Eimear Hutchinson: Winter birthday party ideas

WITH four children, it goes without saying that birthday parties feature regularly in our house.

We have hosted our fair share and to be honest we love doing them at home. That said, there is a great attraction in doing them somewhere else when you don’t have to tidy up before and after!

The jury is out on which is actually cheaper; on the face of it, a party in a play centre is expensive per head, but in reality, by time you’ve bought the food, the decorations and the entertainment for hosting at home, it probably all works out much the same.

We really do love hosting parties and it seems to be the option the girls go for, especially when they are a little younger. They love the idea of having their friends over to play and even though, as parents, it may seem a touch stressful getting the house tidy and decorated, in a child’s mind that all adds to the fun and excitement.

We are gearing up to host another birthday party for our almost seven-year-old in a few weeks so, given the turn in the weather, here are some ways to keep a house full of children entertained during the wet and cold winter months when they can’t go outdoors.

While every party is different in this house, we do stick to a few general ‘rules’ that work well for managing one at home. We set the start time somewhere around noon; it’s hard work trying keep a child patient until 3pm and a noon start means the timing of the food works well for lunchtime. We never leave the parties go on longer than two hours. We did once, it was supposed to be a movie party so we said we’d make it three hours long, the whole lot of them lost interest in the movie after about 15 minutes and I can assure you that was a long two hours and 45 minutes when we had no games organised as a back-up.

My daughter has decided she wants an art party, I’m at pains to figure out where she got the idea for a creative party? Joking! I did rope in my sister, who is a teacher, to help advise on this because she probably has a better idea of what would work with a group of children, as opposed to what I can do with my own children individually.

When the children arrive, I always like to have some colouring out on the table, that way they are all ushered into the same area to a relatively calm activity. This works particularly well when hosting a party with small children that might be nervous’ everyone can connect over some colouring pencils, and it lends itself to a less chaotic start to a party.

I bought some blank cardboard jigsaws on Amazon and this is the activity I am going to use at the next party. They can draw a design on the jigsaw, colour it in, and take it home so they have their own, handmade jigsaw puzzle.

The first activity I am going to do with my six and seven year old party guests is one my eldest daughter made at a party she went to many years ago. She still has the piece she made hanging in her bedroom so it was upon her suggestion that we are running with the idea. I have one small canvas for each child and the idea is loosely inspired by the concept of pointillism, which is a fancy way of describing painting by dots.

I am going to use either vinyl or laminated shapes and letters, the children can pick the design they want, then it is stuck onto the canvas. The children dot away with the paint over the shape using foam stampers, their fingers, cotton buds or cotton rounds. When they are finished their dotting, they lift the shape away and it stands out amongst the paint dots.

I have tried decoupage before and I know the girls have all done some form of it in school over the years so they’re all familiar with the concept. It basically involves sticking tissue paper or patterned napkins onto anything really, generally using Mod Podge (you can get this in The Range or Vibes and Scribes).

If it were the springtime, I would have them decoupage little terracotta pots and send them home with some sunflower seeds to plant, but in October I am going to get them to decoupage some little cardboard trinket boxes. Most of her little friends are getting their ears pierced around this age so I thought it would make for a cute and special jewellery box.

We also going to do some cupcake decorating, it is such a simple one to do and usually a bit of messy fun. It doesn’t take long so it can be a nice one to have them do as the parents arrive, so that when the sugar kicks in from all the sprinkles, it is not your problem!