Easy Budget Friendly Tips for Hosting a Valentine’s Day Party for Children

Hosting a Valentine’s Day party for children can be a load of fun and accomplished inexpensively with a little preparation and planning. Jennifer Carver, of Spaceships and Laser Beams, is here sharing her tips for hosting a budget friendly celebration your children will love (we think you’ll love her money saving ideas for invitations, decorations, treats and activities too!)!

Tip #1:  Handcraft your invitations.  Instead of buying expensive store bought, boxed invitations, create your own! Using basic craft materials and hand cut paper hearts, add all of the essential party details including date, time, and location and whether guests should bring Valentines to pass out or a treat to share. Another fun idea is to inflate heart shaped balloons with helium and tie the party details to the balloon with pink or red twine. Hand deliver the invitations for extra excitement (and to save money on postage and envelopes). Not crafty? There are lots of free Valentine’s printables boys and girls will love.

Tip #2:  Invite guests to bring a Valentine’s Day treat to add to your dessert spread. Whether you are going all out on a full dessert table or just setting up a small display of tried and true favorites, inviting guests to RSVP with a treat they’d like to bring will help you provide a sweet variety, save on out-of-pocket costs and reduce your party prep time. Plus, most guests will bring something that they personally like, which means satisfaction guaranteed! Win-win! One great activity and treat is to decorate heart shaped cookies. Here is a can’t miss no spread sugar cookie recipe and tips for cookie decorating with kids. 

Tip #3:  Choose no fuss decorations from your party and entertaining stash and purchase remaining items at after-Christmas clearance sales or dollar stores.  With many holidays throughout the year that traditionally incorporate red and white (4^th of July and Christmas quickly come to mind), chances are you already have a few décor staples on hand that you can reuse and repurpose. Gather up linens (tablecloths, runners and napkins), serving trays, platters and cake stands and leftover tableware such as paper plates, napkins, cups and utensils. All of these items will make perfect additions to your décor!

If you plan ahead you can take advantage of after-Christmas sales to bulk up your décor and party essentials. Many basic red and white items can be found for practically nothing! Even solid color holiday wrapping paper or something with stripes and dots could be used for a table runner, for making disposable place mats, to line trays or spruce up water bottles. Plain packaging items on clearance can be used to create party favors or to package sugar cookies if your party includes a sugar cookie decorating station.

Additional items can be purchased from dollar stores. Many dollar stores sell cute red and pink plastic heart embellished glasses, red and pink plates, cutlery and even small heart confetti. Add heart shaped helium balloons, some DIY tissue tassel garland, a love banner cut from cardstock and you are set!

Tip #4:  Plan a few simple games and crafts geared towards Valentine’s Day.  Keep costs down by focusing on the sharing of Valentines. Guests can be invited to bring Valentines premade, or you can provide simple card making materials at the party. Valentine mail bags or boxes can also be made as a simple craft. Other party games can include classic party games twisted to match the party theme. “Cupid Says” or “Pin the Arrow on Cupid” are easy adaptations of crowd favorites.

Tip #5: Hand Out Simple Favors –  These cute Magical Pony Valentine favors are super cute and so inexpensive. This EOS Valentine card  (pictured above) would make a great favor too!

These five budget friendly tips will help you host a Valentine’s Day party the kids will be smiling about for a long time! Plus they are so easy that you can throw together in no time at all!