Throwing a wonderful birthday party for your child is all about planning. The more time you put in beforehand, the smoother everything will go on the big day. Those plans can become overwhelming sometimes.
Don’t let the pressure to make everything perfect overwhelm you. Some years you might be able to take the whole class to your kid’s favorite themed restaurant or bring an inflatable trampoline castle to your front yard, but if this is one of the years when that can’t happen, you can still throw an amazing, well-planned party that keeps your child and all of their friends entertained.
Here’s how.
You’re going to host an Escape Party.
Plan Ahead
You can find a ready-to-play kit here. Even if you can’t go any further than this, a ready-to-play kit will help you entertain all the kids at the party.
Here’s why your kids will love an Escape Party. When you watch them hang out together playing video games, you probably think they’re just wasting time. It turns out they’re doing their three favorite things: solving puzzles, escaping imaginary dangers, and showing off for their friends. If you want to give them all of those things, but without the need to fight over a controller, get them together for an escape room. They’ll work together, get a thrill from solving some puzzles, and have something to talk about for the rest of the day (or longer!)
Choose Your Kit
Depending on the age of your kid, you’ll want offer them the best experience you can. For pre-teens, you should look at an escape kit like this one: https://lockpaperscissors.co/lost-mummy
Teenagers might act like they’re above it all, but deep down they still love solving puzzles, being scared in a safe environment, and showing off. Just like with the pre-teens, it’s all about finding the right experience for them. If you’re throwing a party for teens, take a look at this kit for your starting point: https://lockpaperscissors.co/rebel-revolt
Make It Your Own
Here’s where the planning comes in. You want to make this a special party for your child and their friends, so the more specific you can be the better. What gets their imagination spinning? If they’re younger, they probably made it very clear when they asked you to throw them a birthday party. Pirates, wizards, princesses, dragons, aliens – whatever they love, you can tweak your escape kit to match it. Decorate the house with themed art. Have the kids come in appropriate costumes.
Don’t Break the Bank (Unless You’re Escaping a Vault)
Designing an escape room for your kids to solve lets you create an awesome experience without breaking the budget. You can print your entire escape room game kit for the cost of just a few birthday party goody bags. Plus you can use the items you planned to put in those goody bags as part of the game, so you can get double (or more!) the bang for your buck. You don’t have to spend a fortune to entertain a bunch of kids for an afternoon. You can print your entire escape room game kit for the cost of just a few birthday party goody bags. If you work with your theme and use toys in your puzzles and clues, you can have the kids collect them as they go. Not only have to made great goody bags, but the kids have bagged them themselves.
Keep Them Busy
The beauty of a birthday themed escape room is you can build your puzzles into wrapping paper and decorations – things that just take care of themselves at the end of the day.
The type of food kids love lends itself to incorporating them into puzzles and clues. Pizza toppings can be clues or point at secret hints. Cupcakes can be topped or filled with messages (use frosting; we don’t need anyone choking). And you don’t have to worry about finding a way for the kids to burn off all the energy from that sugar. The escape room will keep them moving all afternoon.
Send Everyone Home Happy
Escape rooms are incredibly fun, and they do a great job of keeping kids engaged and focused through the entire time you’ve set aside for the party. Add in some time before and after for hanging out and opening gifts and you’ve filled the day and given all the kids a great experience. If you’ve used toys or candy in your puzzles, let your guests take home their self-made goody bags and wait for their parents to call you to ask for advice hosting their own escape party.
