Party Decorations -- What Decs Add the Biggest Bang for the Buck?

Decorations are a complete waste of money. I have never seen a kid even notice decorations or care about them. Save any money you might spend on decorations and spend it on food/drinks or entertainment. If you must have decorations just have balloons, then let the kids each take on when they leave.

The only decorations I've ever done for a kids party are balloons (less than $20) and a "happy birthday" banner that I bought several years ago for like $3 at the party store. Kids don't really care about or even notice decorations and I prefer to spend money on the food and crafts/activities.
If Lego Star Wars is the theme you could randomly spread out Lego Star Wars pieces on the table around the cake, like confetti.

Diana:

sorry - I think decorations are a waste of money. Really. No one really notices them and then they all get thrown away.

You are spending WWWWAAAAAYYY too much money on things that NO ONE will remember or care about.

Buy some balloons and be done with it. If some of them say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Great! If not? No biggie.

Fill some of them up with water and have a water balloon fight. You are in Arizona where I'm sure it will be hotter than - well - it rhymes with that word.

Go to the dollar store. Buy some tall glass vases, like straight cylinders. fill these with Lego pieces- if your house is like mine, you have millions in a bin somewhere! If you want to fill more with fewer bricks, put the roll from the center of a wrapping paper roll or a skinnier vase inside the cylinder and fill the space between the two with Legos. Use the filled cylinders to hold up trays of snacks, dishes of candy, etc. Buy boxes of Kleenex and the round containers of mints (IceBreakers or similar). Hot glue or otherwise stick two mint containers to the tissue box. Spray paint a solid color- voila, giant Lego for $3!

I think that they're all a waste. Just get the stuff you NEED in the theme colors. You'll need tableware. Might as well get it in the theme colors. Get some balloons, tablecloths, and confetti for the tables.

A banner is okay. Streamers? Perhaps if the kid is younger. I think you'll be hard pressed to spend $50 on all that if you shop the dollar store.

My son had a "Hulk" party this year so all I did was get tableware in purple and green. No real themed stuff

Helium Balloons gathered in the center of each table.. Maybe on a pile of Legos and Star War Books..

I just remembered. They also make Lego candy! One of our grocery stores sells it in the bulk section..

http://www.amazon.com/Concord-DK-Candy-Blox-Lbs/dp/B000BH...

I like looking at pinterest for ideas. Some you can tell cost a lot and others could be more time to make, yet affordable.

I love parties that look like a 'party' and something special, so i guess i am opposite from several of the replies. I think the party favors and food (so Yoda Soda or can be incorporated into the decor as well. I think labeling the food with a star wars name is cute too (I have seen this at a party and on pinterest).

Does your child have star wars items that can be used on the table (or hanging it somewhere)? For example, Darth Vader mask propped behind a bowl of snacks. Light Sabers crossed on a buffet table.

One thing that's always been neat is the big wall size poster that kids can take their picture next to. Parents can take the pictures themselves or you can take a pic of all the kids together in front of it or individual ones and email them to the parents, each with the birthday child. I think they may have the cut out stand ups but I think they cost more.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

I never decorate for a party.
The kids care about cake and pizza (if you're having a meal), soda to drink, something to do (the bounce houses will be fine) and you can go with something easy for goody bags (to be handed out as people leave).
Best party favor my son every got was an inflatable sword (from Oriental Trading - they are very cheap and come by the dozen).
The party host handed them out, the kids blew them up, and they had a ball with them the whole party.
Our son kept his and played with it for YEARS!
I think it's still somewhere in his room (he's 14 right now).
I never put candy in goody bags (many parents do) and the little toys we used over the years included rubber balls, hacky sack balls, glow sticks, those little ball bearing maze puzzles, miniature beach balls (they are about 4 inches across inflated - put it in the goody bag deflated and they can blow it up at home), tiny bottles of bubbles, stickers, and temporary tattoos (not all at once - only 2 or 3 things per bag).
If you really hate the parents give the kids whistles or kazoos.
IF you are determined to do some decorations (and really - the kids just don't care a bit about them - they don't care what the plate/cups/napkins look like), get a happy birthday banner that you can fold up and use again for several years (for anyone's birthday).
Simple balloons are cheap and easy and you can use them for a water balloon toss.
Really you don't have to spend a lot.
In your case, with 25 or so kids/siblings, etc - I'd go with the inflatable swords (call them lightsabers).

http://www.orientaltrading.com/diy-inflatable-swords-a2-4...

These are great!
They come blank white, and the kids can use markers to make their own designs.
Get 3 dozen and some markers and you're set.

Use what you have! We always did - dinosaur parties used my son's dinos as decorations, either on tables or hung from the ceiling. If you have Lego/Star Wars creations that are already assembled, use those.

I love the suggestions about vases filled with Legos (using cardboard tubes to fill up empty space)!! Make a Lego stand to put the cake on (just mix up the colors any old way), or see if you can stick them to double-stick tape on poster board spelling out "Happy Birthday" or the number birthday it is. If they are too heavy and don't hold, use Elmer's Glue on poster board, then just soak the whole thing in the tub the day after - the warm water will soften the glue and the Legos can be removed - drain in a colander and then go back into the Scatter a few on the tablecloths. Create a stand or even a lego border for the stacks of cups and plates if you want. Stick a few right on top of the cake - spell out the child's name or anything else you want. That way you can use a plain cake (store bought or your own) and not pay for the decorating. I think you could also create a cake that looks like a giant lego by just using the bottom of small dixie cups (cut as needed and inverted) or flat-bottomed ice cream cones, then adding frosting on top.

Borrow borrow borrow from friends - do they have posters from any of the movies?

I think a few plates or napkins in the theme work, and compliment them with plain plates in complimentary colors - saves money.

Helium balloons are fun but it gives you one more thing to do on the say of the party And they're absolutely not reusable!

If you have a blank space on a wall, I'd let you kids cut up poster board to resemble Legos. Like a silver rectangle with three squares on top to look like a lego. Maybe a red one and deep blue one. I'd have a lego creation for each table as a center piece and keep the rest of napkins and stuff plain to reuse every year. Balloons are cheerful and say birthday to me.
I'd do silver, red and blue separately on respective tables to give it punch and definition.

Of course, I have every chunky candle I ever bought for the kid's bithdays! I get a kick out of bringing out their 1 yr candles for all their teen birthdays!

At Walmart you can buy a small helium tank for around $20, it comes with balloons and ribbons. You can also buy poster board (very cheap) and use it to make your own banners and games.

I love the Dollar Tree.

Balloons (the dollar store has helium filled balloons) and a banner. I never spend more than $12. I reuse the same Banner every year and we use napkins, plates and cups that I buy periodically at Costco. I am really not into themed party decorations.

IMO, crepe streamers. They are very cheap, and one roll can go really far - hang from ceiling, drape over doorways, wrap around posts, etc.

I made tissue paper pom poms for my sons first bday relatively cheap....love love the way they added to our theme!! Might be too cutsie for a Starwars theme but maybe you can cut them to look like stars or even planets or something....other than the basics are really all we have used so far!

My son's last birthday party was also Lego Star Wars themed. The only specifically Star Wars decorations I bought for the house were a couple of banners and cheap plastic table cloths from Party City. I taped regular (non-helium) balloons all over. These were all super cheap. Otherwise, the color scheme was black and gold, so those are the color tableware, plates, cups, and napkins I used. All the food had fun Star Wars names. I printed out labels on my own printer using a Star Wars font I downloaded for free. We had a sundae bar, so the "cake" was just a pan of vanilla ice cream and I put a Lego mini AT-AT walker on it so that it would look like the Hoth battle. This was probably the most expensive decoration of the entire party, but it doubled as a birthday present.

For the favors, I taped modeling balloon (like the kind used to make balloon animals) to little keychain flashlights I found on Oriental Trader to look like light sabers. Putting it all together ended up being a craft activity for the kids. This idea was better in theory than it really worked out to be, but all the kids loved the little flashlights. I've seen a lot of people make light sabers out of pool noodles too.

Good luck!

Table cloths.... are either disposable or cloth.
If disposable, you will not be able to, use it again. It will be dirty and/or torn up.
If cloth, well you have to find some that are solid colors in the colors you want like black or red. And then the size of it has to match those party table's dimensions.
What a pain.

This is for a kids party?
You did not say what kind of party or how old the kid is.
Why is there a need for "center pieces" or card tables or banners? That all costs extra. And is not necessary.
I've never done that for any of my kids' parties.

Get a bunch of plain regular balloons in colors you want, filled with helium, and tie them up all over the party room.
Because, if you buy those "foil" type helium balloons, those cost a lot more.
And if you have a bunch of balloons all over the place to decorate, that is a "party" ambiance. And go to a dollar store to get the tableware.

And the other party costs... will be for the FOOD. And drinks. And cake.
So you either spend bucks for decorations. OR the food.

I'm in the minority. Both (young) kids have birthdays near a holiday, so I decorate the one room where the food and birthday cake will be served. Nothing extravagant - a themed centerpiece, dessert plates and napkins. Maybe a few balloons. I purchase removable themed wall decals, placing them on walls, at kids' eye view, so they can be excited that it's "their" special day. A pleasant distraction from the "let's open gifts!" mentality. Then I let them decide whether to re-use them as wall accents in their room for a few months. Have fun!

(To clarify, we only do small parties at home. We don't go to the party venues. Money saved.)

No little ones now, but I used to love planning for parties. I would go with a theme my children picked and decorate with what I had, something we would use in the future or something that was a game or activity the kids would do. No banners or balloons or Happy Birthday decorations. So a My Pretty Pony party would be posters my daughter had, a pony cake, a scavenger hunt to find each guests gift of a pony, then lots of time spent grooming the ponies, and pictures of the girls and their ponies. A monster party would include a table with craft materials for all to make their own monster masks and monster noisemakers, with monster music to dance to. No goodie bags, only themed gifts that were part of the party. And parties were definitely personal and small by today's standards.

I will usually go with the helium balloons because they are so visible. A couple with the theme on them, then some coordinating colors to round out the bouquet.

I will also put coordinating color table coverings on the tables, not the actual theme. We have a Dollar General where we get a lot of this too.

I will buy dessert plates and napkins in the character, but not meal plates.

That is usually about all I do. I've found if you take pictures with the balloon bouquet in the background you get nice, party atmosphere pictures.