Birthday Party

Are you planning a birthday party but can’t decide what to do?  Don’t worry, SyncroReviews got you covered for what you’ll need to host an awesome party.  Here are some ideas and recommendations to make your party amazing.

In this page, you will find ideas for:

1. Selecting a theme & location
2. Party invitations
3. Games
4. Food bar
5. Food & beverage trays
6. Cups/plates/napkins
7. Goody bags/decorations

 

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Selecting a Theme & Location:

Whether you are throwing a birthday party for a child or an adult, themed parties make it easier for your guests to feel comfortable and included in the group.  Of course, you can host a casual party and have no theme, just a relaxed party.  But sometimes, when a guest does not know what to wear to a party they tend to be a little uneasy when they show up.  One way to solve this is to have your guests dress according to a theme.  Themes also makes it easier for decorating your party and for guests to think of gifts to buy for the birthday person.  If your child or birthday person you are throwing the party for has a passion for a certain activity or other things they love then the theme may have been chosen for you already.  If not, here are the 10 most popular birthday party themes:

For kids:

1. Characters – movies, shows, plays, youtube, videogames, books
2. Sports
3. Video Games
4. Animals / Carnival
5. Princess / Beauty salon
6. Cars
7. Lego
8. Nurf Guns
9. Luau
10. Karaoke

For adults:

1. Black & white
2. Costume party (an era, toga/Greek, Western, jungle/Amazon)
3. Masquerade
4. Beach / Luau
5. Casino / Poker
6. Picnic / Karaoke
7. Golf / Sports
8. Hollywood / Movies
9. Wine & Cheese
10. Spa Day

Besides having a theme, there are some prominent ages to celebrate a birthday with a bigger than usual party: 10-12 (pre-teen years); 16 (sweet 16); 18 (final teen year); 21 (young adult); Decade years (30, 40, 50, 60…100).

For locations, you want to think about how many guests you will have at the party.  The bigger the guest list, the bigger the location will need to be.  You may also consider a location that fits well with your theme.  Besides the obvious choice of your house or a friend’s house, here are some other location ideas to have your party at:

1. Clubhouse
2. Restaurant
3. Park / Zoo / Amusement Park
4. Hotel
5. Party facilities: Escape Game Rooms / Trampoline facilities / Indoor Kart Racing
6. Beach or beach house
7. TopGolf
8. Sports bar
9. Casino
10. Day Spa / Beauty salon

 

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Party Invitations:

Once you’ve selected a theme, location and identified the guest list, you must send out party invitations to let your guests know what type of party, when and where you are having the party.  There are essentially two ways to send out invitations: online or physical mail.  Here are the best invitations we have found whether you prefer sending out online or by physical mail.

1. Online invitation: with today’s social media world, people communicate through online channels or electronic devices.  Sending invitations online has grown increasingly popular over the past few years because you can access it anywhere, don’t have to hassle with buying stamps and sending through the post office and the online system organizes the guest list automatically of whose coming or not.  The best social-planning websites for creating, sending and managing online invitations are: Evite, Punchbowl, and PaperlessPost.  The best part is that all three social-planning websites are free to use.  You just sign up so that the site knows who the host/hostess is, find and personalize the right invitation that suits you and provide the guest list email addresses.  Your guests will then get an email with a link to the invitation and they can respond of their attendance and how many people in their party are going.  The websites will then manage the rest for you, including reminders a couple days before the party and storing pictures of the party for all to view.  It’s that simple!
2. Paper invitation: Shutterfly is an online image publishing service and is the best we have found.  The site is user friendly and the service to use the site is free.  However, you do have to pay for the paper invitations (since it will be printed out) and if you want the website to physically mail the invitations to your guests for you there is also a small postage fee for that.  But the beauty of going through the Shutterfly website is that it’s easy to do because all you need to do is pick out the invitation, personalize it and provide the guest list home addresses and the website will take care of the rest for you.  You can do all this at the comfort of your own home or anywhere you may be so this hassle-free process maybe worth your money.

 

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Party Games:

If you chose an amusement park, zoo, day spa or other specific party facility, then you don’t have to worry about games as those facilities will entertain all your guests with their options.  However, if you are having the party at a home or need some ideas, here are the most popular games played at birthday parties.  These games go well with the themes we have recommended earlier.

1. Karaoke – microphones for young children; machines for teenagers; machines for adults
2. Poker Chip Set
3. Cornhole
4. Ring Toss
5. Ladder Ball
6. Horseshoe
7. Bocce Ball
8. Activities/games that come to you – Game Truck; Petting Zoo; Bouncy Houses
9. Board Games
10. Carnival Games

 

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Food Bar:

What’s a party without any food?  Food is one of the essential items to a party and depends on your and your guests’ preferences as to what food should be served.  You will also need to keep in mind any allergies or dietary restrictions for any of your guests.  For ideas, here are the top most served food (besides birthday cake) and beverages at birthday parties.

Children food: for children 10 and under you should consider food that are simpler and are not easily spilled or stained.  Try to keep the menu as healthy as possible.

1. Veggie dips
2. Grilled cheese sandwiches or deli sandwiches
3. Food on a stick – kabobs, corndogs, etc.
4. Mac and Cheese
5. Pizza
6. Hot dogs
7. Cookies
8. Rice crispy treats
9. Brownies
10. Juice boxes, homemade lemonade, water

Teenager – Adult food: for teenagers, young adults and adults the food preparations can be more creative and fun.  There are so many options to choose from, but the most common foods are those that your guests can serve/customize themselves.  Here are the top 10 food and beverages that are served at older birthday parties.

1. Chips & dips / meat & cheese platter / veggie platter
2. Nachos / hot wings
3. Deviled eggs
4. Stuffed mushrooms
5. Taco bar (people can make their own tacos)
6. Fajita bar (people can make their own fajitas)
7. Sliders or hamburgers
8. Sausages / hot dogs / meatballs
9. Cookies / brownies
10. Beer, cocktail, wine or fruity drinks (with or without alcohol)

For recipes and cooking instructions, check out Foodnetwork.

 

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Food and Beverage Trays:

Food and beverage trays come in all sorts of sizes and shapes.  Once you’ve determined the food and beverages you’ll be serving, consider these trays to store and present your items to your guests.  When choosing a tray equipment, keep in mind these 2 important factors to consider: the dimension that will fit the amount of food you’ll have and the space/location of where your food/beverages will be served; the material of the tray(s) as you want it to be of good quality to be able to hold your food/beverage without spilling or leaking.

 

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Cups/Plates/Napkins:

So, you’ve got the food, beverages and trays, now what?  The next step is to prepare yourself with supplies.  You’ll want to get paper or plastic cups, plates, bowls and napkins.  You do not want to use your fine china or other breakables at a party because it will get dropped.  Go for plastic when purchasing knives, forks and spoons so that you can recycle them at the end of the party.  Here are some recommendations for you to consider:

 

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Goody Bags / Decorations:

You are finally at the last step in planning your party!  Consider these goodie bag and decorating items to complete your themed look.  You can also find more ideas and buy the supplies at Party City: themed parties; birthday parties.

Goody Bags

Goody bags are handed out at the end of the party as thank you gifts to guests for coming to the party.  The bags may contain candy, small toys, gift cards, small jewelry and other goodies that may go well with the birthday theme.  You can see a variety of goody bag fillers set HERE.  For goody bag itself, it can come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors.  Here are some ideas for you to consider:

 

Decorations