A Hawaiian party complete with luaus and Hula dancers, Tinkerbell's fairy wonderland, Spiderman's action adventure, Scooby Doo's comic capers, Barbie's fashion extravaganza, butterflies dancing in the breeze, ...the sky is the limit, it seems, for kids' birthday parties. And among well-heeled parents in the city, throwing lavish, theme bashes for their kids' birthdays just became the ultimate status statement.
Gone are the days when birthday parties began and ended with blowing out candles and cutting cream-filled birthday cakes. Nowadays parents are pulling out all the stops to ensure that their little princes/princesses have unforgettable birthdays.
Take young mother Sara Ajith, for example. Her daughter Abigail loves Barbies. For Abigail's fourth birthday Sara threw her a lavish Barbie-theme party in a hall, transformed for the occasion into a little girl's fantasy wonderland, complete with life-size cut-outs of Barbie dolls, fairy lights, and an abundance of pink and white balloons and streamers. Abigail, dressed in a ‘princess' frock, with a sparkling crown on her mop of curls, cut a tiered cake in the shape of a Barbie doll. Later, after a series of fun games with her friends, she dined on ‘gourmet' snacks on Barbie-theme paper plates and cups, while being entertained by a live band. At the end of the party each of her 20 friends were given gift bags – Barbie for girls and toy cars boys. “I wanted to make it a magical day for my daughter. It was good fun and most importantly, my daughter loved it,” says Sara.
Expense no bar
Event manager Pratap Koshy of Raspberry Entertainment estimates that a theme party for about 20 guests can easily cost upwards of Rs. 15,000. And that's only for “basic expenses” such as theme-décor, hall rent, cake, food, and gift bags.
Throw in live entertainment and a dance floor, party planners, DJs, video screenings about the birthday boy/girl, imported decorations, fancy cakes, gourmet snacks, photography, face painting sessions, and so on and the costs just quadruple.
“It all depends on each client's budget. I once organised a 15-year-old's birthday party where the parents bought in dancers from Kochi for Rs. 30,000! Most parents are happy with regular themes such as Disney characters. Others meanwhile insist on going all out – out-of-the-box ideas such as woodland theme, fairy theme, Hawaiian theme, and so on,” adds Mary Vimala of Tulips Weddings and Events.
The themes depend on the age of the child in question. For boys parties themes revolving around Spiderman, Winnie the Pooh, Ben 10, Scooby Doo, Disney's Cars , and so on are quite popular, while for girls, Disney Princess, Barbie, butterfly, Dora the Explorer, and so on take the cake.
Earlier sourcing theme party décor was a bit of a task. Sarah, for instance, went to wholesale shops in Kochi to get her Barbie themed décor, while Mary and Pratap sourced their supplies from the metro cities.
It can be taken as a sign of the times that The Party Store – a one-stop destination for themed party ware – opened up shop in Vellayambalam. It's owned by Rebecca Darshan, a party planner who specialises in children's parties.
“I've always had great fun organising my daughter Anya's birthdays. If it was a fairytale theme the first year, it was a garden theme the next year, and Tinkerbell theme for her third birthday. That got me thinking that I could help other mothers throw such parties too. Later, I realised that there was a lot of potential for such a party centre in the city,” says Rebecca, who has got a lot of parties lined up in the coming months, on themes as varied as balloons and cars to cupcakes and pirates.
Looks like the party has just begun.
