It’s a GOOAAALLL!
How to throw a fun football-themed birthday party for your kids!
My kids and I love watching live football (soccer) on TV: the energy, the team spirit, the excitement, heck, even the screams of overheated fans that threaten to split our eardrums! We don’t get too many chances to watch high-profile (national/international) games at a stadium, so when a global tournament like the FIFA World Cup is on, we try to watch every match on TV. We even pick our favourite teams early on! No matter who actually wins, conversations at our dinner table can get heated but pretty darn interesting! ☺
This year, my son celebrated his 8th birthday in July, coinciding with the 21st edition of the FIFA World Cup that was played in Russia between 14th June and 15th July.
(I was rooting for France from the beginning BTW! Félicitations ma France!) ☺
And that’s when I hit upon the idea of organising a sports-event/football-themed birthday party to welcome the 9th year of this little human being who is so special to me (doting Mum alert!) ☺
In this step-by-step guide, I show you how you can organise your very own football birthday party. It’s not very difficult to set everything up, and it’s cheaper than your run-of-the-mill restaurant/fast food outlet/mall party. Even better, the kids will get lots of fresh air and exercise and they’ll learn important life skills like teamwork, coordination and responsiveness that cannot be taught in a classroom (or even at home!) Plus, it’s a unique way to celebrate your little one’s birthday and it’s loads of fun for everyone – even parents!
What you will need:
- A good location
- Teams
- Gear – jerseys, caps, shoes
- Trophies or other prizes
- Signs and banners
- A few volunteers
- Food – optional
- Electronic gear – optional
Ready?
Set!
GOAAAALLL!!!!
How to organise the event:
Step 1: HIRE A GOOD LOCATION
An event like this naturally requires lots of space, so a tiny playground will not do. Shop around for a school or club that rents out their grounds (city council too!). You can easily find the administrator in charge and make arrangements beforehand. Nowadays there are many football turfs available for rent from 1500 – 2000 per hour. We rented the football turf in Model town for 2 hours.
Step 2: DRAW UP A GUEST LIST
For my event, I had 2 teams- Messi vs Neymar ! It was overcast that day and football became even more fun with the rains!!
Step 3: DESIGN AN EVENT LOGO, INVITES & JERSEYS/BIBS FOR THE PLAYERS
For every party I throw for my kids, I pay attention to every little aspect of the event, especially when it comes to personalising and designing stuff. My husband calls me anal-retentive; I just call it ‘detail-oriented’ ☺
I wanted to give this event an authentic sports-event-like feel, so I got customized jerseys and shorts for everyone.
Then I designed invitation cards through postermywall.com. With this brilliant website, you can choose from a wide variety of themes, templates, colour schemes, fonts, etc to design your own posters, banners and invitations. You do need to sign up first and create an account first (it’s free). However, if you prefer the good old pen-paper route, go for it! Do remember to use bold colours, funny cartoons and jazzy fonts – it is a kid’s party after all!
Invite
Step 4: ORGANISE THE REFRESHMENTS
Depending on your budget (again ☺), you can either bring some coolers with packed snacks and drinks, or you can take all the kids to a restaurant or fast food outlet. Since my group was pretty large, I made an advance booking at Kailash Parbat restaurant.
Step 4: THE EVENT
A few adult family members volunteered and we divided the kids into groups with atleast 2 adults in each group. The kids had the football brawl for about 1 hour and then we sang birthday song for the birthday boy.
After the birthday song, the kids had their chance at the penalties. All the kids got super excited with the idea of scoring penalty goals.
Line up for the penlaty shoot out 🙂
Step 6: THE BIRTHDAY CAKE AND RETURN GIFTS
What is a birthday party without a birthday cake?
For all my kids’ birthday parties, I get special-edition cakes baked by a speciality-baker, and this occasion was no different.
I gave the jerseys and shorts in the beginning of the party and told each child that this was their return gift.
And that’s it! See, I told you it’s easy to organise a football-themed party for your little prince or princess ☺
Some more tips
Make sure a First Aid Box is on hand during the event. If the venue cannot provide one, bring your own.
Get the birthday boy/girl to hand out the prizes. Again, take pictures to commemorate the occasion.
Encourage him/her to give a speech thanking everyone for coming and celebrating with him. (don’t push him if he doesn’t want to, though).
Keep an eye on the kids who are temporarily on the sidelines to ensure that they don’t wander off. Involve other parents to volunteer for guard duty and do a head count after the event.
When you send out the invites, talk to each parent about outfitting their kids in the proper gear – comfortable jerseys, shorts and good shoes (spikes are essential).
Don’t forget the sunscreen: SPF30 or more!
Some final thoughts
A party like this requires some creativity, planning and lots of patience. Load up on all 3, and you’ll surely see the results in your child’s shining eyes and excited body language.
For another ‘sporty’ birthday idea, do check out my Olympics-themed post here
Did you organise a football party for your little one? I’d love to hear from you about your experience. Do drop me a line in the form below!