Birthday Party Planning - Venues

This is the second part of the series on Birthday Party Planning, following on from the introduction. This post discusses party venues.

We had Rachel's first and second birthday parties in the garden; taking the risk that late August weather is always sunny, warm and dry. We were lucky!

Her third birthday party had a lot of paint involved and so we opted to use the local community centre, a wise choice and not too expensive. We hired the church hall for her fourth birthday party and were back in the garden last year.

This year we had very little choice but to go back to hiring a hall. How was I ever going to hold a high school musical disco at home? So we went for the church hall again, after all I know it intimately and have keys, it makes sense!

The party venue is a very important aspect of party planning. It affects the number of people you can invite. It impacts the sorts of decorations you can use. It even impacts the sort of food and drink you can offer. For kid's parties I would recommend any party with more than a dozen kids be held away from home; especially if there's any chance it might rain.

So how do you choose where to hold your party?
1 - identify the number of kids coming and whether they'd fit at home
2 - decide on the theme and whether it can be pulled off at home
3 - be honest about whether you can cope with your house being over-run
4 - look at the costs of local halls; community, church and school
5 - if you want fuss free, then choose a gym or soft play or cinema trip

And the pros and cons?
Well I love the traditional kids' party so there is something special about having it at home. But it is so much easier and less stressful to have it in a hall where your home is still your home when you get back. There's a lot to be said about having your feet up in your own lounge when it's all over. But that's just me.