If You’re Not Spending £1,000 on Your Child’s Birthday Party, You’re Doing It Wrong

Children's Birthday Parties Should Be Expensive

Let's just get that out of the way.

It's your child's birthday. The anniversary of their actual birth. And you expect to celebrate it with a supermarket cake and a few balloons?

Embarrassing.

A proper children's birthday party requires standards.

You'll need a venue, obviously.

Then there's the balloon arch. Not balloons. A balloon arch. There is a difference.

You'll need coordinated tableware, personalised decorations, themed invitations, matching banners, professionally decorated cupcakes and a cake that looks spectacular in photographs but causes genuine emotional distress when somebody suggests cutting it.

Then there's food.

Party bags.

Entertainment.

Outfits.

Decorations.

Twenty-seven tiny bottles of water that approximately three children will actually drink.

And at least one emergency supermarket trip because you've somehow forgotten something absolutely essential despite thinking about this party continuously for six weeks.

It's their special day, after all.

And if social media has taught us anything, it's that childhood memories are directly proportional to the size of the balloon installation.

Right?

So, How Much Should You Spend?

£100?

£300?

£500?

£1,000?

Here's the slightly inconvenient answer:

Whatever you can comfortably afford.

There isn't a correct amount.

There isn't a minimum spend required to demonstrate adequate parental love.

And nobody is waiting at the venue door with a clipboard deducting points because the party bags contain Haribo rather than personalised wooden keepsakes.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with throwing an enormous birthday party.

If you can afford it, enjoy organising it and your child will love it, then that's fantastic.

The problem isn't throwing big parties.

It's the pressure of feeling like we have to provide them.

When Did Children's Parties Become a Competitive Sport?

Social media has given us access to thousands of brilliant ideas.

It's also given us thousands of opportunities to compare ourselves with other parents.

You see somebody else's beautifully photographed party and you don't see the budget, preparation, circumstances or chaos happening five minutes outside the frame.

You just see what they created.

And suddenly the village hall you've booked doesn't feel quite enough.

So you add something.

Then something else.

Then another £20 here.

Another £35 there.

And suddenly a child's birthday party has developed its own procurement department.

Venue. Food. Drinks. Cake. Decorations. Invitations. Party bags. Entertainment. Extra guests.

It adds up frighteningly quickly.

But children aren't adding it up.

Ask Your Child What Actually Matters

This is where children are wonderfully inconvenient.

You can spend three weeks carefully coordinating decorations and discover afterwards that their favourite part of the entire party was when Oliver fell over while playing musical statues.

Children tend to remember experiences.

Their friends being there.

Something that made everybody laugh.

Doing an activity they genuinely love.

Feeling like the centre of attention for a couple of hours.

And, naturally, cake.

So before trying to make everything special, decide what actually matters to your child.

Maybe they desperately want a particular venue.

Maybe there's a cake they've been talking about for months.

Maybe they want to invite their whole class.

Maybe they're completely obsessed with Minecraft and would happily sit inside an undecorated cardboard box if you gave them Minecraft and nineteen friends.

Pick your priorities.

You don't have to spend heavily on every single part of the day.

What Are You Actually Paying for With Party Entertainment?

This is where comparing children's party entertainment prices gets surprisingly difficult.

Two prices can look completely different while actually including very different things.

Before booking entertainment, check:

• Is the price for the whole session or per child?

• How many children can take part?

• How long is the actual activity?

• Is all the equipment included?

• Are setup and pack-down included?

• Is a venue included?

• What will you still need to organise yourself?

A £100 package isn't necessarily cheaper than a £150 package if you're going to discover another £80 of extras afterwards.

And a provider offering entertainment isn't necessarily offering a complete birthday party.

Which brings us neatly to what we do.

Why We Keep Our Minecraft Parties Simple

At TMC Computing, we don't provide your child's entire birthday party.

And that's deliberate.

You arrange the venue.

You decide whether you're serving sandwiches cut into Minecraft Creeper shapes or chucking twelve pizzas onto a table.

You choose the cake.

You choose the decorations.

You choose whether you're creating spectacular personalised party bags...

...or handing every child a packet of sweets on their way out and calling it a successful day.

We handle the Minecraft bit.

Our Minecraft party entertainment is priced by time rather than by the number of children.

One hour: £75

Two hours: £150

Up to 20 children can take part.

We bring the equipment, set everything up, run the Minecraft session and pack everything away afterwards.

No calculating £X per child.

No suddenly increasing the price because another friend has been invited.

No need for parents to supply devices.

It's designed to be an add-on to the celebration you're already creating rather than an expensive all-inclusive party package.

Because we'd rather parents decide where their party budget goes.

Your Child Does Not Need the Pinterest Party

They can have one.

Absolutely.

Go wild.

Get the balloon wall.

Order the incredible cake.

Hire the beautiful venue.

Personalise everything that stays still long enough to have a name printed on it.

There is nothing wrong with making a huge fuss over your child's birthday.

But there's also nothing wrong with not doing any of that.

A bigger budget doesn't automatically create a better childhood memory.

Your child isn't going to sit down afterwards and calculate the monetary value of their birthday.

They're going to remember who came.

They're going to remember what they did.

They're going to remember what made them laugh.

They're going to remember feeling celebrated.

And they'll probably remember the cake.

Because some things genuinely are important.

View our Minecraft parties