Why at-home parties go wrong
It's nearly always the same reason: nothing is holding that middle hour together. The children arrive, they eat, and then there are forty minutes where nobody quite knows what happens next. Every idea below has something at its heart to keep things flowing.
Ages 4 to 6
Keep it to around ninety minutes and keep it active. A decorate-your-own crown or wand table, a simple treasure hunt with picture clues and a dance break all work brilliantly. Pamper parties work at this age too, as long as they feel like dressing up: foot spas, glitter tattoos and silly hair go down a storm.
Ages 7 to 9
This is the sweet spot for making things! Lip balm making, bath bombs, decorating a cake each, or a pamper party where they do most of it themselves. At this age they love taking home something they made.
Ages 10 to 12
Tweens want it to feel a bit grown up, without being babyish or too grown up, which is a fine line! Perfume making, a make-up bag to personalise, and a polaroid camera with a wall to stick the photos on are all winners. A sleepover works well if there's an activity anchoring the first couple of hours.
A quick word on food
Do it at the start or the end, never the middle. The middle is where the party lives!
If you'd love the whole thing taken off your hands
That's exactly what we do. We arrive with everything, run the whole party, and pack it all away again. You get the photos, the happy faces and none of the stress.