Kid's Birthday Party Decor Ideas and Tips

We recently celebrated our cutie patootie's first birthday. We did the party at home surrounded by family and friends. I agonised for weeks and weeks about the party decor, the theme, the food, etc. and I was so paralysed by the abundance of choices that ended up leaving everything for the last minute! In this post I share with you party decor options and ideas for different budgets and a few lessons learned from our first experience organising a child's birthday party.

If like me you don't have much time on your hands to DIY your party decor, there are plenty of beautiful party ware ranges out there. We decided to go for Ginger Ray's  "Chevron Divine" and loved it but bear in mind this is not a cheap option.

BUDGET PARTY WARE RANGES
Once everything was already ordered for my girlie's birthday I spotted Home Bargains "Vintage Tea" Party range. Honestly, you need to check it out. It's seriously cute and so affordable!

ASDA also does a sweet polka dot range that is very economical.

PRINT AT HOME PARTYWARE PACKAGES
Another option would be to purchase a party package to print at home (Etsy is a good place to find loads of them!) Isn't this hot air ballon package utterly cute?

ADD FLOWERS TO YOUR DECOR - Whatever option you go for, flowers are a great decorative addition. We had some beautiful peonies and they just added a lively touch that you can't  achieve with only paper decorations. By the way! Debenhams Flowers are giving 25% off to all my lovely readers with the code DFBLOG25.

FOOD - go for easy, ready-made options to make your life easier. Don't put loads of pressure on yourself to make everything from scratch in the days prior to the party. We decided to get different platters from the M&S Food range like sandwiches, canapes, little sweet tarts, macaroons, etc. We considered having a barbecue but discarded the idea for two reasons: 1) Scottish "summer" weather... 2) Hubby would have had to stay attending the barbecue and not being able to enjoy this special time with the rest of us. After all, people don't really eat much at birthdays, do they?

INVEST IN A CAKE - on the other hand, one of the very few things that almost everyone will have at a birthday party is cake! so that's one place where I would splash out. I decided to do my baby's first birthday cake myself but would you believe me if I tell you I stayed until 1am the night before finishing it off? And after  that stress I ended up with a slightly wonky cake. Mind you everyone seemed to like it as I made with one layer of fresh cream and strawberries and another one of dulce de leche. Yummy!

DRINKS: ALCOHOL OR NO ALCOHOL? - I personally didn't have any problem offering alcohol as I knew it wasn't going to be a problem among our friends and family but in the end everyone had soft drinks!

OUTDOOR GAMES - Having outdoor activities  available for the mini guests to burn some energy is a good idea. You could hire a bouncy castle but I honestly think you are better off buying  one. Your little one could still use it during summer (they inflate/ deflate within a couple of minutes) and you could use it for future parties as well. Unknown to me until fairly recently, ASDA has a huge range of outdoor toys and games. This is where ours came from.

TIME/ DURATION - Make sure you get everyone around at a time that suits the birthday girl or boy. We did it between our daughter's nap times and she was able to fully enjoy the whole party.

I hope you find these tips useful. Please feel free to share any other that I have omitted :)