| |

Considering a Birthday Party Outside the Home? Read this!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure and Privacy Policy.

Lucians 3rd Birthday 076

For my son Lucian’s third birthday we had planned on doing something special. For his first two birthdays we just had a small  party with family only at our house. This year I was fortunate to win a birthday party at our local aquarium during a local winter carnival. That took all the guesswork out of what to do with the party.

Having a party at another venue besides your own house definitely has its advantages. Some of them include:

  • Built in entertainment!  This is especially good for the smaller children who aren’t ready to play games. Our aquarium had a scavenger hunt but we passed on doing it given the ages of most of the guests. It really wasn’t necessary anyway. There was no chance at boredom.

Lucians 3rd Birthday 031

DSCF6087

  • You don’t have to clean your house! Need I say more?
  • Plenty of space! No worrying about seating for everyone or how you’ll pack everyone in.

DSCF6106

  • Most will do the decorating for you. That was fabulous not to have to worry about decorating the room.
  • No issues with parking. At our house there is no off-street parking and we have a long but skinny driveway.  This always makes logistics tough.
  • They usually provide party gifts for guests and for the birthday child. Lucian got a shirt and all the other children got boats.

DSCF6143

  • Clean up is a lot simpler. You don’t have to worry about your house getting destroyed, with toys all over!
  • Lucians 3rd Birthday 046Guests were free to further explore the aquarium after the event was over.
  • The kids could actually learn something at the party if you chose a zoo, aquarium, children’s museum, etc. Other places might have  other benefits, like exercise!

Lucians 3rd Birthday 039

Of course there are a few cons that go along with having a birthday party someplace other than a private residence. Some observations of mine:

  • Expense of the party itself. While many aspects are easier and it can be more convenient, there is the added cost involved.
  • Limited choices with food. Some places may require you have them cater. Ours had a kitchen area but with only a sink and refrigerator. Unless we wanted to do all cold foods or use a crock pot we had to have something delivered. Pizza seemed the logical choice but it isn’t Lucian’s favorite and was a bit expensive. Not such a big deal for us since the party  was paid for but it could be a deal breaker for some.

DSCF6105

  • Potential costs for guests. Our aquarium party included 2 adults and 10 children paid. All other adults had to pay to get into the aquarium. It was a discounted rate but still $8. This can be awkward to invite adults to your party and then ask them to pay so either you fork over the money yourself, limit it to children only or ask adults cover this if they wish to attend.
  • You still have to bring a lot of stuff to the party. Instead of having everything conveniently at your house, now you must remember everything you might need and haul it there.
  • Guests can get lost/distracted/loose track of time and finding everyone when you are ready to get the festivities going can be difficult. I highly recommend stating a time for everyone to be back ahead of time so they are free to explore as other guests arrive.
  • Time limitations. We had the room for a half hour before the party and the party could only last for two hours. Not a lot of time for exploring, playing games, eating, opening presents, having cake, etc. We felt pretty rushed towards the end and went a little over on time for cleanup but this didn’t seem to be an issue.

Overall, we were very pleased with the experience. Since Lucian’s birthday is in the summertime, next year I’d like to utilize our large yard instead. But I’m certainly going to keep this is mind for the future. It was still less stressful than having a party at our house and I think all our guests enjoyed themselves. It was nice to have something for the adults to do and I really appreciated the extra space for everyone!

Have you ever had a party outside your home? How was the experience?  Feel free to share!

5 Comments

  1. We’ve done it both ways, and for us the parties at the house are less stressful. My oldest has a summer birthday and his parties end up being more like keggers LOL. We get a bunch of food, cook out, I fill the kiddie pool and get out the slip n slide, and everyone has fun. I have a winter birthday, but my mom let me celebrate my half birthday in the summer with a party so we had more options.

  2. My family lives in 2 different cities & I used to try to do a huge party for everyone. (I have a large family!) It was insane to try to have 50+ people over! This year, we’ve started doing 2 parties for each child. My son has a birthday close to a cousin’s so we do their parties together in the other town (cuts costs because I split it with my brother/sis-in-law!). Then we just go out to dinner with the Grandma & Grandpa & Aunt that live here. For my daughter, we do the opposite: bigger party here & a small party in the other town. It seems to work well for us & really cuts down on the amount of people in my house for a party!!!

  3. We have had it both ways for our son, Logan. His birthday is in November in New England and to say that the weather can be unpredictable is an understatement. It may snow or it could be in the 70s. We have found that while it is somewhat convenient to entertain the kiddos at home the older they get the more things they need to do to burn off their energy. Our family does not live close by so we have limited family that attends leaving more room for his friends. Once a large group of them get together chaos begins then I get worried about what things are going to get broken. This year we are planning a party at a site called Teamworks that has a blow-up obstacle course for the first 1/2 hr then you go upstairs and they have 2 “bouncies” – one for 5 and under and the other 6 and up. There is a room so the kids (and adults) can play with soft yarn balls. It is closed off with windows so you can see the fun. There are also 4-5 TVs kids can play video games on. They supply the food, drinks and popcorn. You have to bring the cake. It is pretty reasonable for 2.5 hrs of fun!!!! We went to a B-day party there over the summer and were happy to find the place!!! You also pay additional for the adults should they choose to stay. The package we purchased is for 16 kids and you pay a little more per child over that. It is coming up soon!!!! This reminds me, I should start the invitations soon!

  4. I think the best part of this whole thing is, like you said, not having a huge mess to clean afterward! To drive home and have it all be super clean… awesome!

  5. those are good tips and I love the no mess ! You are a professional party thrower:) what lucky kids you have..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *