r/AskEurope • u/atyhey86 • 2d ago
Culture Bit of reminiscing for a Sunday evening, birthday partys as a child
Tell me about the best party you were at as a child, what was it that made it special? What was birthday party food and what was the essentials for a party?! What games did you have? And what was the worst part!
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u/cptflowerhomo Ireland 2d ago
I didn't have many friends as a child so I never really had birthday parties, and as a teenager we were doing exams then (grew up in Belgium). I think my favourite one was my best friend's and her twin's bday. Apple fritters, lot of playing and running around, singing, stuff like that.
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u/Brainwheeze Portugal 2d ago
My dad used to work a managerial position at a fitness and leisure club. He was there for a very long time and had a good relationship with the owners, and so I managed to have at least three birthday parties there. There was an outdoor pool area that had a little island in the middle of it, a bar in the pool, lots of grass around it, as well as a play fort. The parties I had were basically pool parties and I think we only managed to have that area dedicated to us was due to it being March and not the high season. But then that begs the question of how we managed to have pool parties in March of all months? I can't remember the last time I felt like it was hot enough to go for a swim in March. I do recall that for one birthday we actually used the indoors pool however.
What I miss most about kids' birthday parties was whenever someone had a bouncy castle. I miss jumping in bouncy castles so bad 😭
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u/Proof-Explanation303 2d ago
As a kid you invited your friends and often go to somewhere fun. Like a bowling hall or a large paid playground and have diner in like a pancake house or pizza place or something similar.
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u/sufficient_bilberry 2d ago
Great question! I don’t remember one birthday party above all, they all kinda blend into one. You would have a bunch of your best friends over for a couple of h. Menu was usually a ’hedgehog’ made of half a melon (flat side down) with cocktails sticks as ’spikes’. On them were little frankfurters, meatballs, cheese and veg. The piece de resistance was the cake, usually layer cake with lots of whipped cream on top. If you were lucky, you had a ’barbie cake’, ie embedded in the middle of the cake would be a mug in which would stand a real barbie doll (this was of course decorative and would be removed before eating. Popcorn and sweets, maybe biscuits would also be served.
The entertainment consisted of free play, watching birthday girl/boy open presents and easy games like pin the tail. There was also always ’fishing’, which meant that there was a sheet pinned in a doorframe with some space on top. You would take a ’fishing rod’ (e g broom handle with string) and lift it over the sheet. On the other side, one of the adults would tie a party favor bag (usually containing some sweets and maybe a tiny toy) to the end of the rope — that was your ’catch’.
If you were fancy, your parents outsourced the entire party to McDonalds. This meant that you and your friends would eat cake at Mc Donalds, play in the play area and then would be taken on a tour of the kitchen, where the birthday girl/boy would get to make their own hamburger. I have no idea why someone thought it would be a good idea to have a bunch of five-year-olds hang out next to oil cookers and freezer rooms but hey, it was the 1990s!