Holidays and special family time like birthdays often require that we put aside the work of the homestead and put on our party planning hat! If you need a quick template to organize a basic party for families and children, look no further. We wrote this article to make throwing your next simple party as easy as 1-2-3 with an outline that includes an easy template and printable planning sheets. Relax, you’ve got this!
How Do You Organize a Basic Party?
For some of us, hosting an event is as simple as inviting people over and making magic happen. Others of us need a plan; something with details, and amounts, and clear expectations.
I do not want to squash your spontaneous creativity, but I’m writing this article so that you have a basic party outline for those who would like a template from which to work.
Please don’t stress over these ideas; you don’t have to execute them all to have a good time. In fact, if looking at these lists causes anxiety, you’re probably not the reader for whom they were written.
However, if you’ve been a little disorganized planning get-togethers in the past, maybe something here will help improve your plans. Just bear in mind that this is your family, they’re your friends, and these are your traditions; arrange them however, whenever, and with whatever you want!
Remember when we talked about personality types in a previous article?
Hosting an event is something you should always do in keeping with your personality because, if you’re comfortable and enjoying yourself, everyone else will be, too.
What Should be Included in a Party?
A basic party for families with kids could have six parts:
- Welcome Time
- Story Time
- Craft Time
- Activity Time
- Snack Time
- Gather & Go Time
These parts aren’t gospel, so feel free to change them according to the party’s theme and purpose.
Generally speaking, though, this is a good template to follow at least loosely, especially if children will be in attendance.
Obviously, events like Homestead Weddings and more solemn occasions to get together will have their own flow.
How Do You Plan a Party Flow?
When you’re planning a basic party, you need to keep in mind the party’s flow. This means the movement of:
- Time
- People
- Events
- Energy
- Waste/Clean Up
For example, some good questions to ask yourself to best plan party flow are:
- How many children will be attending? Children have much shorter attention spans than adults. Do you have adequate activities planned for them to keep their attention and interest? Have you allowed for free time for them to play and chat?
- With what activity will the party peak? All events have a very natural beginning, middle (peak), and end – things wind up only to wind down!
- Where will all the people congregate when they first arrive? Will you need to them to move into another room or outside for events or eating? Be sure the paths are clear and you’ve clearly marked where guests are free to roam in your home and where the private areas are. Don’t forget to point out the bathrooms!
- Who will set up and clean up? Guests often feel more comfortable if they can help clean up before they leave. Have a simple list of tasks ready for those who would like to help out, especially if they’re like their children to clean a bit before they leave.
Basic Party Template
A printable version of this template, as well as some other downloads will be available at the end of this article, FYI.
WELCOME TIME
Mingling and chatting while waiting for everyone to arrive. If you like, use get-to-know-you games if there are a lot of people meeting who’ve never met before.
Those games usually drive me bonkers, so I just make sure everyone has a place to be comfortable, make introductions, and encourage conversation.
Make the outdoors available for kids to go off and play or put out simple toys for them to entertain themselves with on the floor while the adults converse.
STORY TIME
If the party is happening because of a holiday, I always give a little bit of information about the holiday. We’ve purchased several of picture books on holidays to help tell their stories in concise, illustrated ways.
We read these to our own children and those that visit for holidays (especially the ones that aren’t very familiar to people). Please see the book list in the Resources chapter of Homestead Holidays to get some ideas for holiday books to read and share.
CRAFT TIME
There’s usually something we make or assemble to augment the holiday.
- For example, for our gingerbread house party, this is the part of the evening when we assemble the houses.
- Likewise, for Candlemas we make candles.
If the event is something like a birthday party, we might make up to three crafts along the theme of the event.
For a butterfly-themed birthday we might:
- Put together Monarch butterfly print place cards for the table.
- Draw the lifecycle of a butterfly with glass markers on the front window.
- Make coffee filter butterfly garland to take home.
ACTIVITY TIME
- This could be board games, a parade, outdoor hikes, etc.
- For example, for Martinmas, we assemble lanterns for craft time and then parade around with them outside.
- For the Green Corn Festival, one might sit around telling stories and then play a ridiculous game of family lacrosse.
- After decorating Easter eggs, the kids go out to hide and hunt them.
- There might be more than one activity, especially at a children’s event like a birthday or graduation party.
SNACK TIME
Rarely do I serve a whole meal to guests at a large event, but most holiday celebrations do have a wide array of snacks and treats.
Food at the end of an event can help motivate the youngest to stay focused and participate in all the other fun parts of the evening, before they head to the snack table.
GATHER AND GO TIME
After food and drink, it’s time to start rounding up coats and shoes and letting people know it’s time to go home. We’ve had a great time, but it’s getting late, and we need to clean up.
Be sure to set up easy ways for your guests to help clean a bit as they leave. Often, parents would like their children to tidy up and it helps to have a ready answer when they ask what needs to be done.
How to Decorate for a Basic Party?
You’ll most likely have a theme for your party. For example, if it’s Hanukkah time, then your decorations will have a blue and white theme with a hanukkiah place somewhere prominent, most likely.
So, the only advice I really have for this section is to keep the decorations simple! Especially in tough economic times, we don’t want to waste money of things we don’t need and can’t reuse.
Try to purchase only those decorations that will hold up to repeated use. Find a place to store your decorations that will be easy to access. I had to create such a space in my home.
—>>>To do that, too, read our article Create a Holiday Stash Cabinet<<<—
If you have NO budget for the party decorations, make them!
Here are some useful examples:
Decorate a Christmas Fresh Wreath
More Basic Party Planning Resources
If you’d like a quick-glance printable to help organize a basic family-friendly party, as well as lots of holiday planning worksheets, simply join our newsletter below.
If you’re already a member, these downloads will be in your member library along with many other FREE resources!
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