Personally I think over $100 dollars US is extreme. A cake, some chips and dip, ice cream and some movie/video game rentals and that’s it. My friend said he spent well over $1000 dollars on his daughters birthday. It included a tent, enough food to feed Nigeria, a clown, video games, water slide, and mass amounts of liquor for the parents. How much do you spend on your children? How much is too much?
We buy our stuff at birthday express and don’t spend a lot, we usually go to Chuck E Cheese or have a party @ home. $1,000 for a party! Can you say spoiled brat! Over $300 I’d say is too much, depends on how many friends how much crap your gonna buy etc…Not sure what to tell ya’.
Two lanes of bowling, with pizza and drinks supplied by the alley, is durn close to $100. That’s fairly standard for our kids. If we didn’t go to someplace like that, we’d probably spend that much on decorations and food at home. $1000 is frakkin’ insane, but with booze for the adults it’s more than just a kids party.
My kids pay for their own parties now , but when they were younger, it was cake, lemonade, lollies and savoury munchies and a few simple party games: after a couple of hours, we’d send home the guests with a little bag of treats and a dose of sugar-induced hyperactivity.
Cheap.
In their early teenage years and sleepover parties, it was add the cost of video rentals so that the buggers could stay up all night watching horror movies. Just as cheap because half the girls were on ‘diets’ so wouldn’t eat the junk-food I provided.
Anybody who tries to treat a childs birthday party as a socially meaningful event is either stupid, deluded, or has money to burn.
I’m with you. The money some parents spend is just obscene.
WhyKid’s 14th birthday party is this Saturday. We’re having about 20 people over, a mix of family, my friends and his friends. I’m making chili (three pots - one meat, one bean, one both) with all the fixin’s and cornbread. I bought some really yummy Artichoke Jalapeño dip and some crispy seasoned panetini from Costco, as well as ordered a half-sheet cake that they’ll bake fresh and put his name on. I guess I should rustle up some drinks - usually I have a bottle of wine or two for the grown ups and fruit juice and seltzer for the kids to make their own “pop”. Other people are bringing munchie food and one person’s bringing a big tossed salad.
So all together I might be nearing $100, with good quality meat and fresh produce for the chili. But that’s also for 25 people, which means I’m spending like $4 a person. I may hit the dollar store for some White Elephant or goodie bag treats (maybe foot long Pixie Stix!) but then again, I might not.
I suspect the kids will be playing the XBox 360 until they get bored and have a Nerf war, and the adults will coo over the assorted itty bitties (7 months, 2 years, 2.5 years and 3 years) while we stuff ourselves silly and then eat cake.
At least one of the other boys will sleep over, they’ll stay up all night and be grumpy all Sunday and wreck my kitchen making French Toast. What could be better?
Let’s see, for this last birthday (6th), we bought a bunch of balloons, paper plates/napkins etc., and a store-bought cake for the ridiculous price of almost $30 (CostCo was half the price for twice as much, but had a walnut warning, and it would be pretty sad for her to be poisoned by her own birthday cake, so…). Oh, and a bunch of cheap favors and a pinata and candy. Probably a bit less than $100 all told.
Usually I would make my own cake. I forget why I didn’t, I had a reason.
Anyway, I believe in cheap and simple parties, and luckily so does almost everyone else around here. It is wonderful that virtually everyone has a rule that goes something like: you get a party every other year (and it will be pretty simple–the roller-rink is a big deal), and in the off-years your best friend can spend the day or night, and you get pizza.
Parties seem to run me about $200.00 or so. Maybe just a little bit more.
That includes invitations and thank-you cards, paper plates, tableware and cups, snacks and drinks (I like to offer a nice lunch), gift bags, a small amount of decoration (usually some crepe and a couple of helium baloons), and a small or special gift from mom and dad. Food is my most costly expense. Sometimes I make the cake and sometimes I buy one depending on what the kid in question is interested in*.
I generally send about 20 invitations and get about half that in guests. I always invite siblings. Last party had 6 RSVP’s and 15 attendees, so I’m gonna watch that a little closer next time. I like to plan on spending 4 hours on the party, but sometimes they run 5.
I like to offer a kid friendly food situation- usually premade sandwiches of all kinds and a large fresh fruit tray, plus chips. I personally don’t care for pizza, nor do my kids. (They like sushi and Indian food!)
My kids are getting old enough that I don’t think I need to provide the good-bye bribe, uh, parting gift bag anymore. We’ll see.
I noticed several years ago the “birthday party escalation war” and decided to opt out. Since so many school aged kids have birthdays near each other around here, March and April are busy birthday months for us. The parties seemed to be getting bigger and more elaborate- and more costly- as the weeks went by. The last of the birthday war parties we attended involved an eloborate BBQ and a large Winnebago-like travel trailer (?) and “Mr Science” show in the park. The gift bag was a metal luch box stuffed with too many too expensive goodies and stuffed animals.
Now, I just hold the parties here at the house and set up 3-5 ‘stations’ of fun stuff for the kids to do. We have a playground in the back. I put out the costume box in one room, the train set or the magic trick stuff in another place, a do-it-yourself face decorating kit or baloon animal spot and then whatever else I have that looks fun (puppet show theater, Barbies, a small painting project {kids love jewelry boxes and door handle signs}, etc).
Mostly, I like the parties to be self guided amongst the food and play areas so I can have fun, too, instead of fussing or ‘hostessing’.
I only have 2 kids (9, 10), but my house is kid central for the neighborhood. Alot of the party entertainments are things we already have such as the puppet theater, costumes, train set and art- and- craft supplies. I don’t buy the more expensive decorated plates and cups, just the bulk ones. I don’t like to spend alot of time on clean up!
- A suprise strawberry shortcake cake- very plain looking with lots of gooey surprise filling, a Hogwarts Castle cake, and a “Children Sleeping in Bed” cake using an icing cover, marshmallow pillows, nilla wafer heads, gummy bear teddy bears and each of the 8 invitees individually represented- a really big hit!
I like B-Day parties!
Clarification…
The 6 RSVP’s and 15 attendees were kids. There was also a couple of family members so we had about 22 people in the house all together throughout the day. Some uncounted parents came and went, also.
My daughter’s last birthday (7th) I spent about $700-$800 not including her gift. I rented a couple of water slides, snow cone machine, face painting and carnival games along with staff. Served lunch and cake. Is that insane? Probably but a good time was had by all.
I’d agree $200 is plenty, but $1000 isn’t insane if you’ve got the money and want to splurge. Depends what you include as an expense, too. Does a nice gift count? If you bought your kid a PS3, that’s the better part of $1000. What if you decide to finally go to Disneyworld?
But some parents spend WAY more. There are $10,000 parties happening out there.
I spent almost exactly 100 euro on Youngest’s 5th birthday party a couple of weeks ago. At the local bowling place, they do everything but the cake for 10 euro a head. They decorate the table, each child gets a little toy and the birthday child gets a bigger toy, they get a lunch, they get a bag of candy, they get to have themselves painted with luminescent paint and then they bowl under black light and so on.
Because we went to the US for Christmas, our return date was the day before his birthday. Given the inevitable jetlag, I decided that having someone else buy the stuff and set it up and clean up afterwards was a Really Good Thing. I did make the cake but I always have to, what the Dutch call a birthday cake is not the same thing as what Americans call a birthday cake and we were in the States long enough for my kids to have firm ideas about what a birthday cake looks like.
It did cost rather more than I otherwise would have spent, but the stress reduction aspect was worth quite a lot.
I don’t count the cost of the child’s gift in that as I would have bought him a present whether we had a party or not.
Well, like you said, a trip to Disney World
As it happens, my son turned eighteen today. He got a cake and I took my day off today so I could spend some time with him. We just hung out and listened to music. He’ll get his present on the weekend as it’s not quite payday for either of us.
We used to just do home parties for the boys and food was usually of the hotdog/chili/taco variety. When they were little, the guests got small goodie bags. I don’t suppose we ever went over $100.
Nowadays, I go to parties every week with the zoo. Our cost for a one hour presentation is $175 for weekdays and Saturdays before 6:00pm and $200 for after hours and Sundays. We’re usually booked pretty solid.
I’ve seen some insane parties. Canopies, balloon artists, us, all kinds of food and drinks and 100+ people - for a one year old. I’ve also seen way too many parents who use the kid’s party as an excuse to get drunk with their buddys. Interestingly enough, the smaller the house and the simpler the party, the more likely it is that the parents will be intersted in watching the show with the kids, and sober. Better tips too!
Guess which jobs we prefer?!
Some of the moms on one of my parenting boards go insane for birthday parties - they rent halls, bounce houses, ponies, all kinds of stuff… They have them catered, have full, open bars, etc.
I think they’re insane, personally. When my son turns a year old in August, we plan on having family and close friends over - maybe 15-20 people tops? We’ll cook out on the grill, have birthday cake, play music, and drink beer (well, the adults will…). No bounce houses, no ponies, but I expect we’ll have a good time anyway.
I figure he’s not going to remember his first birthday, but we will, and I can’t see spending upwards of $500 when we’ll all have just as good of a time with burgers and chicken on the grill. When he gets older, maybe we’ll do bowling or skating or something where his friends can come, but until he’s at least 4, I can’t see doing much more than having family and friends over for a barbecue.
I suspect most of it is a matter of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. Your one-year-old’s not going to get much out of it.
E.
Exactly. It is all relative. If you struggle to make ends meet that $100 is what the $1000 is to people who are lucky enough to be doing better. That being said, of course not everyone that makes six plus figures have expenses parties but it is more likely to be the case.
We spend about $300 - 400 a year on the birthday party. We’ve done the following:
Fantasyland - an arcade with indoor kiddie rides - 20 kids.
McDonald’s - playroom and Happy Meals - 20 kids.
Karate - karate - 24 kids
YMCA pool - swimming - 18 kids
Radical Ricks - laser tag - 11 kids.
McDonald’s supplies everything, including a crappy little cake. Karate supplies nothing, but gives a great karate lesson. Otherwise they all supply pizza, a helper and paper goods. Because our son’s birthday is in early January, getting all those presents is a big pain. His friend recently had a joint party with his older brother and their mom got so fed up with the greed, particularly of the older boy, and said no presents but instead gave Dunkin Donuts gift cards to the guests. She’s my new hero.
Not even close. Off by an order of magnitude.
Here in Knoxville, people just freaked when some kid received a $100,000 15th-birthday party.
My daughter’s birthday is in January in New England. I’ve done the cheapo kids over the house thing, but this year I’m treating myself by renting the YMCA playroom for $90 for 2 hours. If she had a summer birthday, that would be a different story. It will probably come out to $125-150ish with all the “stuff”, from invitations to snacks to thank yous.
I wouldn’t do the $1000 thing, and I don’t think any of my friends would. But as long as you are teaching your kids responsibility with money, charity, and making sure they’re not spoiled in everything, then what the hey.
For really insane parties, check out My Super Sweet Sixteen from MTV.
Wow. Luckily for me, when offered a pool party for her 14th birthday, my daughter said “mom, just give me the $150.00 and take me to the mall.” So, that’s what she got (well, and a little more)-- and a clunker of a Kia Sephia that she has 2 years to get running if she wants to be driving at 16. My son (7) asked for a Chuck E Cheese party, but then decided he didn’t want to invite anyone other than his grandpa. Go figure.