Organizing a party for small children is quite a hassle, but it usually turns out to be a lot of fun because small children are very enthusiastic and easily satisfied. Organizing a party for teenagers and teenagers is a lot more difficult. You can no longer keep children aged 14 or 15 entertained by laying down a tissue or tick tock boom. When they turn 16, they often start planning a sweet sixteen party. What is it, what can you do and how do you organize something like this? Some ideas and tips for a fun sweet sixteen party. Organizing a party for small children is not easy and here everything falls on the parents. But small children are quickly satisfied and don’t even notice if something goes wrong. Wiping snot noses and putting out small fires is all you have to do here. At a sweet sixteen party the cards are different! The parents have to organize the party and keep it on track, but the teenagers have a lot to deal with and are usually not easily satisfied.
What is a sweet sixteen party?
The phenomenon comes from America. Sixteen-year-olds are having a party with lots of glitter and glamour. Expensive clothes are bought, expensive gifts are bought and people arrive at the party in a limo. It doesn’t have to be that extreme, but more and more sixteen-year-olds want to throw a fun party here, their first real party. So it is up to the parents to organize such a sweet sixteen party, with the necessary discretion.
Where are we having the party?
You have no room at home and no money to rent a room
Then you can take the group of friends to do something outdoors. Some examples: going to the cinema, going bowling, going paintball, going swimming, skating, etc.
A party at home
The party happens at your home. The young people can dance, relax, watch a movie, play games, etc. Make sure there are clear agreements: what is allowed and what is not, where can the young people go and where not, etc.
The party takes place on location
You can rent all kinds of rooms for this. Just think of a parish hall, a club room, a scout room, etc. A price is usually paid for members. Here too, concrete agreements: what is allowed and what is not allowed, who cleans up afterwards, etc.
Invitations
No more paper invitations, that’s for little kids. To be cool, the invitation is done via Facebook. Don’t forget to mention the date and place of the party, the start and end time, a telephone number where you can be reached and, if necessary, the dress code and a gift tip. Make sure that it does not become project You can also state on the invitation that, for example, no alcohol will be served and whether there is parental supervision or not.
What do you need to provide?
- a room or enough space in the house. Remember to keep fragile or valuable items safe.
- music
- movies
- to eat
- snacks
- sweets
- games: board games or WII games (in this case TV and WII console provided)
- a quiz . This does require some preparation, but you can also use the questions from board games such as Trivial Pursuit.
- a treasure hunt. Here too, quite some preparation is required.
Parents present or parents away?
This will depend on your teenager. What exactly are they going to do? Can they be trusted? Are they just going to watch a movie, dance, have food to be provided, etc. The young people will often like to do what they want without too much supervision, but they will also like their parents to provide the food and solve unforeseen problems. Perhaps a compromise: the parents are discreetly present and keep an eye on things from a distance. Young people at that age are very sensitive and do not want to be embarrassed in front of their friends by silly parents. Be careful not to act like a teenager too much.
How do you receive the guests?
Sixteen years old is the age at which you are theoretically not allowed to drink alcohol. So keep it sober, because it shouldn’t become a drinking party. Therefore, consider non-alcoholic drinks or fun colored non-alcoholic cocktails. Place the different drinks in beautiful glasses on a tray and place someone at the entrance of the room. Also provide bowls with chips, nuts and other snacks on the various tables. You can also place a candle or flowers on each table. Also keep a table free to put the gifts on.
What can you do at a sweet sixteen party?
For boys
A cool treasure hunt, a game of football, whether or not in the dark, a movie, music, games on the WII, board games, card games.
For girls
Fun for girls is to organize a real make-up evening. Invite a professional and let the girls enjoy a real nail styling, facial massage session and make-up advice. Add some nice music and dancing and it will be a fun giggling evening.
Too expensive? Then you can also dance, take quizzes, watch a (romantic) movie, listen to music, have a nice chat, etc.
For a mixed group
A treasure hunt, a film, games on the Wii (just dance and just sing for example), board games (UNO, Jungle Speed, Pictionnary on a large board, Trivial Pursuit,…), a quiz, dancing, a Limbo competition, etc.
What food can you serve?
Before eating, think about cool and simple things:
- hamburgers, possibly with lettuce, tomato and cucumber
- hot dogs, possibly with sauerkraut
- croque monsieur / sandwich
- a large pot of spaghetti
- a tasty meal soup
- pancakes or poffertjes
- apple Dumplings
- pies and (home-baked) cakes
Taking pictures
Sixteen year olds usually don’t like this, but try to take some nice pictures anyway. A group photo with everyone present, for example, or a number of photos taken at unexpected moments. A great memory for later or for an album. If your son or daughter can later put the photos on Facebook to share them with friends, they will be grateful to you.
Another option is to pass on the camera during the evening. Ask the young people themselves to take photos of each other, then the threshold may be lower than if a complete stranger mom or dad is taking the photos.
Some group games
Just guess
Make a number of cards in advance with names of teachers, titles of films, song titles, names of singers, names of friends, etc. Put them in a box. Create two teams. A person from team 1 goes to the front and draws a card. That person tries to portray what is on the card as best as possible. Set an hourglass or a kitchen timer. If the time has expired and team 1 has not found it, team 2 can make another attempt to say it. The team that guesses wins a point. Continue until the box is empty.
Pictionary
Make up cards in advance with a number of things, countries, animals, proverbs, etc. Place the cards in a box. The rest of the game is the same as above. A person from team 1 tries to get the others to guess what is on the card by means of drawings on a board or on a large sheet of paper.
Balloon bursting stairs
Prepare balloons with a string around. Everyone ties a balloon around their ankle. Now put on a song. Everyone tries to kick as many of their opponents’ balloons as possible and protect their own balloon. Whoever has their balloon left at the end of the song wins.
Musical chairs with a plus
Everyone sits down on a chair. Someone stands in the middle and says the commands. For example, the assignments could be: everyone with a sister moves up two places, everyone with blonde hair moves up seven places, everyone wearing something red moves up three places, etc. If you end up in a chair where someone else is sitting, you have to sit on that person’s lap. On the next assignment you must move up by two if the assignment applies to the person at the bottom. Lots of laughter!
Make fire
What it always does is start a fire. If you have a lot of space, you can make a real campfire. If you have less space, use fire pits. Scary stories can be told around the fire, the guitar can be played or marshmallows or sausages can be eaten. Atmosphere assured!
Music
Provide a healthy mix of music. Just because one person is crazy about a certain style does not mean that the others also like to dance to it. So mix the styles as much as possible and include a few classics such as the Bamba, the Macarena, the Ketchup song, etc. Also test your sound system in advance. Too bad if your installation doesn’t work at that moment because you forgot a cable or something is defective!
Alcohol and drugs
Even if you don’t serve drinks yourself, young people will often be very crafty and still bring their own alcohol. They hide small bottles of drinks in backpacks or handbags, which they then mix with cola or other soft drinks. There’s not much you can do about that, because it’s difficult to keep a bag check when the kids come in. Even when they go outside for a breath of fresh air, this is usually not innocent, but a joint is sometimes passed around. Paying attention, not leaving alcohol nearby and making strict agreements with your teenagers in advance is certainly the message!