Ten Memories Of An Irish Childhood Birthday Party

A two hour event… but it could make your week.

Going to birthday parties when you were small was, quite simply, the best thing ever.

The excitement at receiving an invitation, the stuffing your face with three Rice Krispie cakes at once, the piling your Disney paper plate to the hilt with munch as if your own mother hadn’t fed you in a week. It was all part of the childhood experience…

Here are the ten memories that stand out for us…

1. “Are you going to *insert name here*’s party on Saturday?”

Oh, the pressure of invitations… The pressure if you spent hours sitting down with the delegated adult at home writing them, only to forget a classmate and realise it in school the next day. The excuse? “Oh, I’m bringing in more tomorrow you see, we ran out of invitations…”

The pressure if you received an invitation was just as massive, could you keep it safe tucked into your maths book until home time? What would you wear? What present would you get? The excitement was infectious.

And the pressure if you were the poor soul that didn’t get invited to the party? We’re just putting this out there, but you would have been away visiting your cool teenage cousins that weekend anyway…?

2. Rice Krispie Cakes

A staple at every party and the easiest thing for every mum to make with a few hours to kick off. Piling your plate high with four of them, reaching for a fifth later on, loving when you hit a pure chocolatey bit… ahh, memories.

Yum.

3. Your Dress

Getting changed into your party clothes was always a big deal. Anybody ever get sick with excitement? Literally? No, us neither…

4. Musical Chairs Fear

We all know the feeling, the music is still going, “Backstreet’s back, alright…”, you’re still walking tentatively around the chairs, you’re approaching the bit with no chairs, you’re shaking with anticipation, now you’re on the part with chairs, how slow can you walk without people noticing…

5. Party Bags

A chewy bar, a pencil, a napkin (for some reason), a balloon, a whistle. Exactly what every kid needs.

Wahey, Minnie bags!

6. Other People’s Houses

Let’s face it. Other people’s houses are so much better than your own house. The food, the toys, the garden, even their older brother and sisters are cooler…

7. Present Pressure

The moment you realise you have an identical present to somebody else at the party. Traumatic.

8. Cocktail Sausages

Burning your tongue on a cocktail sausage, we’ve all been there.

Ever ate too many of these? Us too.

9. Waiting

The day of a party is the day the kitchen clock will move at its slowest pace ever.

10. High On Sugar

Having a pain in your tummy after the party, not being able to face your mammy’s dinner and having a sugar headache. But, god, it was so worth it.