Berkeley Parents Network: Ideas for 3-year-old Birthday Parties

Berkeley Parents Network

Ideas for 3-year-old Birthday Parties

Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > Birthdays > Ideas for 3-year-old Birthday Parties

3 Year Old Birthday Party ideas

June 2002

My son will be three in mid july and I'm planning to plan a birthday party. I'm not a natural party thrower and could use some suggestions (I've looked at the ucparents section already). I'd like to invite all of the kids in his daycare class (about 13 but I doubt they'd all be able to come), a few kids from his play group, and a few slightly older kids from the neighborhood. I don't know any of the parents well, so I'd like things to go as smoothly as possible. thanks in advance,karlyn

A good site for birthday party ideas/advice is: http://www.birthdaypartydirectory.com/index2.html. It has suggestions on party themes, games, food, crafts to make, food to serve, as well as tips on throwing birthday parties.

It sounds like you will be inviting A LOT of kids, maybe too many? It can get pretty overwhelming/chaotic/stressful with so many children (for you, your child and the other children). A good question to ask yourself is - who is the party for? The child is usually excited to have a few friends over while s/he is the special birthday child of the day.

I also find it helpful to remember to remain relaxed, flexible, and to let the birthday child determine (to some degree) what s/he wants to do rather trying to stick to a rigid ''schedule.'' Again, remember that the party is for them and you want to make sure that they are having fun.

When my daughter was a toddler, we usually invited as many kids as her age, plus one. It seemed more manageable for her and for us.

I know that a lot of people open presents so that everyone can ooh and aah, but I have found that this is difficult for the kids who are observing. I usually thank the gift giver and open the gifts at a later time, after the party.

Also, I have been to parties where clowns were hired and I have always thought that this was a terrible idea as a few of the kids were always scared to death (as was I, haha!) of the clowns.

Good luck! MK

here are some suggestions based on parties that i have hosted for my kids as well as parties we attended for the 0-5 age group.

oakland zoo
children's fairyland
habitot
local park picnic
luau in backyard

it may be a bit ambitious for a self-proclaimed non-party- thrower to host such a big group of people (esp. all of those parents). you might consider having a small ''party'' (cupcakes and party favors) one afternoon during snack time at school. and then having another event for the the other group. good luck and don't stress! suzie

For my son's 3rd birthday I hired a person who entertained the children with lizards, snakes, spiders and turtles. It was educational and fun. I always try to hire someone for his birthdays so the kids are kept busy and I have less to do. You may want to check out www.birthdaypartyideas.com. This is a great site for reference. tabnand

Jan 2002

Does anyone have suggestions of low-key activities that would be a hit at a 3 year old's birthday party? I've searched the UCB website but did not come up with any specific information regarding 3 year olds. Has anyone had a great experience renting Kindergym at the Berkeley YMCA or alternatively, at Habitot? My daughter loves storytellers but I'm not sure if the rest of her friends would be able to sit that still at a party. Also, an etiquette question: if your child is enrolled in nursery school, is it best to invite every student in her class? Thank you in advance

Hi -- I hired a Kindermusik teacher to come right to our home for my 3 year old and 4-5 friends. It was a HIT! They had their little program (she stays for up to an hour and I think it was $100, but she will end sooner if the kids are losing interest). She was very intuitive and creative and had their attention for about 45 min. Then we had cake and presents and that was it! I am glad I did it and may try it again when my next one is 3! Trish

We did a 3-year-old (and a 5-year-old) birthday party at Kindergym and have been to a number of other people's parties there. Kindergym is lots of fun -- plenty of large motor activity and kids have a choice of playing side-by-side or playing together. The new party room is really nice (the older one was kind of minimal). The other nice thing about a party at the Y is that you get away from the opening presents thing, and when it's over you don't have to clean up your house. If you want to do a party there, you need to book it significantly ahead of time to get the date you want. CD

I attended quite a few 3-year-old parties last summer, and the activities that seemed to work best were the ones that the kids could do on their own schedules. One party had 2 tables set up, one with play-dough and the other with wooden frames and materials to decorate them; another had a giant tray (like a roasting pan) full of bubble mix and a lot of wands. The kids spent as much or as little time on the activities as they wanted. Face painting is also fun if there's an adult who doesn't mind spending a big chunk of time doing it. This approach seemed to avoid the "herding cats" aspect of trying to get a group of little kids to so the same thing at the same time. Jennifer

Perhaps not low-key enough for you, but my daughter's 3rd birthday is next week; since she absolutely loves to cook we're going to have a baking party. We'll have the kids help to make a simple cookie dough, roll it out, cut it with cookie cutters, then bake, and decorate with different colors of icings, various fun sprinkles, and even edible food coloring "markers" that they can draw on the cookies with. We'll also have a few store-bought sugar and gingerbread cookies on hand to decorate in case the baking doesn't work out; if you can't or don't want to bake you could take the store-bought option exclusively. Or do cupcakes, and let them stand in for a bigger birthday cake. Either way, the kids should get a kick out of it. Have fun! Lauren

Chuck E Cheese is the perfect place for kids that age. They have hostesses that basically run the party for you so you have more time to take pictures or play with the kids. I was told when kids are able to have parties its best to limit the guests to the age of the child (3 years, 3 friends) to avoid overwhelming the child, especially when it comes time to open the presents. I invited all of my sons classmates one year (he was six) and only ten of them showed up. After that, I only invited the people he asked me to invite. It makes sense that your child would want kids there that he plays with all the time.

Chuck E Cheese has music and the hostesses will lead them through some songs. There's plenty of activities for them to do and the best part is you don't have to worry about the cleanup afterwards. Also there is a good security system in place so your kids are safe. There are also other kid-oriented party places around (one of them is jungle-themed I believe).

One year I also had the party at my sons preschool (with permission from the teacher ahead of time). I hired a Peewee Herman impersonator and he basically ran the party for me, did fun activities with the kids, kept them entertained for about an hour and then we all helped cleanup. It was fun, the teachers liked the break and the kids had a great time.

Back to who to invite, if you are going to have it at your house, you need to decide how many kids you can handle (how much help you are going to have). You could probably hire a storyteller or a clown or someone to do facepainting. Lots of things to do out there that kids really go for. If you have it at some kid-oriented place, you can invite more because they can handle it.

It's more of an issue of how much you want to get into.

Marianne

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