Party Decorations

With hundreds of cartoons, television shows and films around that children love, it can sometimes be hard to pin down exactly what theme you would like for your child's party.

Bearing in mind that little nippers love to dress up and let their imagination run wild, a theme that will allow them to wear fancy dress, play and eat in a certain style is guaranteed to go down well.

Obviously some themes are better suited to either boys or girls and certain age groups, but what is most important is to chose something that you know your child will love and be proud to invite all of their friends to. Here are some ideas:

For Girls: Barbie, Bratz, Disney Princesses and Beautiful Fairies.

For Boys: Spiderman, Pirates and Football Party.

For Younger Children: Winnie the Pooh, Thomas the Tank Engine and Farmyard Animals.

For Older Children: High School Musical, Under the Sea, Beach Party and Wild West.

You have decided on a theme, booked the venue and sent out the invitations. Now it is time to look for those decorations that are going to turn a drab and cold village hall into party central!

Wandering around the High Street from shop to shop can make it difficult to compare prices and styles and leads to aching feet and grumpy Mums and Dads. A much better idea is to look for party decorations on the Internet. There are lots of sites with thousands of products on display at reasonable prices with fast delivery - Ideal!

The things that you want to be looking for to decorate the party room are:

Balloons: A party must-have. Individual balloons can be tied to coloured ribbons and attached to the back of chairs, grouped in the corners of the room or for extra special effect, a professional can create a balloon arch to greet your guests.

Banners & Bunting: Can be used to trim around the whole room. Either choose traditional 'Happy Birthday' banners or pick a colour or image that suits the look of the rest of the party.

Table Centrepieces: These sparkly and shiny table decoration are a finishing touch to make the room look extra special.

Tableware: There are loads of themed plates, bowls, tablecloths and cutlery about to suit your party. However, don't feel that you have to splash out for the authentic tableware of your chosen theme. For example, a mixture of pink and lilac for a Princess theme would look perfect, as would blues, greens and turquoise for Under the Sea or black, red and gold for a Pirate themed party.

Door Sign: For everyone to see. "The Party is Here!" Make it bright and colouful to direct all of your excited guests to the door.

The day of the party has arrived. The cake is made, presents bought and wrapped, party decorations delivered and fancy dress-costumes perfected.

Make sure that you arrive at the venue early to start decorating. It would be a good idea to create a floor plan with the layout of the tables, chairs and dancefloor marked on. Then you can decide where the decorations can be placed depending on how many you have bought. This means that you will have the balloons and banners evenly distributed around the room, without clumps or bare patches and also it will make the trimming up process faster, easier and more efficient.

Cover all of the tables with tablecloths and remember balloon weights to stop helium filled balloons from floating off. Sprinkle metallic confetti on the tables and place sparkly decorations in the line of the lights to make them twinkle.

Put all of the pre-prepared party bags on a table in the corner of the room and don't give them out until the end of the party. In another corner, trim up a special empty table for guests to put their presents on.

Now, all that is left to do is, get dressed up, put on your dancing shoes and have a wonderful party!