By Karen Axelton
Are you a party planner, event organizer or otherwise involved in the world of festivities? Here’s a fun trend to know about: According to The New York Post, a growing number of adults are planning kid-themed birthday parties.
The Post cites several celebrities, including designer Betsey Johnson, politicial Charles Rangel and actor Tracy Morgan, who have held kiddie parties. But the trend is also trickling down to the non-famous. One party planner quoted in the article, Matt Toubin of Shine Events, says 10 percent of his clients are planning kid parties for themselves and looking for things like water-balloon races, roller skating, Pac-Man games, cotton-candy and snow-cone machines and “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” games. Many are wealthy, successful people who have hosted elaborate birthday parties for themselves before–“but those parties are boring,” says one birthday boy quoted by the Post.
“New York is such a pressure-filled city, these people who work in finance or legal professions put in thousands and thousands of hours — they want to celebrate in a bigger way,” Toubin says. “These parties let them revisit their past, to a time when everything was fun and they didn’t have to worry.”
The Post theorizes the trend is hot in New York because so many residents are childless (so they have never planned a real child’s birthday party), have busy social lives (so they’re jaded by fancy adult parties) and have the funds to splurge. But I can easily see the concept spreading to the suburbs. After all, what harried parent or stressed-out middle manager wouldn’t relish a day to retreat to the safety of childhood and be the center of attention once again?
