You’ve hosted fairy parties, baked delicious butter-cream cakes in Barbie shapes and delighted in blowing up hundreds of balloons… but your kids are now tweens, neither a child nor a teen, and are demanding a fabulous, incredible, gender non-specific party for their birthday. What is a parent of a demanding tween to do?

The absolute best tween party we have organised of late is the Oscar Party. Fashion some director boards out of cardboard as your invitations and ask the guests to come dressed as their favourite movie star. Roll out the red carpet at the front door and have as many of your own friends as you can muster all bring cameras along and act as paparazzi as your guests arrive.

Divide your guests into groups and have each group write, direct, act in and film a movie of their own. Create a stage for your actors in the backyard complete with tiered seating. Then, show the films one at a time and present “Oscars” for the best screenplay, actor, actress, director and movie.

At the end of the party, send your guests home with a DVD copy of their film – it’s simple and quick to do if you have a home computer and a teenager in the house! When sending out the thank you cards to your guests, print off copies of the best paparazzi shots and include these on the cards.

We guarantee your guests will love this concept and talk about it for many years to come!

Happy celebrating!

Kathryn