When my daughter turned 7 last year and she wanted a party i caved and said yes.. This time of year for me is very hard as her birthday is the 22nd of december and as you can imagine money is tight and its a very busy time of year..

Friends start to go away on holidays and many people find it hard to attend. Here are a few ideas:

Dont be afraid to have a party on a work day where possible after school i did mine on the friday afternoon at 4 till 6 some parents preferred this as they like to have some family time on the weekends

Limit the number of guests they can invite my daughter was allowed to have 7 i stuck with one for each year

Keep it simple and cheap I went to my local bargain shop and found that they have alot of little gift ideas really cheap to put in take home bags and in a pass the parcel and to give out as prizes

Food can just be easy and quick but not too much incase the parents still want to feed them when they get home

I made tiny cupcakes in chocolate truffle cases the really small ones they were a huge hit and didnt last long at all i also just did cocktail frankfurts lollies of course fairy bread and some chips. If there are adults attending put extra on or make some mini quiches. Have some drinks for the kids of course. Elizabeths cake was a fish ( see picture) This was suprisingly easy to do just cut and stick together with icing however it is easier to cut the peices out when the cake has been in the fridge for an hour or so.

Games and some old fashioned favourites instead of an egg a spoon race we did a golf ball and spoon race they sit nicely and then they arent running in messy egg when one breaks. I did the classic pass the parcel. I also found in my supermarket some giant ballons i tied streamer to them and then tied them to the kids ankles. They then had to run around and pop each others ballon while trying to stop theirs being popped. Once their ballon was popped they had to sit out.

This worked really well for me and all up it only ended up costing me around 60 dollars i was very impressed and Elizabeth was very happy with the way her party had gone a kids party only really has to have food and a few game and 7 year old kids are happy in my experience anyway.

Hopefully someone will find this useful...

Thanks for taking the time to read my advice