1st Birthday Party

The key things to deal with are:

Who will be invited?
How many adults will there be?
How many toddlers?
What will you do about gifts?
What food and drinks will you serve?
What time of the day will it be?
Are you going to have any toddler activities?

There really is no need at this stage to have a birthday party theme, but if you want one be sure to look at that link to see what you can find.

Let’s deal with one thing at a time!

Who will be invited?
Take a look at my free printable birthday party invitations

Include:
Friends from your moms and tots class
Grandparents
Cousins, Aunties and Uncles

Determine how many adults and children there will be to plan the catering.

Be sure to know the toddlers that are coming and their food allergies.

If you need to register with a gift registry or perhaps you need to make a list of gifts people can buy. This is always helpful when family ask what they can give your 1 year old.

Once you know about allergies (this is important – trust me! My two sons have fish and banana allergies and lots of children have egg and nut ones!) plan your food

Then set the time of day for your party. Think about when your toddler is the most settled. Is it early morning after the morning nap or late afternoon after their afternoon sleep? Set the time that suits them best. Do not extend this time past 2 hours.

When we celebrated our children’s first birthday party we used to have a sort 1.5hr party for friends and then the grandparents would stay on for a light dinner. This gave them time alone with their precious grandchildren.

As to activities at a 1st birthday party, I think they are largely wasted when little ones are so young. A better idea would be to hire a ball pond, have a sandpit available with clean sand, and offer some box tunnels to crawl through and perhaps have a few pushing toys around for them.

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