How to Plan a 5 Year Old Boy Birthday Party

A fun and memorable birthday party for a 5 year old boy takes a little planning.  A 5 year old party is one of the most popular ages for kids to host a birthday party for their friends.  They are likely to be in kindergarten or on their way in the fall, so they have built up a group of friends from activities, church, the neighborhood, or school.

Five year old boys have a range of interests and likes.  After recently hosting birthday parties for each of my own 5 year old boys, some of the topics I can recommend are dinosaurs, Toy Story, Star Wars, and army men.  There are certainly other party themes out there that are appropriate for a 5 year old boy like Disney, Kung Fu Panda, or a sport they play like baseball or soccer.

1. Find out a party theme they enjoy.  Do this by asking them directly or selecting a theme based on the things they like.

2. Find or make party invitations.  The best way to send an invitation is to still put it in the mail.  Kids this age love to get mail.  It is more and more uncommon for them to actually receive a letter in the mail, so make the invitation special.  This will also help avoid having the invitation get lost in a child's backpack, if the invitations are sent to school.

3. Plan food and activities for the party.  No parent should have 2-3 hours on their hands with a house full of 5 year old boys with nothing planned.  Keep games and activities structured so the boys know what to do.  There are many great articles out there for advice on games and activities for a specific party theme.  Recently we had a Star Wars themed birthday party for our 5 year old with the help from several online resources such as:

Star Wars Themed Birthday Party

4. Get or make a birthday party cake or cupcakes.  Most local grocery stores have party cakes available in both generic themes and popular kids themes.

5.  Plan presents.  Purchase birthday presents for the birthday boy.  If presents can be selected to match the birthday party theme, then it will look like you know what you are doing.

6. Have a goodie bag available for take-home for each guest.  When we first started hosting birthday parties we always included candy in the take-home back.  Now we avoid candy because there are so many other kids kids get candy, we did not want to keep contributing to unhealthy snack habits.  Now we look for a small toy to send home with each kid which matches the birthday party theme.

6. Send thank you cards after the party.  Thank each guest for coming and if they brought a gift, thank them for the gift.

Resources:

Gifts for a 5 Year Old Boy

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