Decide on a guest list. Are you going to invite just your best friend? Or perhaps make it a party for 4 or 6 friends?
Theme it: Think of a theme (although this is not imperative) - however, if you and your friends like beauty and fashion you might like to theme your sleepover accordingly - if you and your mates are into soccer, then you'll find some great soccer sleepover invitations on our page featuring Manchester United and Ronaldo and you can have a sleepover using your team's colours as a theme.
Prepare Invitations : Either make your own, look for store-bought invitations or browse sites like ours for something special, meaningful and original that reflects your character or your interests.
Browse the categories we have on this site such as sleepover invitations for teens, or slumber party invitations for boys and so on.
Fill in your sleepover party invitations with all the party details and send them out.
Buy supplies for your theme idea.
Order party gifts/prizes/goody bags for sleepover and for the games you will play.
Organise some board games (think Jenga or Kerplunk or Hungry Hippos which is fun at any age!). Set aside suitable and age-appropriate DVDs and/or a computer game.
On the Day Before the Party
Buy and prepare the snacks and meals you're going to serve.
Dedicate and clear a room for everyone to sleep in
Prepare the room according to your theme
Position the TV safely
Move the Furniture to the side to make space for dancing or pillow fighting
Decorate
Put out guest towels in the bathroom and extra pillows in the room - perhaps you'd like to provide torches (flashlights for those of you reading this in the US) so the children can play at shadow puppets and also use them to find their way to the bathroom at night.
General things:
Have the party the weekend before the birthday
Make the actual birthday a family occasion
Prepare for a late night - oh the iorny of calling the SLEEPovers - when in fact very little sleep actually takes place!
Be prepared with backup ideas – have some sleepover colouring pages on standby for example as a quiet activity when the children are winding down.
Food
- Prepare two meals – Dinner and Breakfast
- Make sure you know of any allergies your guests might have
Let you child help with food choices - go to the supermarket together - Boys love making their own pizzas for examples so you could have a pizza bar with topping choices.
- So yes, get your kids involved in the preparation of the food too - for example in making pancakes
Supplies / issues - things you might need
- Extra bedding/blankets
- First Aid
- Games
- Napkins
- Paper Plates and cups
- Plastic Cutlery
- Beauty supplies such as eye masks, cucumbers etc.
- Extra surprise activities that even your child knows nothing about - so that it is a surprise for him or her too - such as play dough or glitter nail varnish ...
- Fully charged camera/phone to take lots of photos!
After the party you might like to email pics to your guests or post them to their facebook pages or even print a few up as a memento of their sleepover at your house.
Have fun!