Noah recently had his fourth birthday! We chose a Build-A-Bear party for him, although he hadn’t visited Build-A-Bear before; we were certain he would love it. Build-A-Bear is an expensive option if you visit without a plan, and we certainly had one to keep the costs down!
The Build-A-Bear party was a great experience and not one we’ll forget soon. Many of the children at Noah’s nursery have been taking their bears in with them since the party!
Booking the party
The Build-A-Bear party was easy to book online. You are asked a few details like how many people will be attending the party, and which party package you’d like. You buy an e-gift card (£20) which is your deposit.
For some
Before the party
Before the party, you need to send out invitations, which you can download for free from the Build-A-Bear Party website. I didn’t know this so I created my own using Canva.
Another really important thing to do is to visit the website Zeek which offers gift cards at reduced prices. There is currently a 13% discount on Build-A-Bear gift cards, which can be used online or instore. I bought £125 worth of Build-A-Bear gift cards, which cost £108.75 – a saving of £16.25.
To get to Zeek’s website I went via TopCashback, which gives you money for making purchases on sites using their referral link. Simply visit TopCashback, sign up if you haven’t already got an account, and then search for Zeek in the search bar. Click Get Cashback and then it will take you through to Zeek, where you buy your discounted gift cards. The offer on TopCashback at the moment is a flat rate of £6.30 back if you spend more than £100 on gift cards at Zeek. You can also earn cash back for Build-A-Bear if you go via TopCashback to buy the initial deposit for the party – I got 6.3% which is £1.26.
Noah’s Build-A-Bear Party!
On the day of the party we arrived around 15 minutes early and met our assigned party host. She was really lovely and enthusiastic, and great with the kids. Noah was given a special sticker with his name on and the words “It’s my party!”, while all the other kids were given a name badge too.
As Noah’s friends arrived their presents were moved to the stock room at the back of the store. We had bought a giant reusable bag (a laundry-type bag would be perfect) from Primark so that we could take the presents home, and this was perfect.
There isn’t a special room for the party to be held in, so we were at the back of the shop. I was a bit worried about this since Noah’s party was held on a Saturday not too far away from Christmas in a busy shopping mall, but it was totally fine.
Party Games at Build-A-Bear
The children sat on the floor and picked their bears. We had chosen the cheapest party package at £15 per head, so our hostess had the bears in a bag ready. The choice was a honey coloured bear or a brown bear. The kids were all totally fine with this and no-one whined for an alternate.
Everyone then named their bear, which was pretty funny because it highlighted just how self-obsessed three and four-year-olds are – so many of them named their bears after them!
We played a game of
The heart ceremony was so sweet. All of Noah’s friends stood around him and did special things with a little cloth heart they held in their hands. All their hearts went into Noah’s bear so that his bear has his friend’s love and best wishes for him. Adorable. Then they repeated their actions with their hearts for their own bear.
The children then stood in a line while the bears were stuffed. We were told at this point that the kids couldn’t change the bears’ names as the birth certificates were being printed. As is usual in Build-A-Bear, the kids could choose how much stuffing their bear would receive.
We also got one tee for each of the bears to wear. This tee has a special code on the price tag, which basically translates to a £5 tee. Each of the children could choose their own tee for their bear. Noah picked a very smart shirt/tie/waistcoat combo for his bear.
Happy birthday party at Build-A-Bear
After all the children had dressed their bears, we returned to the back of the shop to sing happy birthday to Noah. He was also given a little plush birthday cake with a light-up candle.
Afterwards, most of the children joined us for a meal at Burger King, since there isn’t room in Build-A-Bear for any food (and nor is any allowed)! There were a few comments that we didn’t give out sweets, so perhaps next time I’d get a bag or box of Swizzles for the children to take home a selection of treats in their Build-A-Bear box.
Build-A-Bear party on a budget!
So, all in all, how much did a Build-A-Bear party cost? Do you have to be made of money, as many of the parents exclaimed when they were given invitations for their children!
Well, here’s the breakdown for the party.
We chose the Super Smiles package at £15 per head, and invited 10 guests. Only 9 attended the party at Build-A-Bear. The party offers great value for money as the bear alone costs £11 and the tee has a value of £5.
The total cost for our Super Smiles Build-A-Bear party was £142, then a discount was applied of £10 for the party. The initial £20 deposit should have been taken off but mine had not gone through properly. After the cashback from TopCashback of £7.56 and the discount of £16.25 after buying the gift cards on Zeek the total price of our Build-A-Bear party was £107.69 which I think is a really reasonable price for 1.5 hours of entertainment and a quality take-home “prize” for each of Noah’s friends. The bear and box are much loved in our house, and we hope his friends enjoyed theirs too!
It sounds like they had a great time!
It was fab! We wished you could have joined us. Next time 🙂