THE Chicago Birthday Party Guide
Beth lives in East Lakeview with her husband Mike, daughter Evie and son Nathan. She has always been interested in helping young children and has professional and academic experience in Early Childhood Education.
Planning a birthday party was so easy for our parents. They hung streamers and balloons, made a cake, invited kids, played “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” and called it a day. I suppose that if we had more space in our city dwelling, it would be that easy for us, too. That just isn’t the case for most city parents. We have limited space to entertain all of our kids’ friends and most of our kids need more direction than one simple game or they become unruly.
Enter the Chicago birthday party venue—a place where parents can call, make a reservation, pay a fee and have a fully staffed party where all they have to do is send out invitations and show up (some places will even send the invitations for you!) and voila! Party, on!
While booking a venue makes having a party a lot less stressful all-around, it isn’t work-free. After extensive research into kids’ party venues, here are some tips to make your party planning as stress-free as possible.
- Book early! As soon as you can get your little darling to decide on a location, call and book it. You’d be amazed how quickly some of these places fill up!
- Know how many kids you need to accommodate before you look. Venues like The Kids Table can only have about 10 kids while Lil’ Kickers can handle up to 25 and some can take even more.
- Find out exactly what amenities your venue includes BEFORE you pay anything. Menomonee Club and Margate Park Field House include only the space, tables and chairs, whereas depending on the package you choose, some places include EVERYTHING down to the invitations and even the postage!
- Know that it’s not cheap. The more the space includes, the more you will spend. For a party that is staffed in any way, be prepared to spend at least $350.
- Most venues offer some kind of discount to their members. Additionally, many NPN business members offer Parent Perks too, so make sure to look at the website and inquire.
- If your child is older than two, make sure they are involved in the venue choice. You are likely shelling out quite a bit of money; your child should be over the moon on the day of his or her party. That smile should be worth every penny!
- Consider a donation drive in the place of gifts - ideas for how to teach your little ones to give back!
We know parents are always looking for birthday party options so we decided to do a little homework for our members. While this list is certainly not comprehensive, we’ve tried to give you the most up-to-date information. Please contact each place you are considering to confirm the details. Download the NPN Birthday Party List!
As this is a living document of sorts, if you know of a great venue that I overlooked, please email me and let me know so I can add it in at beth@npnparents.org. Happy Birthday NPN Kiddos!
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