I need help with cheap B-Day party ideas for my 4 yr old daughter-do you HAVE to serve food other than cake??

Question

I really don't have much to spend on a party. However, I would like to do something memorable for her, as she has never had a party other then just our little family. I am open to any party money saving ideas. Also, do I have to serve more than drinks, cake and ice cream? Do I have to serve a whole meal? What time of the day is good for non-meal parties?

Answer 1

I think that kids coming to a birthday party really want cake and ice cream, but little ones running around also get hungry. Here are some ideas:

1. Limit the number of guests
2. Have the party between 3 and 5pm
3. Have the party in your yard or in a neighbor's yard or the park.
4. Purchase some balloons, ribbon, and a pinata
5. For food, think about baby carrots and ranch dip, chips, chicken tenders (buy a large bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, defrost, marinate overnight in Italian Salad Dressing, roll in breadcrumbs and bake for 45 minutes), french fries (frozen, of course!) and your cake and ice cream.
6. Make "favors" for the kids by getting supplies at the Dollar store and placing them in small, decorative plastic bags. Tie with ribbon.
7. Ask some of the other moms to give you a hand if you can. With more than one mom on hand to watch the kids, you all get a well-deserved break and some adult conversation time.

Answer 2

Having the party from 2 to 5 will make the parents feed their kids lunch before and dinner after. You could put some chips or pretzels on the table and serve soda or juice. Just let the kids play outside and if they get bored you can organize a hide and seek type game. When I was young my mom would create scavenger hunts by hiding things around the house and yard and make clues up to where we could find them (like one led to another). It is easy to do and costs nothing (unless you wanted to hide small prizes for the kids along the way, but you could find them at the dollar store). Just try and keep the number of guests down and the kids busy and you won't spend a fortune.

Answer 3

A great way to make a party memorable is to have a theme. http://www.brightideas.com/ has soon really great ideas. You don't have to serve a whole meal. In fact, most people don't expect it. A good time for a non-meal party is in the afternoon, after lunch, but before supper. Dollar stores are good places to find party favors or have the kids make them.

Answer 4

If you want to only have cake and ice cream then have the party around 2pm or 7pm after people have had lunch or dinner. Get balloons, blow them up and string them with a needle and thread. The "Dollar Store" has great little prizes, birthday hats. Kid's love musical chairs, so do adults. Make cupcakes and let everyone decorate their own. Take a lot of pictures!

Answer 5

Regarding the cake: Most kids don't really like cake they love ice cream! Put a tub of vanilla ice cream on the table with an assortment of goodies..like crushed up cookies, sprinkler, smarties, gummie bears..and don't forget the bing cherries..all these things are cheap and makes for a fun time for the children to make their own sundae's..remember to ask the parents if their child has an allergy to peanuts.

If serving food..hot dogs are cheap and easy to do.

Theme: Have a princess theme, and get them to make their own crowns..pre-cut out crowns for them out of construction paper, hit up a dollar store and buy things for the children to glue on...Then you don't need to send home a goodie bag.

Hope your daughter has a nice b-day and hope you don't strees out to much ..hehe

Answer 6

No, you really don't have to have anything other than the drinks, cake, and candy bags. But do make sure that you have plenty to keep them busy. For my daughters I turned the yard into a carnival. I had different games, (three legged race, musical chairs, water balloon toss, etc. type games) set up around the yard and we went from one to the other. It was really inexpensive and kept the kids from getting bored and out of control. For prizes you can either purchase toys from the Dollar Store or just have bigger size candies than the ones in the candy bags.

Answer 7

You don't have to serve the whole meal, just snack and cake, of course. You can by little link or hot dog, cut them in 1 in-11/2 in, wrap them in crescents dough and bake. Cheese and cracker is another snack. Fruit salad...etc... do it yourself is cheaper than buy them. For drink, you can do cool aid or crystals lemonade......or milk. Go to dollar store and get some party favors...cups, plates.....straws....you save so much more there than regular store.... Good luck and have fun. Don't let it stress you out. :)

Answer 8

Do a ice cream cake and drinks only. Make the theme a color, i.e. purple party. Everyone wears purple and tell guest to bring gifts with purple in it. You can by purple drinks and get purple decorations from the dollar store.

Answer 9

princess theme, you could have the girls make magic wands out of construction paper for the star, and a straw for the wand. you can get a bag of straws for a buck at the dollar store. you could get some face paint and paint the kids faces,cats and bunnies would be easy to paint.

you don't have to serve more than cake and Ice cream. But you could make sandwiches and cut them with cookie cutters instead of the traditional triangles.

Answer 10

well if you don't want to serve a meal no matter what just eat around 1:00- 4:00 cause they can eat at home at noon and around like 5:00 they can eat at their house. but it is also fun to have home made pizza that they can eat. it's really fun to make and that could be part of the party. i really enjoyed that wen i waz like 5. just get the pizza crust, sause and some cheese thats all.