Last updated on June 3rd, 2022 at 11:57 pm
By the age of 3, the kids today develop some very strong likes and dislikes and therefore as parents, it becomes your responsibility to ensure that everything that you kid likes is present at the party, and everything they do not like, does not become a part of the party.
Understanding how important this party is for you and your kid, I have compiled below a few simple party planning tips, which would help you in throwing a party which would be simply loved by your kid and at the same time, fit right into your budget.
Following are some simple yet effective party planning ideas for a 3 year old’s birthday party, which will ensure that your party is remembered by your kid and his or her friends for a very long time
1. Call In Additional Manpower
Three year old kids are very difficult to manage. They have a huge amount of energy present inside them and they barely listen, understand and follow instructions.
Therefore, trying to manage all the kids at your 3 years old’s birthday party would be taking on a job which is impossible to complete successfully.The only solution to this problem is that you request some of your close friends and relatives to help you out during the party.
Before you decide the date of the party, you will have to contact these people and confirm whether they are free on the day you are planning to throw the party or not, to come and help you in managing the kids and the party.
In case they are not free on that date, you can make changes in the date of your party. Remember, you cannot handle all the kids alone, so shifting the date is a much better option.
2. Invite Parents With Kids
In case you are not able to find people who would be able to come out and help you during the party, you can always throw a mother –kid party, where the mothers are also invited for the party along with their kids.
Surely, you would have to arrange for more food and seating arrangements, but other than that, no additional cost would be incurred for the party, and at the same time, the mothers can take care of their own kids and hence, you would be free to handle the games and other aspects of the party, without having to worry about the kids.
3. Select Your Kids Favorite Theme
By the time your kid turns three, he or she would have been exposed to ample of cartoons to have formed a liking for some particular cartoon character or series.
The love for these cartoons is so strong in the hearts of the kids that you give them anything, however small, related to it, like a pencil with an image of their favorite cartoon character, they would simply love the pencil and you for giving it to them.
Thus, when throwing a birthday party for toddlers, it only makes sense that you keep the theme of the party around their favorite character only.
Besides, the chances of other kids, around the same age, also having a liking for this cartoon is quite high, thereby, increasing the chances of your party becoming a hit with other kids as well.
4. Instant Photos
You can hire the services of a professional photographer who provides the option of instant photography.
Kids dress up in their best dresses when going to a party and look absolutely amazing playing with their friends.
Besides, all parents would want to keep as many memories possible of this age and stage of their kids, before they grow up and start ignoring their parents.
You can ask the photographer to click instant photos of the kids in some really cute poses and develop them instantly and give these photos to the kids to take them home as a memory of the lovely time they had at your party.
5. Get Maximum Photos Clicked Before Cake Cutting
The cake cutting ceremony basically means that the party is about to get over. Once the cake is cut, kids eat their food, collect their favor and rush to get back to their homes.
Therefore, whether you are clicking the photos at the party yourself, or have designated this job to someone else, make sure that the person in-charge of taking photos clicks as many pictures as possible before the cake cutting ceremony, as the chances of getting any good shots later are very slim.
6. Games Filled With Energy
As mentioned before, 3 year old kids are a bundle of packed energy, waiting to explode, and when you leave them with other kids of the same age, you are basically waiting for a volcano of energy to burst.
The only way to save your party from this volcano is to direct this energy into something constructive and therefore, you would need to plan games at this party which require the kids to run around, jump, and do other physical activities which would slowly drain them of their energy.
Games like treasure hunting, statue dancing, lemon race, etc., are great game options for this party.
7. Activity Area
You would inviting almost all the classmates, neighbors and other kids in your friend circle for this party. With so many kids in the house, you cannot expect every kid to enjoy the same things and therefore for those kids who may be slightly older in age or are more reserved by nature, and hence do not want to participate in the above games, you can prepare a small quite activity area for these kids, where they can paint, play with clay, decorate cupcakes and do many other similar activities which are quieter and more creative in nature.
8. Colorful Decorations
There are two things which one should bear in mind when planning a birthday party for three year old kids.
The first thing to remember is that kids not just love colors, but they also represent colors and therefore, you need to make sure that all the decorations at the kids birthday party are filled with colors.
And the second thing that you need to remember when decorating your kids birthday party venue, is to use decorations which are in sync with the party theme.
Thus, if you are using Peppa Pigs as the theme for the party, you will have to arrange for their cutouts and other accessories and use them when decorating the party venue.
9. Opening Of Gifts
Although, once the cake has been cut, most of the children would like to eat their food and leave the party, there is only one thing left that can keep them still interested in the party, and that is gift opening.
For some strange reason, the idea of opening the gifts is pretty exciting for all the kids, even if the gifts are not for themselves.
Therefore, once the cake has been cut and after everyone has had their food, you can arrange for a small space where all the kids can sit down and the birthday boy or girl can one by one open the gift and personally hand over the return gift or favor to the kid who had presented the gift to them.
This way kids also learn to appreciate each others gifts and efforts.
10. Write Down Gift Details
It is very important to remember which gift brought which gift for your child. However, if you allow your kid to open all the present during the party itself, the chances are that forget the gift tag attached on the gift wrapper, you would probably not even get to see the gift wrappers. Only their shredded pieces would be lying all over the party venue.
Hence, before you hand over the gifts to your child to open them, you should ask someone, helping you with the party management, you take a pad and pen and jot down the names and gifts details and then only hand them over to the kid.
11. Serve In Deep Dishes
Kids are messy and you cannot change that. Once the party is over, all the cleaning work will have to be done by you, so you will only have to come up with ideas, which will help in reducing your cleaning workload.
One simple solution for this is to serve food to the kids in deep dishes. This way the amount of spillage that can happen will get reduced dramatically.
12. Birthday Cake Cutting Ceremony
The cake cutting ceremony is a very important part of every kid’s birthday party. Therefore, you need to make special arrangements for the same.
Besides ensuring that you order a very nice, pretty and special design for the cake, you would also have to make arrangements for special music to be played during this cake cutting ceremony.
3 year old kids can have really cracked throats when singing and therefore, a nice melodious background birthday song would really help in making this event successful.
You can also arrange for a huge balloon, filled with confetti or candies, to be hung right above the cake and burst the same exactly at the same time when the candles are blown and the cake is cut.
13. Lay Out Food While The Cake Is Being Cut
The timing for laying out the food is very important during a party. If you lay out the food too early, everything would get cold and the food would not taste nice, and similarly, if you wait till after the cake is cut to start laying out food, many guests might actually choose to leave without eating anything, since by this time, kids are tired and tend to get cranky.
Hence, you need to make sure that while the cake is being cut, the food gets laid out at exactly the same time.
14. Serve Cake With Desserts
Trying to serve the birthday cake to the kids immediately after the cake cutting ceremony can prove to be extremely disorganized and messy. All the kids would be jumping around the table to get a piece of cake and managing them would be extremely tough.
Hence, you should take away the cake immediately after the same is cut and place the proper cut pieces of the same along with the other desserts you have arranged for the party.
This way everyone would be able to enjoy the cake properly and there would be no mess created in the process.
15. See Off Each Kid Personally
It is very important that at the end of the party, you make sure to see off each kid personally. This becomes even more important when you have not invited the mothers of the kids to attend the party along with the kids.
You do not want kids to wander off with some stranger after the party and therefore, you need to make sure that the kids leave with their parents only.
Besides this, you also do not want the kids to leave the party without receiving their party favors, hence you will have to be present at the time they are leaving to personally hand then their party favor.
As scary as it might appear, planning the 3rd birthday party for your kid can actually prove to be extremely fun. All you need to do is keep in mind the above third birthday party ideas list given by me, and you would be able to not just plan a great party, bthirdut enjoy it as well, along with your kid. You do have to follow every tip given above, you can choose whichever you feel is right for you.
