Children's Parties

[$ally]

I have a couple of vintage children's party books, one from 1924 and another from 1954. The games, recipes, home-made decorations, favors, hats and even costumes were much more involved than today. That was before party stores. Now parents can just throw kids in the McDonalds ball pit, if they are in a pinch.
I guess I was a bit old-fashioned because I always had a theme and games planned. My neice (my age) is the same way with her boys. She goes all out.
Just curious how all of our FL parents go about their kids birthday and holiday celebrations?

====

 

[dhermann1]

1954

Speaking of 1954, for my 8th birthday, 12/24/54, my mom rented a 16mm projector and some silent funny movies. The one I remember had a bunch of chimpanzees playing and having a party. As I recall she also got the bright idea, which had somehow been passed among the mothers of the neighborhood, that it would be good to have a "healthy" birthday (this in 1954, mind you). The bright idea was to get two unsliced loaves of bread, one white and one whole wheat, and slice them laterally several times. Then you spread stuff like creme cheese, deviled ham, etc, between the alternating layers. Then you cover the whole thing with creme cheese, as "icing". Needless to say this went over like a three million pound lead balloon with yours truly. I felt VERY gypped. As I recall I got a real cake out of the deal. lol

 

[$ally]

Funny you should mention that. I have this vintage recipe card that sounds similar:

My Mom had saved some tiny wooden circus animals that fit little birthday cake candles. I loved them so much that we used them for one of my parties, even though they were "old". I doubt if she still has them now.

 

[Elaina]

It depends to be honest on what my son wants. This year his dad threw a fit and hosted it, and my son said he wanted me to do them from here on out. I got a call an hour before it was to start with him in tears asking me to save it.

I've done everything from planned all day partied to Chuck E. Cheese gag events. Usually they make a mess, eat too much and go somewhere else for the sugar highs.

Holidays are true EVENTS at my house. I start preparing the 1st of Nov. and Dec. and cook most of the month. Luckily I have a freezer. Too much food, too much of everything, and usually I have a house full of people that have no where else to go, although the actual sit down part is family only. For the most part.

 

[dhermann1]

Funny you should mention that. I have this vintage recipe card that sounds similar:

My Mom had saved some tiny wooden circus animals that fit little birthday cake candles. I loved them so much that we used them for one of my parties, even though they were "old". I doubt if she still has them now.

GAK!!! That's it! The nightmare vision of my childhood! Don't ever inflict such a cruel thing on an unsuspecting child! It's NOT A CAKE!!!!! It's bread and cheese! GAK! YUCKY POO!!! UGH!!!
I suppose it would be fine for grown ups, tho.

 

[Paisley]

So that's what meatcake looks like. It looks like something from the Gallery of Regrettable Food.

 

[dhermann1]

Try harrowing traumatic horror!!!
(For an 8 year old.)

 

[olive bleu]

i have always had my kids parties at home.Both my boys have winter birthdays, so last summer i had a big bash in the backyard in their honour.We had it at night and we had lights strung everywhere and bamboo torches lit.I even had lights strung from the clothesline.We had a barbecue and had a big galvanized tub with ice in it for drinks.we played croquet if you can believe it.we let them stay up late,played music and danced. it was a blast!

 

[$ally]

Sounds wonderful Elaina and Olive.

Sorry DHerman, but you need to face the trauma and find closure.
According to the back of the PTS Loaf recipe card, this takes an hour to make. Layers between bread include mayo egg salad with pimento, sour cream with walnuts, salmon paste with chopped celery, and cream cheese with olives, garnished with food dye tinted cream cheese, radish roses, carrot curls and (apparently from the picture) daisies. Every child's favorite foods.

 

[dhermann1]

I don't know if you've followed the career of Koko, the gorilla who learned sign language, but her made up word for radishes is "cry hurt food". I rest my case.
(I'm sorry, am I hijacking this thread? It's a very good idea for a thread. I'll just have a few extra sessions with my therapist, and work this all out. Bye, now.)

 

[RetroMom]

I too have always had parties for my kids at home. I have 2 winter (January and March) and 2 summer (Twins - July). I always have theme parties and the kids always have a blast, I do plan them carefully and start about several months in advance. I think its a shame, where I live almost no one has a "home party" anymore and all the parties end up exactly the same at the same place! I get comments from parents about the work involved and the mess, but I go into it knowing that my house will be a mess that day and deal with it. It's only once a year and when they hit 10, the parties become just a few friends for dinner and a movie or sleepover.

I got the nicest compliment this past winter when I ran into the mother of a boy who had come to one of my son's 5th birthday parties (he is now 13). I haven't seen her in years, and the first thing she said was that she remembered that great "Space party" I threw all those years ago

 

[~*Red*~]

ugh... Chuck E Cheese. Never.

My Natty has the unfortunate luck of being born 3 days after Christmas.. just like my sister. And I remember the trouble she had trying to get people to go to any of her birthday parties...it was really quite depressing. Although She definitely made out with the presents.. you'd think she get gipped, but really got much more becasue no one could remember what was for her birthday and what was for Christmas. ha ha!

Natty is only 4, and we have always had home parties for her. And so far, only twice. Once when she was 1 and once when she was 3. I make crafts for the kids to do, we have a pinata, and we always do it with family. Luckily she has a bunch of girl cousins all close in age, and they have a great time.

The times when we don't have a party, she and my sister make a day of it, as they share the same birthday..which is good fun for the both of them. My rule is, NO CHUCK E CHEESE, or places like that, and she can have small parties, or if she wants, she can pick one friend (when she gets older) and we can do something extra fun for the day.. say.. Knotts, Disneyland.. something like that. I like to do the parties, make the food, we go crazy, especially with the family. It's all good fun. But you will never get me into that dreaded rat hole.

 

[olive bleu]

Thank God, my kids are now past the age where they are into going to places like that! I never took them anyway, but my goodness what mayhem! and don't get me started on the lootbags! Around here one has to take out a loan just to keep up with the neighbours.

 

[$ally]

I did those type of parties twice. Not for holidays but birthdays. I won a Bumper Bowling party at the alley, in a drawing, when my son was in kindergarten. Later I won the Dizzy Bat Race, at a Toro's baseball game (I ran like the wind), the prize was a party at Golf'n'Stuff. It was easier, but there is something hectic and un-nerving about the party room amid the chaotic fun house atmosphere.

 

[gluegungeisha]

My mom used to throw the BEST birthday parties for me and my sister!

Once we created our own version of the Olympics, with competitions we made up. We had a few other more traditional birthday parties as well. My mom always made the cakes, and I decorated them -- NO grocery store cakes!! Those always have the worst icing.

 

[big kahuna]

I fondly remember the kids parties from the 60's and 70's..

The hosting mom would decorate a cake, sometimes with a theme (pirates was a boy's favorite). Kool-Aid. Ice cream in little plastic cups with the wooden paddle-spoon. You would wear the paper cone hat and play pin the tail, duck-duck-goose, etc

... and for gifts.... remember the wheel-o, matchbox cars, hotwheels or sizzlers, big Tonka or Buddy L trucks, cowboy gun and holster sets, etc. Nothing that needed batteries, just imagination to have fun.

No video games, chuckee cheese, loud, obtrusive music.

Sigh....

 

[Helen Troy]

My mother is a writer, and her book-debut (coming out in the early 90s) was a "how-to"book on theme birthday parties for children. It was filled with "recipes" for great, cheap, easy to make-parties for kids in various ages. We are four kids, so all these parties was tried and tested many times. Examples are:"Travelers Party"(Around the world), "Pirate Party", "Circus Party", "Ghost Party" and, one of my favorites, "The Detective Party."

All these parties included costume-made, decorated food, (like Gingerbread Men decorated with stripes to look like prison inmates, and handcuffs made out of donuts and licorice for the Detective Party), home-made decorations, and party games. (Usually some kind of treasure hunt.) Often, part of the entertainment of the party was to rehearse and make some kind of show, (fitting with the theme,) and then perform it for all the parents of the kids when they came to pick them up. The best of these was the big Circus Show that concluded the Circus Party, complete with tickets and popcorn sellers, an Elephant, (two kids wearing a blanket and a home-made mask made out of a cardboard box and a bicycle tire,) a Strong Man bending iron bars, (painted cardboard tubes,), clowns and everything. The parents was so impressed! My mum made the best parties!

The best part of her publishing this book, was that it needed lots of pictures. My father was the appointed photographer, and to get enough pictures from all the different parties, we ha a wonderful couple of months where we invited all our friends over for a party a couple of times a week!

Oh, and I forgot the best party memory: Once, my little brother had the Ghost Party. We had recently moved into a new house, and had not yet gotten around to painting the brown walls in the living room white. So, my parents thought: "Since the walls are going to be painted white anyway, why not decorate them with ghosts for the party?" So, we painted huge ghosts on all the walls, and had the most impressive party decorations ever.

Only problem was, even five new coats of paint later, in a special evening light form the windows the ghosts suddenly became visible on the walls! We forgot to tell the new buyers of the house about that, I wonder how they reacted the first time they saw that phenomenon.....

 

[Edward]

I can only comment from the kid end of the scale, not being nor having any intention of being a parent myself. My folks used to do us themed birthday parties every year - I remember pirates, ghosts, space, cowboys... all with themed food (home prepared) and often some form of home-made costume (the pirate hats my folks made for us all to wear, out of stiff black paper, were a hit I recall). When I was 11, they morphed into a smaller number of friends and a theatre trip; the last one was completely out of the house - ten pin bowling and ice skating (then both still very new phenomenons in Northern Ireland), when i was 13. Parties tended to be Saturdays, and there was always also the family birthday tea on the day, for which my mother did the full works again. Looking back i enjoyed those far more than i ever would have going out somewhere at that age.

 

[BeBopBaby]

was completely out of the house - ten pin bowling and ice skating (then both still very new phenomenons in Northern Ireland),

This reminded me of my own birthday parties as a young girl, except we always had roller skating birthday parties. Who here spent the weekends of their youth roller skating? I know I did. Roller skating birthday parties were the coolest - maybe I need to have one next year.

 

[BeBopBaby]

This reminded me of my own birthday parties as a young girl, except we always had roller skating birthday parties. Who here spent the weekends of their youth roller skating? I know I did. Roller skating birthday parties were the coolest - maybe I need to have one next year.

You know, after I typed this I had a vision of all my 30-something year old friends all layed out on the ground with roller skating injuries a'la the famous scene from Gone With the Wind. you know the scene where they show all the injured soldiers and the camera keeps panning out so you keep seeing more and more injured soldiers. lol Maybe it's not such a good idea.