2-5 Years

Sometimes very young children are afraid of clowns, but most over the age of three will have fun with this party. 

Set Up: Visit your local second-hand store to get a collection of bright colored shirts, pants, dresses, and even shoes. If you find some wigs or funny hats, that’s great, too. You should also buy some costume make-up, be sure to get plenty of white. You can often get red, stick-on clown noses at party stores, and they are fun, or you can just use lipstick to give the kids their red noses. Print off a few pictures of clowns to have on display, and ask some teenage helpers to attend. 

Kids from about 3-6 love cowboys and horses and will enjoy this party. They’ll get a chance to stretch their imaginations and pretend to be riding the range. 

Set Up: You will need to gather as many stick horses as you can. If you can’t find enough store-bought ones, a yardstick with a mop head fastened on the end will satisfy most imaginative pre-schoolers. If you can build an actual campfire at your party spot…great.

Kids of all ages will have fun at a snow party. The main disadvantage is that the weather can be a problem. It it’s too cold, everyone is miserable and if it’s too warm, the snow will melt, but a nice winter day is perfect.  

Kids of all ages will have fun with this one as long as they have some sort of riding toy. Even toddlers who just push on the ground with their feet can join in 

Set Up: You will need to find a large open field that is smooth enough to ride on for this gathering. You may be able to get permission to use a school or church parking lot at a time when the facility is not busy. Before the party starts you need to establish a start and finish line for several races of different lengths. Bring some chairs or buckets to use for a barrel race and an obstacle course would be fun too. It will also help if you have a stopwatch and some kind of loudspeaker. 

This gathering will be fun for kids from about 3 to 10 and even older if they are fond of drama. You can look forward to a lot of creativity and imagination with this theme. 

Set Up: Before the kids arrive, you will need to provide a space for a puppet theater. This can be as simple as letting the kids hide behind a table covered with a floor-length cloth. You could also hang a sheet on a cord strung across one end of a room at about waist height. This might be a good choice if you will have several puppeteers presenting at one time, because it will allow more room.

Every child loves playing in the sand and in the water, especially smaller children who love building with sand and splashing in water. This type of party will keep little ones happy for hours. 

You can have a day of sand and water even if you live miles from a beach. You can even have it if the weather is not good enough to go outside (that is, if you are not too worried about your carpet or furniture.) A sand and water play area can be created fairly easily and will provide hours of fun for toddlers.

This is the greatest of all the parties and girls of all ages love this kind of party, building there own bear and dressing them is a great party for any girl from 3 to 13. 

For this party you will need to buy the teddy bear skins and the filler machine, you need 2 or 3 big bags of cotton and doll clothes, which you can buy wholesale. Then you can let the child build their bear and dress them. Then you can let each of the children come up with names for the bears and take a picture with them and their new teddy.

A Sitting Pretty Party is a dress up party for little girls. At this party your little girl will get to explore her creativity by creating her own signature look, and her friend will have a great time too. 

Invite each girl to come and bring her pet, which can be a toy or real-live animal. If you decide to include living pets, you may want to keep your guest list small to avoid problems. One or two adult helpers who are good with animals will make things easier as well. Ask the kids to bring their real pets in a kennel, cage, or aquarium, or on a leash. 

You might also ask guests to bring a wagon or stroller to show off her pet during the parade, or consider borrowing such items from around the neighborhood. 

You can hire a face-painter to come to your party, often for $30 or less, by checking local bulletin boards or online resources. Or, you could call your local high school drama teacher or community theater to see if they can recommend someone who is handy with make-up. There is also the option of doing it yourself, and there are many books and Internet sites with step-by-step instructions for how to create animal faces and other designs. One set of costume makeup will decorate a whole roomful of kids, so it is not too expensive.