Birthday parties can be the highlight of any weekend. Children and families alike love the opportunity to gather, celebrate the birthday child, and enjoy some organized fun. One of the best things you can do as the host is to ensure that there are enough planned activities to occupy everyone during the party. Planning out crafts for your celebration will ensure that everyone has a great time.
Crafts at Any Age
From cookie decorating to jewelry making, and choosing stamps to accessorize your own take home hoodie, you can plan a craft to excite any child. One of the first things to consider when choosing a craft is the average age of your guests. For younger crowds, activities such as making slime, painting with nontoxic washable paint, and decorating cookies and cupcakes are a safe bet. Children will love the chance to get creative and maybe even a bit messy at the birthday party location. Parents will love that the slime creation is happening outside of their home for the day. Younger children can also do activities like jewelry making, just ensure that anything you lay out for guests is not a choking hazard for your youngest invitees.
For an older crowd, party swag that they can customize is always a huge hit. For example, we did a sleepover birthday party for a child’s fourteenth birthday. She and her friends love denim jackets, so the birthday child and I bought some jackets for her friends and ordered some iron on stamps that she knew her friends would love. The girls had a great time customizing jackets to take home after the party. You could do something similar for baseball hats, t-shirts, or jerseys. Children (and adults) of all ages love the chance to customize something to bring home from a party.
Aligning to Your Theme
Crafts for a party feel extra special if they are aligned with the party’s theme. For example, if you are hosting a Thanksgiving event for younger children, and you know that your guests will want to do some cookie decorating, you can order or bake sugar cookies in the shape of turkeys for children to decorate.
Similarly, if you are hosting a Star Wars party for younger children and you know they love to paint, you can order or make laser cut characters to match the theme of the celebration. Guests really notice and appreciate these small moments where they can see that the theme runs through all aspects of the party.
If the party does not have a theme, or if the theme is broader, you can align crafts to the birthday child’s interests. For example, if your child loves to make or mix slime, you can set up a safe space for that, while planning ahead with plastic tablecloths or work trays to minimize mess. You can also design a craft space that you know will appeal to the guests. For example, if you know the majority of the invitees are on the golf team together, maybe they want to make special headcovers for their clubs. Ultimately, children will have a great time getting creative with any craft.
Preparing Your Craft Stations
Finally, when choosing a craft for your party, you will want to consider signage, the setup required, and whether or not children will need adult support and monitoring to be successful.
Nothing is worse than planning out a craft or activity and then realizing at the end of the party that no one noticed or took part. It is important to create visible signage for all activities. Especially if the craft is for a party with younger guests, the sign should be large and should give children guidance on what to do. You should also set up craft stations in an area where they will be visible to all.
If you are throwing a large party, or know that you will not have a lot of support, it is best to choose a less complex/less messy craft like beading that you know all guests will be able to tackle independently.
If, however, you are hiring people to assist with the party or have enlisted family and friend support, you can get a bit more adventurous. For example, if you want to have children create custom airbrush t-shirts during the party, you can hire a professional from Sandra and Friends in the Bay Area to assist with all of your airbrush needs during the party. Or if you want to set up a slime creation station for guests 7 and under, you might ask a grandparent who is coming to the party to stand at the station and help children mix, label, and place their slime in a container when they are done. This can be a great way for grandparents to meet your child’s friends and can provide them with a role during the party, which is often welcomed.
Wrapping Up
When choosing a craft, you want to align the activity to the age of your guests so everyone can be successful and safe. You also want to consider the theme of the party and the general interests of the birthday child and guests.
Crafts are a great way to offer up an additional activity at a party with the added benefit of requiring minimal oversight once they are set up. Finally, they can feel like a bonus party favor. Who doesn’t want to leave a party with a new hand painted Darth Vader magnet for the fridge!