Mike Clarke is...The Kids Magician

The below information is Mike's "Quick Survival Guide" for parents planning their child's birthday party.

Mike hopes that the information is of use to you - and that it helps you survive (and even ENJOY!!) your child's party!

You can also download:

• Mike's Party-Planning Checklist here

• a pdf version of the complete 'Survival Guide' here

• a pdf Party Invite for you to personalize.
  2 versions - a basic version (won't use up all the ink in your printer!)
                    - a deluxe, all-singing, all-dancing version!

In case you are wondering, Mike buys his party supplies from Silly Jokes online store - super-prompt delivery and great prices.

Do you want to have the birthday party on your child’s actual birthday itself?

Some years, your child’s birthday will be on a Saturday or Sunday, which are historically the most popular days to hold a party. Weekends tend to be easier for parents.

Some people prefer to have weekday parties, either during the day (pre-school) or after school if their children are a bit older.

Again, there is no right or wrong decision here - only what YOU would prefer.

Logistically it may well be easier to hold the party on a weekend - you are more likely to have the time to prepare things for the party, and other parents are more likely to be available to help you if needed.

The best thing to do is come up with a few date options - i.e. either Saturday 2nd or Sunday 3rd OR the weekend after, Saturday 9th or Sunday 10th.

If you are semi-flexible with the date, it will make it slightly easier for you to decide on a...

There are really 2 options here - either you hold the party at your home, or you hire another location to use. There are pros and cons to each option.

If you decide to have the party at home, it can be easier to have a more intimate party, where only close friends are invited. It means that you don’t have to transport any food and decorations to another venue, and it makes it easier to decorate for the party in advance.

Disadvantages are the mess that you may well have to tidy up after everyone goes, and the space limitations that your house will have compared to a church hall.

Advantages of an external venue (i.e. church/village hall, play centre, sports centre etc.) include additional space - ideal for playing games in - less risk of things getting broken and potentially easier parking for guests (depending on the parking near your house of course!) 

Disadvantages of an external venue include the hassle of moving food etc. to the venue, decorating the venue in time as well as the actual quality of the venue itself.

In his 10+ years of entertaining children, Mike has been in most village and church halls in Bristol and the surrounding areas. Some venues have been absolutely fantastic - modern, well kept, warm, bright, well-equipped etc. Other venues have not been as well maintained, with bad lighting and heating.

Mike recommends that before you use an external venue, if you haven’t already seen it, you check it out!

The last thing you want to experience is something one of Mike's clients had - turning up to a venue to discover it was in the middle of being renovated, with paint and bits of wood everywhere! It wasn’t the easiest venue to safely entertain 30 four and five-year old children!

Once you have decided upon a venue, you need to decide the time you will have the party. 


In the UK, most parties in Mike's experience tend to be 2-hours in length. That is a good  length of time, certainly for children aged 3-7. It’s long enough for the kids to have fun, but short enough that they don’t get totally "over-the-top" excited. It also means that you won’t be completely exhausted either!

Some people prefer for run a  party late morning, 11am-1pm (which means you'll need to provide lunch for the children), while others prefer to have it in the afternoon, either 2-4pm or 3-5pm (which means you'll need to provide an an afternoon tea for them.)

A morning party does mean an earlier start for you if you want to be organised, while an afternoon party provides you with more time to get ready.

Now that you have organised the time, location and venue of the party, you want to decide whether to theme the party, and if so, what theme to go with.

You may prefer to not have any particular theme. This will enable you to save money on party decorations, party plates and cups etc., as you will not be buying character-themed items.

However, you may decide to choose a specific theme. This theme will depend on your child’s interests, hobbies and favourite characters. Popular themes can include a:

- Princess Party
- Cowboys Party
- High School Musical Party
- Star Wars Party
- Superhero Party

If your child has a favourite cartoon, you can easily have a party themed  to that. So yes, you could easily find yourself organising a Lazytown-themed party, and getting dressed up as Sportacus!  :-)

Bear in mind that buying themed party decorations can be more expensive than regular (standard) decorations.