Teen birthday party planning is fun and easy, if you simplify the process. The more complicated the planning, the more stressful the teen birthday party is on the host and on the teen birthday party-goers! Keep in mind that it’s all about allowing laughter and fun in a safe environment – It’s not about “Keeping up with the Jones’s”.
The hardest part of any party planning is getting started. Make the entire party process easier, by beginning with choosing a theme. A terrific teen birthday party theme, tried and true in this writer’s experience with teen girls, is the old-fashioned, casual, sleepover party. In fact, both boys and girls enjoy sleepover parties equally. However, no age of childhood is appropriate for co-ed sleepovers. Sleepover parties should always be single sex events, and supervision should be by same-sex adult(s).
Create the mood long before the teen birthday party begins, by making and sending clever invitations that play-up to the sleepover party theme. Include the birthday celebrant in the invitation making. Use sharp scissors to cut midnight blue colored card stock to size for fitting into a regular business envelope. Using a gold gel pen, print the invitation information: DATE – choose a night when most teens can sleep in a little the next morning; TIME – keep it simple by starting the teen birthday party after the dinner hour (maybe 7 or 8 PM), and show when the party ends, making it clear to teens and parents that the party not only has a beginning, but also an end. Let them sleep in a little, eat a light breakfast, and the invitation should show the party’s end by about 10AM; WHERE – Bedrooms are where folks sleep every day, so make the sleepover sleeping space more fun, and give a fun clue in the invitation, like: Sweet 16 Mattie’s Way Sleepover TV Room (or rec room, living room, or even backyard camping tent(s)!) Finally, don’t assume everyone knows they should bring some personal need items to a sleepover. The invitation must close with a BRING LIST – at least include: sleeping bag, pillow, pajamas, toothbrush, and toothpaste. Once all the necessary details are printed on the card stock, using gold foil star reward stickers – available at discount stores like Wal-Mart and Target – randomly stick the stars all over the card, to create a sparkling midnight sky. Decorate the envelope with a few stars, too!
Every teen birthday party requires a ‘crazy fun’ teen birthday cake. Many years ago, I saw a fun sleepover cake topping idea in Women’s Day magazine. The basic cake is a simple sheet cake of the birthday kid’s favorite flavor, of course. The cake topping consists of thin layer of any favorite cake frosting, with at least six Twinkie brand sponge cakes in a row placed on top of the frosting. The next step is to use different colors of vanilla frosting (make different colors by stirring food coloring into vanilla frosting) to create the look of a sleeping bag around each Twinkie, leaving the top one-third of the Twinkie bare. On the bare part of the Twinkie, make the look of faces and hair, using ‘Red Hots’ candies, licorice whips, and decorator frosting.
While teen birthday party friends begin to gather, the first one or two arriving will feel very self-conscious, unless you and the birthday celebrant have a welcoming plan! Make sure music is already playing before the first partier arrives. Set up a game that teens can join-into as they arrive, like the board game, Aggravation. Up to six players can join-in and conversation can easily carry-on as the game moves ahead. If you have a pool table, teens will draw to that as if they are bees to honey! Pool is a very adult social game, so teens feel very grown-up when they have free reign of the pool room, and most pool tables have a set of eight cue sticks in various weights. This encourages full group participation.
A sleepover teen birthday party isn’t really a party until everyone’s in their pajamas, so make a game of it! Designate a private place or two for the teens to change into their pajamas, but orchestrate the activity with a twist: As each teen gets their turn to change clothes, they are timed and how long they took to put their pajamas on, while keeping their personal items in place and not tossed around, is recorded on a poster board for all to see. The teen who changes their clothes the fastest is the winner.
Once the pajamas are on, when teens are involved talk usually migrates quickly to, “Can we watch a movie?” Be prepared ahead of time, with selective choices discussed and agreed upon between you and your birthday celebrant. Keep in mind that if showing a movie that is not G-rated, it is in your best interest to get prior approval from parents. Schools have such rules of practice. It is wise to consider doing same.
No teen birthday party should take a great amount of effort in parental planning or implementation. Teens today lead a stress filled life, between school responsibilities, extra-curricular activities, and part-time jobs. Keeping the teen birthday party low-key and allowing the teens to just enjoy the music they love and talk can be a great memory for them, especially if you scatter the snacks within reach wherever they party around the house.
A sleepover teen birthday party easily lends itself to simple, finger foods like Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop popcorn, Trader Joe’s Flax Tortilla Chips, raw carrots, raw celery, raw jicama and the birthday kid’s favorite salsa. Sweet finger foods my teens love at such parties include orange sections, grapes, strawberries, and non-fat strawberry yogurt for dipping. Today’s teens are very health conscious. The recent news reports of overweight kids with not enough activity, is not lost on the teens of today. Let the cake be the fun and crazy sugary treat of the night. Be sure to include healthy choices for the rest of the night, and they will have a blast together – Just keep the food and drink coming! Create fun and healthy mixed drinks with three-fourths sparkling water and one-fourth 100% juice in a variety of flavors. In the morning, go easy and pop Eggo Nutri-Grain Low Fat frozen waffles into the toaster. Let the growing teens start top-off their morning with a tall glass of milk.
Before the teen birthday party, make a personalized popcorn packet for each invited guest to take home. Using the same midnight blue card stock used for the invitations, form card stock into a sleeve around the popcorn packet and tape or glue in place. Using the gold gel pens, write each teen’s name on their own popcorn packet. Using the gold reward star stickers, randomly stick the stars around the teen’s name. The result should be similar to the finished look of the original invitations, as a sparkling midnight sky.
Let the “Good-bye” moments as the guests leave, be an opportunity for the teen having the birthday to practice thankfulness and good manners. They should walk each friend to the door, presenting them with their personalized packet of microwave popcorn, and thanking each friend for their part in the overnight birthday celebration.
