Any ideas for a 1st birthday please (in SA)?

Question

My son will be 1 in 3 months and I am not sure what to do. Can anyone suggest a place that caters for kids his age (around Joburg) or any ideas I could make use of at home? Is Spur really such a bad idea? Is a budget of R5000 too much/little? (I mean he only has about a thousand friends and relatives he's not aware of...lol)

Answer 1

Personally I think that is way too much. My sis recently had to go through the same thing. She wanted a party place that charged about 25 - 30 per kid. But then you gotta cater for parents too.

Eventually my mum told her that she thought it was a waste of money and that the party should just be kept as simple as possible and all the kids really remember is the party pack they get to take home.

My sis eventually order some kiddie cakes and snacks from the local spar. Did her own thing with the decor, gave them the best party pack ever and made a big pot of curry and rice for all the parents. It turned out perfectly as my niece was so moody that day, the kids werent interested in the party and at least she took some nice party pics!

All for under R1000.

In the words of my mum, dont waste your money. . .

Answer 2

A krugerrand, one for each birthday, each year. When the kleintjie is 21 he has a nice nest egg.

Answer 3

It would be best to keep it small - having all those people can be tiring for your little one. For our little girl's first birthday, we just invited a couple of close friends and family and had a picnic in the garden. She slept for half the afternoon anyway - she was so exhausted from seeing all the people (about 10 of them) and the adults drank champagne for the rest of the night. A good rule of thumb I read once, is an hour party for each year for the first three years. Keep it to a minimum and rather save the money in an account for his future.

Our local Toys R Us store caters for smallish birthday parties and they have a little playground - try them if you have one nearby.

Seriously though, keep it small - he won't even understand what all the fuss is about.

Answer 4

Mothers tend to overdo their child's first birthday.

He/she will not even remember it...

Best is to actually SAVE THE MONEY for when the child will actually be able to make a memory of it.

(around 6 or 7 years old)

Do some snacks and things for your personal friends, and invite some of the child's friends, who are his age, but remember that kids that age do not enjoy a big birthday cake, so make some cup cakes and arrange them in a colored square with a different color for the number "1"...

Also have some sweets and chips, like cheese curls available.

Let the kids have a fab time with some games, but keep away from hiring clowns or magicians...

At that age kids are scared of them.

Now rather have some soft toys for every child in attendance.

Expect some fights.

The first birthday party is usually for the parents, and not really for the child.

I would leave it out altogether, but on my children's first birthday, all, I had a big cake with lots of icing and I let the child dig in to that with his hands, making a royal mess of it, but it was fun, but by no means the right thing to do...

Answer 5

It will not be so much if you invite a few friends, some sweets, lucky packets, maybe a clown and a ice cream birthday cake  -  he is still young and will not remember much of the day, except the gifts, when he is older it will be more important to make a big show of it for him...he will expect it

Answer 6

I baked my son a 'truck' birthday cake - did look like it with a bit of imagination, with a lot of niknaks, and some other sweets, invited a few family kids.  Then I sat him next to his cake on the floor, and let him enjoy it.  They all had a swell time...  With a minimum budget.

Answer 7

R5 000 is overdoing it, I think we spent the equiavlent of R2 000 for my sons first birthday, try a petting zoo, they usually have set rates for parties as well as party packs etc and for a one year old a morning tea party and cake is more than suffucient bearing in mind he is most probably only learning to walk now and the party is in reality more for the parents and grandparents.....

My sons birthday is also coming up, 27 August, so I also better get started on the party plans......

Answer 8

What R5000...are you mad, what are you going to pay when he is 16, 18 and 21.  No that is just spoiling him.  I would suggest, you hire a clown, bake a cake and save the rest.  After all its your love that will mean something to him not how much you spend.  Please do not spend so much money its really a waste.

Answer 9

I have just had my daughters first birthday party on the 19th April - R5000 is way too much -

We got jumping castles and decorations and lots of guests with lots of presents - at the end of the day she didn't like the jumping castle - the amount of people was a little overwhelming, she still has presents from that day that she hasn't taken out of the plastic - she ended up sleeping most of the day away after all the excitement...

If you want to go out for the day - I believe the kids LOVE Lola land near the East Rand Mall - or as Bull says a petting zoo is also a great idea....

I think Spur is for older children and it would probably be a hand-full running after the kids

If you are going to do it at home - there are a lot of those stores like Crazy Stores that sell cheap toys for ALL the kids and sweet stores can make you up little party packs

Good luck - you gonna need it....

Answer 10

I believe a first birthday is very important, however R5,000 sounds a bit high. On all my boys first birthdays we invited only family and close friends, and we held it at our house.

Spur and all the other venues cater for kids older than 2. Your little one will not be able to use all the equipment you pay for.

Buy a proper cake, and some toys, put the rest of the money in a monymarket account, and hold a big bash for him on his second or third birthday.