Creative Planning Can Make Birthday Party Very Special

Birthdays are important to children. As soon as one has passed, they begin anticipating the next.

Part of the fun is the birthday party. Some careful planning and creativity are all it takes to make a children’s party a very special event.

Children wear out pretty quickly, so don’t plan an all-day affair. Two hours is a good amount of time for kids over 5. For younger ones, an hour and a half will do.

With a small group, you can give each guest - including the guest of honor - plenty of attention. It’s a good idea to have the number of guests equal the age of the child. For example, for an 8-year-old’s party, invite eight children. For a larger party, recruit the help of a few other adults.

Try to involve your child in the preparations. Work together on the guest list, the party theme and the favors. Make the invitations together: You can write them out, and your child can color them in or help address envelopes.

Children cherish the treats they receive at parties, so be creative with the goody bags. Use Chinese-food cartons, baskets or beach pails to hold goodies. Or decorate small paper or cellophane bags. With ribbons, a hole punch and some paste and colored paper, you can transform them into personalized holders. Instead of using candy, fill them with art supplies, books, stickers, bubbles, magic tricks or rubber stamps.

A theme can make the party even more exciting. Choose it according to what your child likes to do. It can revolve around virtually anything - a favorite book character, food, sport or even color. Or it can be focused on an activity, such as a trip to the children’s museum or an ice-skating rink.

Here are a few ideas for theme parties:

Art party

Serve an artist’s-palette cake: Bake a square or rectangular cake, cut it into a palette shape, frost it with white icing and add dabs of paint with icing in bright colors.

Cover the table with plain white paper and let guests draw directly on it with crayons and colored pencils.

Set up stations for different activities. Give each child a plain T-shirt to decorate with fabric paints. Let them make their own notepads by punching holes in paper and stringing ribbon through to bind them together. Supply stickers, rubber stamps, colored pencils or markers for personalizing the cover.

Set up easels for aspiring painters. Hand out plain, inexpensive picture frames that can be dressed up with buttons, beads, felt shapes, stones or other decorations. Use a Polaroid camera to take a picture for each child’s frame.

Animal party

Make invitations in the shape of your child’s favorite animal.

Take a trip to the zoo, and time your visit to coincide with a feeding or show. (Call first for a schedule and to let them know you’ll be coming with a group.)

When you get home, make animal masks out of brown-paper bags. Cut holes for the eyes and mouth, then decorate with colored paper or paints. Use tissue paper or cotton balls for a mane or fluffy fur.

Use cookie cutters to make animal-shaped sandwiches, and serve cupcakes topped with animal crackers.

Cooking party

Teach kids to make something they love to eat. Give each one an apron, and begin by demonstrating cooking basics, such as how to measure, stir or crack an egg. Go over some safety rules, too.

Make something they can shape or decorate, such as individual pizzas. You can make the dough ahead of time. The kids will enjoy rolling it out and adding toppings.

Bake cookies and decorate them with colored sugar. Top cupcakes with icing, sprinkles and berries.

Send guests home with a recipe for the food they learned to make, as well as their apron, cookie cutters or their own mixing bowl and spoon.

Nature party

Go on a nature walk in a local park. Take along books for identifying flowers, trees and birds. Take magnifying glasses and binoculars to get a closer look.

Give each guest a blank book for pressing leaves and for drawing what they see. Collect beautiful fallen leaves, pine cones and twigs, and make collages when you get home.

Serve leaf-shaped cookies and a cake in the shape of a butterfly, turtle, snake or caterpillar.

Use a little flowerpot for the goody bag. Give plastic magnifying glasses, toy bugs and books about plants or animals.

Keep in mind that a children’s party doesn’t have to be expensive. All these themes require more imagination than money. Young guests will simply enjoy the excitement of the day - and, of course, whatever they find in the goody bag - making all your hard work and planning worthwhile.

MEMO: Questions should be addressed to Martha Stewart, care of The New York Times Syndication Sales Corp., 122 E. 42nd St., New York, NY 10168. Questions may also be sent to Stewart by electronic mail. Her address is: mstewart@msl.timeinc.com.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Martha Stewart New York Times Syndicate