A SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN’S PARTY
A WORD TO GROWN-UPS
IT is undoubtedly one of the hardest tasks imaginable to give a
successful children’s party, and the reasons that militate against
success are legion.
In the first place children are the keenest of critics; secondly, that
which interests a mite of three will bring boredom unmitigated to the
“fellow of ten,” while the maiden of twelve and the “man” of fifteen
have very strong views of their own on the subject of amusements.
A children’s party, then, is not an undertaking to be approached
lightly. It is of course an easy matter to hire the services of a
ventriloquist or a conjurer or some public entertainer for the
afternoon, and leave the rest to luck, yet how many hostesses have come
to grief on the rocks of such an enterprise.
And let it be remembered that it is an absolute impossibility to provide
an entertainment that will appeal equally to children ranging from three
to fifteen. Only a section will appreciate the show. Far better to let
the youngsters be their own entertainers.
It may of course be presumed that no one will dream of giving a
children’s party who is the occupant of a very small house. Twenty
children want more room than fifty adults. This is a truism that cannot
be too strongly emphasized.
Having fixed upon the date for your party and having sent out the
invitations, you will, wise general that you are, take complete stock of
your field of campaign, and make up your mind that at least four rooms
will have to be more or less gutted to receive the host of youthful
invaders you are about to summon forth.
Let it be supposed that you have in your house three sitting-rooms. The
dining-room will be the refreshment room, the parlor, stripped of all
breakables and needless accessories, for the older children to play in,
the morning room to be converted into a dressing-room. Upstairs it will
be as well to transform a bedroom into a play-room for the tiny tots and
their nurses.
There is one fatal mistake that hostesses are sometimes guilty of in
giving a children’s party,--they ask their guests to come too early and
send them away too late. The secret of success with children lies in the
one hackneyed sentence: “Enough is as good as a feast.” Children are
easily tired, and they can crowd into three hours as much healthy
enjoyment as would certainly not be the case were another hour to be
given them. If your young guests leave you with regret you do not want
any more thanks; if they fly to get their coats and hats, all your
labors, no matter how sincere and arduous they may have been, will have
been spent in vain.
From four till seven P.M. will be found quite long enough, with tea at
half-past four. Here again lies another fatal pitfall. _Avoid
kickshaws!_--digestion-ruining cream cakes and jam puffs particularly.
Bread and butter, chocolate biscuits, plain cakes, and sponge cakes
produce no ill effects. Such advice as this may provoke a scornful laugh
from the would-be hostess who reads these lines. “Teach me how to feed
children!” I hear her say. “What presumption!” Yet it is homely advice
that is the most useful, the most disregarded when all is said and done.
TEA TIME
Half-past four will be found a good time for tea. Soon after five the
healthiest hunger will have been appeased, and then, having “let
digestion wait on appetite,” marshal your guests into the drawing-room
and allow them to “fall to” to amuse themselves.
Let the revels be of the simplest. If there is one game children love
more than another it is Musical Chairs, and as there cannot be a person
living, who does not know that historic pastime, there will be no need
to describe it in detail.
However, among your young guests you will be sure to find one or two
boys who do not care to play the game, yet who can be made exceedingly
useful in another way as “umpires.” Most boys of fourteen or fifteen
have a great sense of honor when games are under consideration; let two
boys, then, be the arbiters of the sport--let them decide whether, when
the music stopped, Tommy found a seat before Johnny, or whether Billy
was too rough when he pushed Mary aside and took the seat that should
have been hers. You will have no need to grumble at the impartiality or
the reverse of the young umpires.
After Musical Chairs, what better than Blind Man’s Buff, a game that
never stales, made more exciting if “Buff,” after having caught a
victim, fails to identify his prey, and must therefore pay a forfeit to
be chosen by his captive? Children love forfeits.
Hissing and Clapping, Dumb Crambo, Acting Proverbs--there is no end to
the games that children love. And let them choose their own. You will
add a thousandfold to the success of your party if you allow your guests
to please themselves, and by so doing you will give yourself far more
pleasure than would be the case if you “fussed about” arranging,
directing, ordering. Children love responsibility as much as
“grown-ups.”
Above all, remember that “Boys will be boys.” It is only with the
greatest tact that you will be able to eliminate the boisterous element,
which will crop up now and again in the best regulated parties. If you
can enlist in your services some jolly bachelor who loves children, and
who can romp with them as a child, you will have solved the problem of
keeping down the rowdy element. A man of this stamp can work wonders
with an obstreperous youngster, can smooth out the creases in your
handiwork, can keep things at concert pitch, and if at the end of the
party he is a worn-out and exhausted wreck--being who he is, he won’t
mind.
So seven o’clock comes. The time for farewells has arrived. Wraps and
coats must be put on, and the little ones, flushed, excited, happy, are
dispatched to their various homes.
“Thank you so much, it has been fun.” “We’ve had a ripping time, thank
you.” “It’s been splendid.” Such thanks as these will repay you for
three hours of babel and pandemonium, for all the forethought and tact
you have brought to bear on a by no means too easy task.