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Holiday Parties
Do you do holiday parties? We do a big one with family members for Halloween, but that's about it. I'm curious about Valentine's Day right now, but other holidays as well.
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I used to but plan on moving away from it. I did our annual Halloween party and it was AWFUL. The kids behaved terribly (mostly boys in superhero costumes = disaster), and I wound up having them get out of their costumes half way through. I cancelled our annual Christmas open house because I couldn't stomach a repeat of the last year when the kids tore through my home because their parents were here and one dcd brought a six pack.
I am thinking for Valentine's Day just telling parents that we are doing some special valentine activities/crafts and to NOT bring Valentine's to hand out. -
No parties here for any holidays but we do special crafts, etc and we have special snacks on those occasions. We might watch a holiday tv show as well which is a treat due to not watching tv on regular days. I also get lots of holiday themed books to read.Comment
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We do them here. The kids enjoy them and honestly I love to decorate for different holidays and I love to bake. So this is just one more reason for me to do so. We are making truffles for the parents for Valentine's Day. I'm pretty excited about this. We do crafts and coloring everyday so for V-day we will do something extra special.Comment
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We have a valentines party, easter egg hunt, fall/halloween party, and christmas party. These are in-house during dc time. We then have two parent meetings a year...one with kids, one without. Sometimes parents come for the daycare parties, sometimes not.I used to but plan on moving away from it. I did our annual Halloween party and it was AWFUL. The kids behaved terribly (mostly boys in superhero costumes = disaster), and I wound up having them get out of their costumes half way through. I cancelled our annual Christmas open house because I couldn't stomach a repeat of the last year when the kids tore through my home because their parents were here and one dcd brought a six pack.
I am thinking for Valentine's Day just telling parents that we are doing some special valentine activities/crafts and to NOT bring Valentine's to hand out.
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No parties for me either. Too many different beliefs, traditions and cultural differences that it is impossible to please everyone and it goes against my personal beliefs to "commercialize" holidays I view as religious.Comment
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I do little parties during dc hours-I only have 4 dcks. Parents are welcome to come, but I would rather not have them come so I don't mention it
I love having them. We do them during afternoon snack so they don't last very long and they're usually stress free.Comment
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I don't make a huge deal out of our "parties". But I do try to plan a few extra fun activities on the holiday. Things that we probably don't normally do. We'll do some crafts that go along with the holiday. I don't encourage gift exchanges or treat bringing, but some parents like to - so they do. I don't do anything with the parents. We just do our "party" during the day while the kids are here. Usually, we'll watch a movie that fits the holiday or season too. TV time is very limited here, so this is always a hit.Comment
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I love parties or anything that makes my day different, so I do them. I never expect appreciation or acknowledgement because they are something I do partially for myself
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Like Jack Sprat, I LOVE baking/cooking/making candies so anything that allows me to give out my creative expressions is fine by me!
I think for Valentine's Day, I want to dip strawberries in chocolate and give them to the parents. For the kids, I will be making peanut blossoms like this (these are the ones I made last year):
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I don't do parties. It sadly encourages the parents to do nothing at home for their own children.Comment
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I usually do a Holiday Party near Christmas time, in the evening with families-potluck style with a "Sing-Along". Some years are too busy around that time to do it, so we'll do a Valentine's Sing Along Party instead. The kids make treats and decorate the classroom. I do not love to entertain, so I usually dread it a little bit, but always end up enjoying it. The parents all tend to come and seem to really appreciate it.
I do lots of during-hours parties throughout the year and even though they can be exhausting, they are my favorite days!! We do pajama day for our Halloween Party (no costumes here!), a Valentine's Party where we exchange cards and a Hibernation Celebration around Easter where our Bears that we put to sleep in their paper mache caves in the winter wake up. We also do an Easter Egg hunt at this party. I LOVE kid parties!
If I ran a childcare, like all-day childcare, I would only have during-hours parties and probably never have family parties or evening meetings. But, because I run a "preschool" (only 9-noon), I feel it's expected and don't want the families to feel like they're missing out on things compared to if they were at a "preschool center".Comment
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We do our parties during DC hours. We post a list of snacks if parents want to sign up to bring something, and then have them at our usual snack time. Then we do some holiday themed activities during the day, nothing huge.
For Valentine's Day, we send home a class list and whoever wants to brings valentines and we help the kids pass them out.Comment
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I do parties, but they are more just like a holiday-themed snack. We might also watch a movie that fits the holiday theme. But we don't do too much.Comment
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We definitely have a special day with crafts and treats and movies. I love holidaysComment
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