Lots of parents planning children’s birthday parties or other special events for kids ask the same question: What’s the best way to keep a group of children entertained and having fun at my event? Fortunately, there’s lots of easily available party rental options for any type of child or toddler event. FUNFACTORYPARTIES.COM has been America’s number one children’s party and event rental services company for more than 25 years. They have loads of great, easy to follow advice for parents planning a terrific children’s event. To help you plan your next children’s event, they have compiled this easy list of Top 5 Best Kid’s Birthday Party Ideas!
Here are some of the best and most popular children’s entertainment options. Keep in mind that these choices are best for kids between the ages of 1 and 9 years old. Of course, there are plenty of great entertainment options available for older children as well. We will explore those in a future article. For now, let’s focus on the most popular choices for children’s events, starting with advice for planning a great young child or toddler’s party. Here’s a helpful list of FUNFACTORYPARTIES.COM Top 5 Best Kid’s Birthday Party Ideas!
Children’s Parties Entertainment Tips:
1. Hire a Fun and Friendly Children’s Party Clown Entertainer!
Everyone knows that kids love clowns! Hiring a clown performer is one of the most sure – fire ways to make sure younger children have something fun to do at their party. Clowns can do all kinds of fun activities that are good for both children and toddlers. Clowns can make balloon animals, do face painting and even some fun magic tricks. Many clowns also offer children’s party games as part of their service. A clown entertainer is one of the best and most obvious options for any type of children’s event.
There are several good options available for the type of clown entertainer you can choose. These days, most professional clown performers offer a variety of looks and packages. For example, it’s fairly common knowledge that lots of kids are actually somewhat afraid of full – makeup clowns. For this reason, most clown performers these days offer an option to appear as a “light makeup” clown. In other words, they will still be dressed in fun, clown – like attire but they will lessen the amount of clown makeup that they decorate their faces with. This leads to them looking more approachable, and for little children it will be less intimidating or unusual.
Feel free to discuss ahead of time with your clown entertainer any options for their appearance, as well as what party activity choices. A good clown professional will have the knowledge and experience to understand what type of party package will work best for the ages and number of children you are expecting.
2. Birthday Party Costume Character Entertainers
Party characters and kid’s events go hand in hand! Especially for younger children, hiring a popular children’s party costume character will really make your party a hit. Depending on the theme of your party, there are tons of great party character options to choose from. The most popular birthday party characters right now are the Sesame Street gang of Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Abby Cadabby. Year after year, these cuddly and well – known characters continue to be the go – to for little children’s parties. Other popular costume characters are the Baby Shark gang, the Paw Patrol characters and the Despicable Me Minions.
There are literally 100’s of great costume character entertainment choices available. For girl’s theme birthday parties, costume characters like the My Little Pony Rainbow Dash or Pinky Pie are also great choices. Boy’s superhero theme parties can benefit from costume characters like the Ninja Turtles or Power Rangers. Superhero party characters like Spiderman, Batman or the Transformers are always a hit for boy’s parties. Snoopy and Charlie Brown mascot characters are always big hits for holiday theme kid’s parties. And children’s characters like Frozen Olaf, Elsa and Anna are also great for Christmas themed children’s events.
Newer children’s party characters like PJ Masks, Vampirina and the LOL Surprise Dolls are great for a party where you want to offer the latest trend. Old standby costume characters like the Despicable Me Minions, Curious George and the Smurfs are terrific ideas for kids between the ages of 1 to 9 years old. Peppa Pig, Super Mario, Pokemon Pikachu and Doc McStuffins are also terrific ideas for parents looking for a great costume character selection. The bottom line is that for every type of children’s party theme, there’s always a great costume character selection to match!
3. Pony Rides and Mobile Petting Zoo Rentals
Children of all ages love animal theme parties. Hiring a kid’s party pony or a mobile petting zoo rental will really go a long way towards making your child’s party a big hit. Pony rides are a terrific idea for children’s parties with kids ages 1 up to 13. Younger children love being able to touch and pet the pony. Kids up to 85 pounds are also able to ride on the pony! It’s a total thrill for children to actually be able to sit and ride on a friendly party pony. It’s the type of formative experience children will remember their entire lives. And petting zoo rentals are another terrific option for parties that incorporate an animal theme.
You can also easily hire a mobile children’s zoo to come set up at your child’s party. Mobile petting zoo rentals are terrific for almost all ages of children. Getting to hold, pet and feed the adorable cuddly animals will make any child’s party a special treat. Petting zoo rentals are easy to set up on a backyard, school or work location. Most children’s zoos come with a qualified staff member who will assist the children while they interact with the animals. Typical animals included with petting zoo rentals are child – friendly critters like chickens rabbits ducks goats and sheep. Another fun benefit of hiring a petting zoo is that the zoo usually comes with feed for the animals, and the kids will be able to hand -feed them as part of the rental period.
Animal theme birthday parties can be held at a wide variety of venues. Of course, having a pony ride or petting zoo in your backyard is a terrific way to use your own home as a party venue! But ponies and petting zoos can also be located in your local park or at your child’s school. Many people even hire ponies and mobile zoos for their church parking lot or at their place of business. It’s always a good idea to set up a petting zoo on a grass surface, but if no grass is available then it’s often possible for the rental company to lay down a layer of hay. Make sure to notify your party vendor ahead of time if you will need this additional service. There may be a small fee to provide the hay that covers the concrete, but it’s well worth it to keep the kids and animals comfortable. Also, don’t forget to locate your petting zoo in a shady area if your party takes place during the warmer months!
You can rent a pony by itself, or for larger parties or corporate events people sometimes rent 2 -3 ponies for the day. A good rule of thumb is that one pony for one hour can accommodate about 15 – 20 children. For larger parties it’s usually a good idea to think about hiring more than one pony at a time.
Many party rental companies offer combination packages that include BOTH a pony ride AND a mobile zoo rental. You can usually get a better deal on these types of party packages than if you rented either item individually. Check online for price specials or just call or email your local party provider for details.
4. Birthday Party Magicians!
Everyone loves magic! And magicians for kid’s parties are one of the most sure – fire ways to keep both children and adults entertained. Magicians are one of the very best options for parties that will feature a wide age range. It’s a great way to bring children of all ages together, and a fun thing for families to enjoy. Grownups will get a big kick out of sitting and watching the magic show with their children. Magic shows are a great party idea for both small gatherings as well as large events.
The great thing about children’s magicians is that they can tailor their entire magic show to meet the needs of your specific event. That means that if your party will be on the small side or feature mostly younger children, they can perform a show geared for that age range and audience. If you are planning a larger party or corporate event, your magician should easily be able to put together a magic show package that will appeal to older crowds or larger numbers of people.
5. Rent an Inflatable Bouncehouse in Your Party Theme
Birthday parties and bouncehouses go together like cake and ice cream! There’s nothing better to keep kids laughing and having fun – AND keep them from running around inside your house! Bouncehouse rentals are an absolute must – have for a child’s party or any event that will feature large groups of kids. The best thing about renting a bouncer or jumpy house is that it’s the perfect item for kids of all ages to entertainment themselves with. There are very few party rental items that both a 4 year old and a 12 year old will both enjoy. Bouncehouses are definitely the exception to this rule. You can put any mixture of ages inside a bouncehouse and they will all jump together and have fun.
The other terrific thing about bouncer and inflatable slide rentals is that they come in a wide variety of party themes. Whatever style or theme birthday party you are choosing, there is a bouncehouse rental to match! We have seen bouncers in the theme of Disney Princess, Ninja Turtles or Sesame Street Elmo. These are just a few of the hundreds of styles and themes that bouncehouse rentals can come in. No matter what party theme you are planning, there will definitely be a bouncehouse style to match!
Bouncehouse rentals usually require a minimum of about 12 square feet to fit the bottom of the jumper. They can be set up on grass, dirt or cement. Keep in mind that bouncers do operate on electricity, so you will need a place to plug it in. A normal wall socket of your house will do just fine. However, if you are planning your party to take place in a park then you will need an alternate form of electricity to power the bouncer. Almost all bouncehouse rental companies also provide a generator if necessary. These generators can provide power to the bouncer for up to 8 hours. There may be an additional fee to rent a generator along with your child’s bouncehouse, so make sure to ask your bouncer rental company ahead of time.
Have a Great Party!
These are just a few basic ideas for how to make your child’s next birthday party great! The bottom line is, no matter what type of children’s event you may be planning, they key is to have fun and don’t stress about it. The whole point of a party is to be FUN! It’s so easy to get caught up in planning every detail of your little one’s birthday party that you miss the big picture. Parties are about friends and family getting together, and observing a milestone that your child made it through the year happy and healthy. Little kids don’t even notice most of the party details that adults tend to get anxious about. If your balloons don’t match the colors of your streamers, so what? You will probably be the only one paying attention. This is your child and your family’s special day. Relax, and enjoy it!