Hosting a Children's Party the Jologs Way

     It's part of Filipino tradition to celebrate a child’s 1^st & 7^th birthday with a blast.  A first birthday party marks the parents' celebration of their child's first year of life, so this milestone is a great reason for parents & family members to organize a salu-salo( get together ) and celebrate the occasion regardless of difficulties in terms of financing the party.   This holds true in my cousin’s case.  He wanted to celebrate his daughter’s 1^st b-day with a kid’s party but he’s on a tight budget.  So, being the ever supportive and loving relatives and friends that we are, we joined forces to help my cousin’s wife organize a budget friendly yet fun-filled kiddy party for Macki’s special day. 

     Each family member contributed something to the occasion, some volunteered to do the cooking, some neighbors offered to prepare the small space we have in our compound where we usually hold a gathering.  Everyone was busy doing their assigned task. It was like a  bonding moment for all of us who took part in organizing the party. 

         Here are some of the alternatives we did in order to save on cost, yet still manage to host a fun filled kid's party for Macki. 

• Guest List – Limit the guests to only those who are in your close circle of friends and relatives.   It will not only make the party less awkward for the guests invited but also, you wouldn’t have to worry of negative side comments & criticism from your guests because you already have good relationship with each other. Besides, it’s a lot better to share occasion like this with people who matters most.

• .Location – Host the party at home rather than rent a venue to host the party.  Children won’t care anyway where the party is held as long as they are having fun. 

•  Food – Keep food costs down by holding the party in the afternoon so it doesn’t include a full meal. Prepare most of the food if you can by yourself or ask for help from your friends.  Suggested food (combination of any): Spaghetti, fried chicken, ice cream, sandwich, cupcakes, hotdogs & juice for beverage.

  

•  Invitations – Instead of choosing made to order (customized) invitations which is usually priced at P10.00 & above depending on the layout design and materials used , buy readymade invitations available in stores nearest to you like National Bookstore. They usually come in packs (10pcs./pack) that is reasonably priced at P40-50 per pack, that would cost from P4–P5 per invites.  Or better yet, try to create your own invitation cards using Photoshop or any program available that you can use like MS PowerPoint.  You can create your own layout and you can even customize your own design depending on what you like, if you don’t have a colored printer, you can have it printed in Net cafés that provide printing services. We chose to make our own customized invitation and have it printed, and it only cost us P6.00 per invites including the envelope.  

• Decorations – It is really nice to have a theme whenever we host a kid’s party.  But if you happen to have problems decorating your place base on the theme you choose, and it requires you to buy more decor items to align with your theme, but you don’t want to spend more on this anymore,   forget the theme & just settle on making the place colorful and enticing to get the children’s attention.  Fill the places with toys available in your house, surround it with balloons (you can buy “do it yourself balloons) and give some to the kids. Let them make their own balloon.  This will make them busy and excited while you host the party.

• Games - You don’t need to hire an entertainer like clown or host for the party.  You can always Google for party games that kids like and include it in your party plan.  You just need to ask for the help of a friend or relatives to assist you in executing the games.  Use washable markers to set up a face painting activity.  You need not be an artist to do this, simple designs on the guests’ faces will do. Even kids can do this by themselves, just give them the face paint and ask them to paint cute objects on each other’s faces; this is one activity that sure is fun for them.

• Pinatas are a great party activity that kids love. it’s not too hard to make a piñata using these directions. But if you were not able to purchase a Piñata, and wasn’t able to create one, you can always have alternatives just like what we did.  We used clay pots filled with candies and coins in it as substitute for the piñata.  We called the game pukpok palayok (The Pukpok Palayok (in English: hitting the pot) is a traditional Filipino game that involves a person's memory and his ability in hitting objects. It is usually played by two or more contestants who must hit the palayok or clay pot using a club or bat while blindfolded. The first player who can smash the palayok into pieces wins a prize. Every palayok contains coins, candies and other small prizes, which are available to anyone who can grab them as soon as they fall to the ground. For this reason, it is very common to see children gather around the palayok and wait for someone to break it into pieces. This game, due to its fun and exciting nature, is often played during town fiestas, parties and other celebrations.)

•  Goody Bags  ( Loot Bags )-Let the guests make a craft as one of your activities and then take it home as their party favor. Here is a list of great kids party crafts that can double as a party favor.  Limit the favors to just one or two items plus some candy.  In Macki’s lootbag, we put in candies, one toy and one sticker book which also served as their activity during the party.

• Souvenir-It’s your choice whether you like to add souvenirs for party favors.  But souvenir is like a token of appreciation for guest who spent time to attend to your occasion.  There are variety of souvenir choices, and one of the most popular and cost friendly is the figurine which we chose as give away to adults who came to the party.  The best place to hunt for cheap yet pretty figurine souvenir is in Divisoria.

       Well, it was a very tiring yet fulfilling day.  To be able to pull a budget friendly yet fun filled party was indeed very challenging, but we all managed to make it happen.  Just remember that what really matter in holding a party,  is the joy that you bring to everyone. It doesn't matter how you celebrated it, it doesn't matter how much you spent for it, what’s important is the smile that you put in each of the guest’s faces, the happy feeling and the  memory of a party worth remembering again and again.

Yehey! to a children’s party done “The Jologs way” :P