It’s no surprise: Any girl, especially a teen girl, would be thrilled to have a slumber party for her birthday. Sleepovers are not only fun, they don’t require a huge deal of money or planning to pull off. By taking care of a few planning details, your girl’s sleepover birthday party can be a memorable success.
- Make a list of guests to invite to the party. This will help ensure that no friends of the birthday girl are left out. It will also aid in planning your menu.
- Send invitations for the sleepover at least two weeks in advance, to give guests time to clear their schedules and respond. On the invitations, indicate that the party is a sleepover, what guests staying overnight should bring, and what time parents should pick up their children in the morning.
- Talk with the birthday girl to find out what activities she wants to include at her sleepover. Allow for as much non-structured entertainment as possible, such as watching movies, playing board games, or dancing, so that you don’t interfere with the party.
- Plan a menu of snacks, drinks, dinner and breakfast for the guests. In addition to favorite foods of the birthday girl, add in healthful options as well. For instance, you could offer chicken burgers, sweet potato fries, pink lemonade, flavored water, and caramel popcorn for dinner, and French toast and fruit salad for breakfast.
- Make fun, but functional, favor bags for the girls. For example, give each guest a tube of lip gloss, a portable toothbrush and travel-sized tube of bubblegum-flavored toothpaste in a small pouch. Such items can be bought inexpensively from most department, big-box and discount stores.
- Pick the largest room available in your home for the sleepover. For example, if there will be 10 guests in addition to the birthday girl, a living room or family room would work well, as the guest-of-honor’s bedroom may be too small to comfortably fit everyone. Clear as much space as possible to accommodate all the guests and their activities.
- Ensure you have the correct contact information for the guardians or parents of each overnight guest, in case of any emergencies.