sure they all went home thoroughly worn out!

PS I'm making the cake for DGS's 4th birthday party this weekend. He's requested Tracy Island.... I'm surrounded by google image print outs at the moment and this is my face . And I know that however realistic the finished result is, he'll be the only child at the party who'll know what the heck it is anyway!

That's the best sort of party for boys Maggie.....wear them out!
Always found doing a party for girls easier, unless the boys are very young.
I once remember a child peering into a party bag I had given him to take home, cake, balloon and a few little things and saying 'is that all?'

There is a woman in my area who dresses up as Elsa from Frozen and charges to come to birthday parties, fetes etc. We see her everywhere we go with the little ones so she must be making a tidy sum - would look SO much better though if she wasn't a couple of stone overweight ????

A local organisation arranged for "Elsa" to come to town on Bank Holiday. I don't know what she weighed but they published her timetable online and from 3 to 6pm she was going to be "walking in and out of pubs".