Planning a sleepover in 5 steps

Sleep­overs are a great way to get togeth­er with friends or give kids a good time, but they require a lit­tle pre-prepa­ra­tion. From set­ting the date to mak­ing the nec­es­sary pur­chas­es or man­ag­ing beds, don’t for­get any­thing.

To save you time, we’ve put togeth­er a non-exhaus­tive list of things to keep in mind when plan­ning your sleep­over:

1. Set the date and time of the party

Before host­ing a sleep­over with friends or for your kids, you must decide on a date and a start time.

Ensure your cho­sen date and time suits all guests and isn’t mid-week. Most par­ents work and fin­ish late, and chil­dren must attend school. So, it would be bet­ter to plan it for a Fri­day or Sat­ur­day after­noon.

2. Inform parents in advance

Con­tact each par­ent well in advance if you want to make sure no one is miss­ing.

Let­ting your son or daugh­ter sleep out­side the home requires reflec­tion, and par­ents must be calm about where and how the evening will be spent. It is advis­able, then, to make direct calls or even meet­ings near the school to inform par­ents. You can also cre­ate a social media group in What­sApp or Mes­sen­ger to keep in touch. You can them a mes­sage a few days lat­er with a reminder of the date, time, and theme, if nec­es­sary, and any help­ful infor­ma­tion.

3. Plan meals

Because it is a sleep­over and not a for­mal meal, spend­ing hours in the kitchen is unnec­es­sary.

Focus on easy-to-eat meals, savoury snacks like hot dogs or burg­ers, and small desserts like choco­lates or cakes. You can also plan a themed par­ty with inter­na­tion­al food (Ital­ian, Chi­nese, Thai, etc.) and then shop or order in. The ulti­mate goal of a sleep­over is to have fun, not wor­ry and enjoy your­self.

Also, pre­pare break­fast for the fol­low­ing day. It may include crois­sants, fruit, cere­als, juice and cof­fee (for adults only).

4. Organise activities during the evening

To keep your kids enter­tained or have a good time with friends, organ­ise amus­ing activ­i­ties, laugh and play togeth­er.

No need to get com­pli­cat­ed; games, movies and music will be enough! Are you out of ideas? We have pre­pared a list that will be help­ful.

Original ideas for sleepovers

• Plan a movie marathon: Choose a series of movies or a saga that all guests like and that suits guests’ age (Har­ry Pot­ter, Star Wars…).
• Board games: Pre­pare a selec­tion of board games for guests to play togeth­er. Games like Monop­oly, Scrab­ble, Par­ty & Co or Triv­ial Pur­suit are always a suc­cess in a sleep­over.
• Spa at home: Pre­pare a spa with hot tow­els, masks and essen­tial oils for guests to relax.
• Pil­low fight: What would a sleep­over be with­out a pil­low fight? Pre­pare all kinds of pil­lows for chil­dren to play with.
• Cos­tume con­test: Ask all your friends or chil­dren to come in cos­tumes accord­ing to a spe­cif­ic theme, such as car­toon char­ac­ters or super­heroes, and organ­ise a con­test to see who wears the best cos­tume. (And give a prize to the win­ner!).
• Cook­ing evening: Would you like to organ­ise a cook­ing work­shop? Pre­pare the ingre­di­ents for easy, orig­i­nal meals so every­one can par­tic­i­pate. You can even organ­ise a con­test to choose the best dish.
• Karaoke: Rent karaoke equip­ment or use an app on your smart­phone to organ­ise a mem­o­rable and fun karaoke night.
• Video games: Do you like video game par­ties? Pre­pare a selec­tion of games to play togeth­er. Role-play­ing, rac­ing and sports games are great ideas. For exam­ple, Nin­ten­do Switch is ide­al for mul­ti­play­er.
• Blind test: It has become a sleep­over clas­sic, so pre­pare your best playlist and team up to guess the name of each song.
• Hor­ror sto­ries: As ter­ri­fy­ing as it is fun­ny, telling hor­ror sto­ries is a very enjoy­able activ­i­ty for a sleep­over.

5. Get the house ready

To wel­come your friends or your chil­dren’s friends in the best pos­si­ble way, organ­ise the house accord­ing­ly.

Ensure you have enough tow­els, duvets and pil­lows for all guests, espe­cial­ly beds or mat­tress­es for every­one. If pos­si­ble, organ­ise it so that every­one sleeps in the same room. A sleep­over is a time to sleep togeth­er and stay up all night.

Do you need infor­ma­tion about organ­is­ing a sport­ing, cor­po­rate, char­i­ty or leisure event? Dis­cov­er Weezevent’s solu­tions.

Learn more