How to Have the Best Slumber Party

When growing up, birthday parties and slumber parties were the most memorable of my childhood. The planning of the party was my favorite part, with the invitations, the decorating, the schedule.  I even liked the clean up.  And let me tell you, I can teach anyone to throw the most amazing 12 year old slumber party in the world.


The first step is the theme of the party; thus starting the ball rolling.  Once you have decided what theme you will be using for the party most of the other steps fall into place rather easy. If it is a birthday party that generally is the most simple one. You can do several other options, for boys it  may be a monster truck theme, for girls a princess party. After you have picked the theme of the party, you are ready to invite other children.


When making your invitations, you want to make sure to include the theme, for example, the last party I threw was for a musically inclined child. She wanted everything musical for this party. So for the invites we cut out 100 musical notes and wrote in glitter on the front you are invited, inside when, where and what the children were going to expect, such as music extravaganza. “Bring your favorite CD,” the inside said. You want to make sure to send your invites out at least 2 weeks before the party to give families plenty of time to plan and for you to decide how the children are coming to the party.  You will also want to make plans for how the children will be leaving the party, time of pick up or if you are dropping them off.


Your next step will be to get decorations. It is very important to get the child’s thoughts on this as it is their party, my best suggestion is to have them draw up their idea. It does two things, it makes them feel very much a part of the planning and second it gets the ideas flowing. It does not mean you have to get a three tier chocolate fountain but making the party theirs is very important.  You can also help them plan, if they do want a chocolate fountain what they are willing to compromise to get it, staying inside the budget planned.


Once you have the decorations and invites are out you get to decide on food.  If it is overnight you need dinner, snacks and breakfast for the children. I suggest easy finger foods for all three meals so you don’t have a bunch of dishes to do and also so they aren’t making a mess all over the house with food.  Pizza is a generally easy to get and clean up after meal for the children.  For breakfast you can make it buffet style, large plates of eggs, hash browns and bacon letting the children pick what they want. Also you can purchase plates, cups, silverware and napkins to match or go along with the theme.


The last thing and probably the most important thing is goodie bags for the children. In the example of a music themed party, little bags or boxes with music notes on it is a plus. I also suggest to have plenty of music related gifts, usually the whole bag should be less than 10 dollars for each child.


If you can stick to this plan you will have several happy little kids, all excited about slumber parties at your house until they are grown.  And the time that you have spent on this will ensure your child knows how important their ideas can be as well.  You are also instilling in them the idea of organizing and staying within a budget, but making it fun so they do not even notice they are learning!