Party venues
From bowling alleys to soft-play centres, there are many different places you could host your child's birthday party. Read our advice on the pros and cons of hiring birthday party venue.
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The pros & cons of booking a venue
Pros:
A party ‘venue’ can cover everything from your own home to a soft play centre so there’s plenty of choice, to suit all budgets. Have a look at our local party venue listings for ideas. If your child is under three he or she will be enchanted by the idea of having a small group of friends over to play for an hour or two with a birthday tea so you can save yourself some money and keep your child’s early birthday celebrations small and simple.
As children get older you may prefer to idea of moving the celebration out of home territory! But with so many options available – from swimming pool parties to trips to the local pizza parlour – you’ll never be lost for inspiration.
Cons:
As your child gets older and goes to nursery, pre-school or primary school, you may find that word gets around about what you’re planning for your child’s special day, and you may feel obliged to invite the whole class.
The more children you have, the costlier the celebration can become, especially when you start tallying up the cost of hiring your chosen venue, buying party food, presents for games and gifts for party bags.
Some venues – large soft-play centres, for example – won’t necessarily be hire-able for just your party. You may have an allocated time-slot to play, alongside other groups of children.
Sometimes, especially with pre-school children, you can find that the ‘flashier’ the venue the more overwhelmed your child can become by the whole experience so have realistic expectations of the amount of real ‘enjoyment’ your child and his or her friends will actually get from a particular venue. Sometimes just lots of space - such as that provided by a church or village hall – can be entertainment enough. Find a hall to hire near you.
Popular venues can get booked up quickly so you’ll need to get in quick if you’ve set your heart on a particular place.
