Have you noticed lately stories about kids who didn’t have anyone RSVP to their party and celebrities or the community come to the rescue so they wouldn’t have a guestless kids party? That is so nice, right? Then there was the lady in the U.K. who billed another child for not coming to her son’s party. What da hay? All I know is that it feels good to know I’m not alone. My son’s birthday falls the same week as Christmas. We invited guests one year only to have one non family member show up.
We moved to Florida, away from our friends and family in New Jersey and it was harder to throw a well attended birthday party because what stranger is going to want to hang with you a few days before Christmas? For many years we started going to theme parks for my son’s birthday, but kids are kids and this past year he wanted to have a party like his sister, whose birthday is in September and who gets way more rsvps & guests then he does. I caved, wanted to give my son the party he wanted. Problem was only ONE child rsvpd. Yup, one! We invited 12 kids and only 1 child’s parent texted that they’d come. So here we were with a party room at a party location that cost us about $100 with a groupon, and only 4 kids, which were made up of his sister, 2 cousins and the 1 classmate that RSVPd.
You may be thinking, well at least he has cousins, and yes thank God for family but naturally he felt some kind of way that only one classmate wanted to come to his birthday party. I felt a little piece of my heart break for him. We could have saved that money and gone to the movies, or a regular park or a theme park but oh well, as one of my favorite quotes goes, I’d rather have a life full of ‘oh wells’ then ‘what ifs’. My son can’t say we didn’t try, we had a party and he realizes that with it being so close to Christmas, it is difficult to have a party during this time of year.
In order to avoid having guestless kids parties, here are 5 tips on what you can do to avoid this.
1. Have a combined birthday party.
What many parents have shared with me is that they will celebrate two kids birthdays during one party. This way you can invite a few more guests and are guaranteed to have twice as many people show up, even if its just two :). Sort of like knocking out two birds with one stone. You’re sure to have more attendance this way because you are inviting more people. If you don’t mind the chance of a slightly larger party, this may work for you.
2. Celebrate at another time of the year, even if it’s not quite on their birthday.
This one hits home for me because year after year we see that no one wants to come and hang the week of Christmas and I get it. So maybe for my son, we can celebrate earlier, in early November or later around February. As a Latina, however, I’ve heard it can be bad luck to celebrate before a birthday so we’d probably do later. Unless we do a combined birthday (see #1) then I’d have to push aside our superstitions and do it between my daughter’s birthday and my son’s which would fall around early November.
3. Just invite Family and Friends, no classmates.
Let’s face it, if you don’t know the parents of their school friends, they aren’t going to feel like they want to come to your party. At least sometimes, maybe not always. So if you happen to live near a lot of family and have lots of friends, then stick with the crowd you can rely on.
4. Have a party during one of the Holidays that call for fun friendly gatherings like Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween.
These Holidays aren’t as family oriented as say Christmas or Thanksgiving. So throw a theme party during one of the holidays where people are looking for something to do and somewhere to go.
5. Don’t throw a birthday party at all, opt for a family outing.
Take your child and any siblings to a theme park, or spend a one on one day with your child. It’s nice to teach them that birthdays aren’t only about parties, but about celebrating the gift they are to us as individuals.
