Tell me if this sounds familiar. First baby. Big, elaborate themed birthday party. You make a ton of food, you make everything perfect. You convince yourself they only get one first birthday party so you have to make it perfect. By the time your second comes around, you have no idea what you were thinking. You realize it was a waste of money to do something that elaborate for a baby that didn’t understand what was going on anyway and was terrified of the birthday candle. But you do want to do something for baby. I mean, they really do only get one first birthday. How do you mark the occasion without going overboard? I’m glad you asked! Let me show you how to have a first birthday on the cheap!
First birthday party – guests
Do you really need everyone showing up to the party? Seriously? All the babies in play group don’t need to come. Just celebrate play group birthdays at play group. Lots of people are just going to overwhelm the birthday child anyway. Keep it just family and maybe a couple close, might as well be family, friends. The less guests you have, the less people you have to feed, the cheaper it is. If you have a big family, this will be more difficult, but under 20 guests would be best, under 10 would be ideal.
First birthday party- food
Do you really need a ton of food? If it works with your child’s nap, do just a cake party. If it doesn’t, only make a couple of things. My second baby’s party only had macaroni and cheese, pigs in a blanket, and a veggie tray. And you know what? It was just enough. Cheaper and easier than making a whole variety. Plus, homemade mac and cheese was one of my baby’s favorites. Make sure you have something your baby will eat and something your guests will like as well. Just keep it simple.
Throwing a first birthday party? Keep it budget friendly! Click To TweetFirst birthday party- decorations
One year olds don’t care about party decorations. They just don’t. They’ll probably try to tear down most of them anyway. Stick with a simple theme, plain colors would be the easiest. If you don’t want to do that, only use the theme with a few things. You don’t need princess plates and princess napkins and a princess tablecloth and….you get the point (if you are doing a princess theme, check out this post). Choose a few of the bigger things to be the theme then keep the smaller things simple, plain, and cheaper.
Did you find a repeating message through all that? Keep it simple. A first birthday party should be simple but fun! There will be time later when your child is older and has an opinion for having more elaborate parties. Keep the first party simple. Other than thinking about cost, the more elaborate and bigger the party is, the more likely the birthday baby is going to be overwhelmed. By keeping the party simple, you are not only keeping costs down, you are helping your baby have a fantastic time!
Jen says
I love these ideas. I am kind of a down low birthday party kind of thrower. I think we did have a cake smash at all of the 1st birthday parties for my kids, but they were generally home made and with just our immediate family attending 🙂
Jen recently posted…The Girlfriends’ Guide To Thyroid Cancer Surgery
Julie says
My kids never did the cake smash thing. One didn’t like to be messy, the other didn’t like cake. Strange, I know. 🙂