Build A Bear Party

[Green22]

Are there any coupons for this? Or ways to use coupons and save a little within the party? I feel like i have seen $10 off $30 purchase in coupon magazines in the mail from time to time (which of course I did not clip).

Also, anyone who has done one, can you give an idea on an okay price per child? It says $15 gets a bear and a T-Shirt, but someone I spoke to on the phone said $23 gets a larger selection of bears and an outfit. I don't want the kids (younger 3-5) to feel like they can't get a cool bear, KWIM?

Thanks for any input!

[quinnsmom]

We did a Build-A-Bear party for DD's 5th birthday party. I can't remember exactly but I want to say it was $18 or $20 per child. There were no coupons around when we did it. This was in TN. It was a really successful party. All of the parents commented about how great they thought it was that each child could pick out a Bear (they only had the choice of 2 of the lowest price bears) and outfit - that they came home with something they really loved and not a bag of throw away trinkets. I feel like it was originally $15 a child but the girl said if we bumped it up just a few dollars that the choices for outfits were larger. I'm really glad we did that because if we went with the lower price most of the choices were just a t-shirt for each bear. But at the higher price there were a lot of really pretty dresses for the girls to choose from and even some great costumes for the boys to choose from. This made up for the basic bear selection and everyone was really happy with their choices. I don't think that would have been the case with the t-shirt option. The Build-A-bear we had our party at was at an outside mall (in September.) It was a gorgeous day. After the party we all walked over to a pizza place a few stores down and ate at the tables outside. On the walk over we picked up a cookie cake at the Great American Cookie Company and sang Happy Birthday before the pizza came out. There were 18+ kids and their parents (most of DD's class) and it went surprisingly very smoothly. It was a big hit!

ETA - it was a princess and superhero theme party. The Build-A-Bear girls dressed up in tiaras and had wands (although they said they would dress up as princesses - they didn't) The kids came dressed up as their favorite princess and super hero. The choices for the bear outfits had a few princess dresses and some batman, etc. outfit choices so the kids matched their bears. Very cute.

[georgiegirl]

We did DD's 6th birthday party there last year. I bought gift cards from Costco ($39.99 for $50 worth of gift cards.). Also, if you have a certain amount of kids, the birthday kid is free. My total bill for 7 kids (with a $22 limit) was $135 total. I had spent $120 to get $150 in gift cards. (So i spent $120 and still had $15 left on the gift card to use later.). What I did was limit the animals to the $10-12 animals (two bears, a dog and something else), then they could pick a decently nice outfit. I went in a few weeks before and grabbed a whole bunch of sale outfits to have as options, so the kids could get more bang for their buck. The people who worked there were totally cool about putting a bunch of sale clothes in a bag for us in the back. All of the kids were super happy. After, we went back to my house (only 5 min from the mall) and ate pizza (take and bake from Costco), salad, and cake pops. It worked out great and wasn't that expensive.

[ckso]

Thanks for posting. I was wondering what to do for DD turning 5 and I think this is totally doable. I'll just invite her closest friends.

[Green22]

Thanks so much for the feedback. I called costco and they were out of the gift cards but I'll know for next time. I have not been to one before and I feel a bit better hearing these good stories! We are only having 6 friends (the minimum) so I think this is do-able, and actually cheaper than some of our other options ( bounce u type place and gymboree -which was 350 for a 90 min party!)

Also I booked online and it did not let me enter a code for 10 off 30, in case this helps anyone else.

[pinay]

You may also want to check your credit card rewards programs- build a bear gcs were an option for us so we got one for DD1 to use the next time we were near one.

[Choccie]

We've done Build a Bear for my DS when he was 4, 5, and 6 - he's a bit too old now (8 this year) but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this for a party!! It's so easy - and I think inexpensive compared to other options. In the past I've also bought BAB cards from COSTCO and then BAB also have the birthday kid free. I think we had @ 14 kids each year. They could choose anything - any bear, any outfit. Surprisingly few chose the higher priced stuff and I think we netted out at around $320 for everyone. PLUS - you don't have to do any crappy goodie bags - the bears are the goodie! Love that it's so easy that way!!

Don't forget you also get a tonne of bear points for the $$ spent at the party. I think we literally got about 3 more free bears during the year for my DS which was a great bonus and fun.

This year we are probably doing trampolines or horse back riding. 20 kids. Will net out around $550. I'm dreading organizing take home gifts etc. but might do something simple like a hula hoop (I hate random bags of crap that come home from parties - they always go right in the trash!!)