Any birthday is worthy of celebration, and we’re sure you will want to give your little one a celebration that they will remember for the finest reasons for years to come. That is likely to mean going beyond just having a few balloons and some of their best friends over. But how can you be sure of your child’s birthday party being a success? 

Taking the below steps will help ensure that you organise a magical birthday party for your child, without too much stress or worry for you. 

Discuss your child’s preferences with them 

Depending on your child’s age, you might sit them down approximately two months before the date of their birthday, and let them know what ideas you already have for their birthday party – including the theme, the venue, who could be invited, and so on. 

In the process, you could also take the chance to ask your child what else they would like the party to include. This will mark the start of the formal process of organising the party. 

Decide on the theme and style of the party 

This will be a step of even more fundamental importance than the venue, given that it will profoundly influence so many of the other decisions you make for your little one’s birthday party. And some parents or guardians will find it easier than others to settle on a theme. 

If your child loves a certain media franchise, or perhaps cars or trains, picking a theme might be very easy. Alternatively, if your child’s birthday is close to another major event or festival such as Halloween, you might draw upon this for the colours and theme of the birthday party. 

Put together a guest list 

Not every child will necessarily want to invite every single one of their classmates to the party; they might be more comfortable having just six to 10 of their closest friends present. 

Determining what the guest list will look like at an early stage will be crucial, as this will greatly affect such things as how much you will need to spend overall on organising the party, and the venue you choose. 

Decide on a suitable venue  

Of course, there might be nothing wrong with holding the birthday party at your family home – but doing so could also leave you with a lot of tidying up to do! 

Nor is every single home necessarily well set-up to host a child’s birthday party. For these reasons, it is also perfectly acceptable to hire somewhere like a restaurant or kids’ soft play area to serve as the party space. 

Send out the invites 

Once you have secured the venue for a particular date and time, you will finally be in a position to start sending out the invites. 

Whether these will be physically crafted card or paper invites or e-vites, you should probably be sending them out about four weeks before the party. This will help ensure the majority of those invited will probably be able to make the event. 

Even before this, though, you should probably be informally checking whether any particularly important people – such as your child’s best friend – will definitely be able to make the date. This should be done before the more formal and serious preparations, so that no time, money, or effort is wasted. 

Obtain the essential party supplies in good time 

We mentioned above that approximately two months prior to your child’s birthday date is a good ‘baseline’ for the start of party preparations. So, it is from around this date that you might start to bring together a lot of the key essentials. 

You won’t necessarily obtain all of those supplies at the same time, however. When it comes to items like the birthday candles, cake decorations and cake toppers we have in our own store, for instance, you might buy about two weeks in advance, to allow plenty of time for them to reach you (we do our bit by aiming to despatch all orders within 24 hours of a working day). 

You might take the chance at around the same time to add sweets to your shopping basket such as the Children Selection we offer in the confectionery section of our store. But you might wait until a week or a few days before the party before purchasing certain other food items, so that you can be sure their use-by date hasn’t passed by the time of the party. 

There you go – a (relatively) comprehensive and handy guide to organising a truly magical and memorable, but also practical and affordable, birthday party for your child. Don’t forget to turn to Zawzor for many of the key party items – and so much more besides when it comes to online shopping in the UK.