Childcare Christmas parties

[Elianaa]

Hey guys,
Would love to hear what everyone does for their end of year/Christmas party at your service?

We are planning on doing ours on a Friday night mid December at 5:30-7pm.
Do you provide food or BYO? We have some incursions planned and staff doing face painting. No Santa as we have like 100 families and it would just take too long!
Any ideas would be great!

[Lorina]

You can get the children to put on a show for the parents. Have them sing songs and for the older children, they can maybe do a play. One year we did "Wombat Stew" with the Preschoolers and another we did a choreographed dance.

In regards to food, asking parents to BYO may be a little risky, especially for those children who may have allergies or cannot eat specific foods however instead you can give parents a list of acceptable foods that they can be brought from home - dips, cheese platters, sandwiches, pasta salads, salads etc. The food they bring must have the ingredients listed so you can display what each contains if you have children with allergies or who cannot eat certain foods. If you don't have children with special diet requirements or allergies then parents can bring whatever they like.

Set up tables where parents can place their plate of food that can be shared amongst the families. If you have over 100 families then you're going to have a lot of food to share!!!

Keep it simple - most parents just enjoy interacting with the other parents and with the Educators as well so don't stress too much!

Hope this helps!

,
Lorina

[ozchez]

Hi Elianaa

At my centre we have a jumping castle that we hire and then each of the rooms usually have a few little games/activities set up so families can do them if they wish. Usually a face painter (which is usually delegated to me as I have my own face paints). We do have a santa that comes around but it is not to give out the presents it is more just to 'visit', the presents are in the room and they take them as they go home. With the food, we ask parents to bring a plate of food from home but they have to choose something from a list that we have prepared. It stops any problems with allergies and it also gives families some idea of what is acceptable.

Our party is held on a Fri between 2.30pm and 4.00pm. Most children then go home with their parents although we do have some parents who come for the party and then leave their child and go home and return to pick them up later... grrr

At my old centre... We used to have it at the park which is walking distance from the centre and the centre catered for a sausage sizzle. They used to get Hey Dee Ho music program come and do a performance... have a face painter and santa would come and give each child a present. Very simple there.

Cheryl

[Lorina]

FACEBOOK POST

Last year we had Santa’s little helpers hand out bubbles . Sausage sizzle cooked by one of the dads , balloons , and a DJ

[Lorina]

FACEBOOK POST

No Santa? Sounds like cost saving!

[Lorina]

FACEBOOK POST

We just had ours. Winter wonderland theme. Fake snow. Cupcake decorating- snowflake theme. Make a party bag for a lolly hunt as no Santa this year. Fake snowball corn hole game. Christmas themed food.

[Lorina]

FACEBOOK POST

Love it when centres have Christmas parties for sure do it and involve Santa. It’s so sad and stupid how some centres don’t do it.