Children love to sing. I have a daughter who sings to herself almost all day long. It will be a very sad day at this house when she realizes she is not going to be the next American Idol any time soon and becomes too self conscious to fill our home with her singing. We hosted a Karaoke party in December and it was a huge hit. Here are my tips for a really fun Karaoke party that will be great fun and provide lasting memories for all.
Karaoke Machine and CD’s: I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could purchase a karaoke machine for under fifty dollars. Cd’s for the machine run from $6.00 upwards to $20.00. The best ones are the mixed cd’s that have a variety of artists on them. Two cd’s will suffice for your karaoke party.
Invitations: Pick up invitations with musical notes on them. If you can’t find any at a store, design your own on the computer. Plain invitations with stickers of musical notes or musical instruments will work too. Besides the standard date and time for the party, include a message such as “We will be having a Karaoke party, so please bring your singing voice. Come in costume of your favorite pop star!” Expect to see lots of Kelly Carlsons, Hillary Duffs and Billy Joe Armstrongs.
Decorations: We purchased some disco lighting at the party store. For around twenty dollars, we bought a mini strobe light, disco ball and police light. For another ten dollars, we purchased a very large net bag that attached to the ceiling for balloons. At the end of the “concert”, we pulled the string and released the balloons for the grand finale. The kids then had a great time tossing the balloons around. Crepe paper and confetti is inexpensive and will decorate their “stage area” just fine.
Refreshments: Most kids love hot dogs, mini pizzas and chicken nuggets. Serve whatever your kids will like and is in your budget. To carry the theme of the karaoke party, I served my houseful of “pop stars” cupcakes and brownies with candy stars on them. I made a punch with ginger ale and fruit juice and they loved using the punch bowl cups. Some bowls of chips and pretzels completed the menu.
Activities: Divide the children into the boy and girl “bands”. Let them choose what song to sing and have a sing off. Groups of two or three worked the best at our karaoke party.Then, line them up individually for their solos. You can provide some other activities for the children to busy themselves with while they are waiting for their turn. We placed posters on the walls of Jesse McCartney, Hillary Duff and Green Day and played a version of “Pin the tail on the donkey” with stickers of microphones, stars, and musical notes. The kids had to get the stickers closest to the nose of the celebrity. It was great fun. We then played the game of “Television Tag”, but instead of television shows, the kids had to name singers and songs.
Prizes: Reward every child for their great karaoke performance. I gave the girls sparkly costume jewelry and the boys received light up necklaces and glow sticks.
A karaoke party is relatively easy to pull off and very enjoyable for the children. Expressing themselves through music raises children’s self esteem and confidence. It is plenty of fun for the grownups too!
