Four year old's birthday party: how many is too many children!!

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cdonoghue
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Four year old's birthday party: how many is too many children!!

Postby cdonoghue » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:35 pm

I am new to the Northcote road area and my child is about to celebrate his 4th birthday party. His nursery class has 40 children in it. I would like to have a relatively stress free party but 40 children seems like too much to handle. I could invite only the children at his table in nursery, but that seems like a small party (about 8 children). As my son (and I) do not know many children outside of nursery yet, it is not an option to exclude the children in nursery from the party and some nice all inclusive party venues nearby have a upper limit of 15-20 children. Can anyone offer advice?
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NYE31
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Re: Four year old's birthday party: how many is too many children!!

Postby NYE31 » Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:34 pm

From experience, I have a 6 year old & a 2 year old, I would invite them all, some won't even bother to reply, some will say yes only to then cancel or not turn up & some won't even bother to let you know that they aren't coming.

If you only invite 20 or so, you could well end up with less than half actually there.
Last edited by NYE31 on Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Alchemy
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Re: Four year old's birthday party: how many is too many children!!

Postby Alchemy » Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:07 pm

Agree 100% with NYE31. I've never had more than 50% of the invited kids show up, and even fewer bother replying to invites (although in my experience, Paper Post invites, where you only have to click, are more reliable than invitations by email).

If you're really concerned, either say that only the first 20 people to confirm will be able to attend (but overbook -- or you'll end up half-empty), or send out the invitations quite late when most people have already made plans...
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NYE31
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Re: Four year old's birthday party: how many is too many children!!

Postby NYE31 » Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:23 pm

The other piece of advice I would share is to see how many you have on the actual day or the day before & if you have space, say siblings are welcome to come along & that way you aren't paying for places/food/party bags that don't get used.

I'm with Alchemy on paperless post or a face book invite if you can but sometimes hard to get contact details for all the parents, if you include your mobile or email, some & I stress only some, may text or email you.

Good luck & have a lovely party :)
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Flowermummy
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Re: Four year old's birthday party: how many is too many children!!

Postby Flowermummy » Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:37 pm

We only did 2 big birthday parties so far, but about 95% of the kids invited came (sent the invites about 1 month in advance).
It seemed to me that in our nursery most parents made an effort to come... so I wouldn't necessarily count on 50% not showing up.
Maybe try one of the bigger venues, like St Luke's church or chatham hall (they are not all inclusive though)
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cdonoghue
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Re: Four year old's birthday party: how many is too many children!!

Postby cdonoghue » Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:39 am

Thanks all! Great advice.
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pie81
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Re: Four year old's birthday party: how many is too many children!!

Postby pie81 » Fri Sep 22, 2017 11:48 am

Like flowermummy we've had nearly all attend, but then it's been a smaller group and so most of the kids and parents knew each other at least a little bit, so I guess that makes them more likely to come.

If you wanted a smaller party (eg just the 8) then one all inclusive option might be eddie katz as you don't have to hire the whole place, just pay per child. and there will be other kids there to make more of an atmosphere.

Bear in mind you may well end up doing a larger party in his reception year...!
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