Parents take kids’ parties to new levels
Lisa Hurt Kozarovich
Sunday, July 25, 2026

When Allison Wood’s 5-year-old daughter was invited to a tea party, the Williamsville mother pictured a couple of Playskool tables, some plastic tea sets and little girls wearing big, floppy hats.

Upon arrival, she was shocked to see what looked like backyard wedding preparations — a large white tent, children’s tables fully decorated with roses, real china and linen napkins and little girls dressed to the nines.

“I felt like a schmuck. When the invitation said dress for a tea party, I let her wear her purple plastic high heels, a dress-up costume and an old hat of my mothers,” Wood says. “I never imagined a party for a pre-schooler would be so fancy. I was a nervous wreck waiting for her to smash the china.”

She may have been more comfortable at one of the carnival-theme parties that have become so popular for children’s birthday parties.

“A lot of times we do backyard carnivals — complete with tents, tables, cotton candy machine, sno-cone machine, carnival games and some of the inflatables, like a bounce house or giant slide,” says Ryan Zernentsch, marketing coordinator for ABC Events. “A lot of times, parents say, ‘if we’re going to spend all this money taking a bunch of kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s or bowling, we’d rather spend the money doing something different like a carnival at home,” he says.

Carnival theme or tea party, though, parents still are spending big bucks on today’s parties.

Zernentsch, whose company has four locations in Erie County, says parents usually spend about $250 to $300 for a small carnival, but he’s seen some willing to spend a few thousand to go all out.

A recent survey found that on average parents spend about $317 on a child’s party — and that doesn’t include the presents.

In other words, the days of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and eating mom’s homemade cake in the back yard have all but disappeared among many families.

“To me, it’s not about spending a lot of money or doing something bigger than another parent, it’s just that I want to make their birthdays special. My mother didn’t have a lot of money, but she always made us feel very special on our birthdays and I want to pass that on,” says Laura Littman, a Newfane mother of four.

With four children under age 5, all with birthdays spaced two months apart, Littman says she spends most of the year doing some type of planning and purchasing for birthday parties.

Doing so allows her to buy things on sale, make items and prepare for the parties without breaking the bank. Nonetheless, she still ends up spending about $300 for parties.

Then there’s the time the full-time dentist and mom puts in, with the help of her “party patrol.”

“Everybody really gets into it — they help with the food, with buying things, with cleaning and decorating,” she says. But when it came to sewing 15 “Dora the Explorer” backpacks for her daughter’s recent party, it was she and husband Cory at the machine.

For the theme party, there was Mexican food, a piñata, the backpacks as favors and games — like one in which each child received a map and was sent on an exploration to find hidden items.

The previous party was even more involved — thanks to the superpowers of Batman. The family’s garage was transformed into a Bat Cave, all of the 21 children on hand participated in a super hero training course before decorating their capes and masks. But the highlight was the visit by Batman himself. The kids were anxious for his arrival — after all, the Green Goblin had stolen the birthday cake the night before and Batman had left a note promising to return it in time for the party.

“I’ve heard people use the word ‘overboard’ about the parties. Some people can be judgmental, but I don’t care. It’s something that’s important to me. I’m not trying to show off, I’m just trying to make something special for my kids,” Wood says.

It’s easy to go overboard, even when you don’t mean to, points out Rashida Majerowicz of Amherst.

“It can add up before you know it,” says Majerowicz, who estimates spending well over $200 on her daughter Amyah’s first birthday party, not including the cost of gifts or the fact that some family members pitched in with the food.

There were nearly 50 people in attendance at the backyard barbecue – where a case of ribs were served up under a tent, along with hamburgers, hot dogs, Italian sausage, chicken, nachos, chips and candy. When the massive birthday cake — a Boohbah-theme — was unmasked, Amyah simply smashed her hands into it, then went about her business.

Majerowicz says the family always makes a big deal out of the first birthday and then tries to keep it low key and low cost. Still, with a 7-year-old boy, she worries about the growing expense of parties.

She’s already trying to decide how to cope with Quincy’s next birthday — still eight months away. He wants to take a group of friends to a gaming facility to play laser tag. The tag game costs $30 for one session, lasting only 7 to 12 minutes. For a typical two-hour party, the gaming alone would cost nearly $240. Add in a cake, favors, decorations and presents and the cost could easily run $400 or more.

“If we did that, then he’d want something bigger and better the next year and we don’t want to fall into that,” Majerowicz insists.
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