The Glamorous Life: Kiddie Birthday Parties

June 2, 2007 — -- Who doesn't have glorious memories of those first few birthday parties -- with all your friends gathered around the dining room table, as your mom brings in the cake and your friends sing, "Happy Birthday"?

Remember those days?

Well you can forget them.

This is 2007, and yesterday's birthday party has become today's multi-media extravaganza.

It used to be that major milestones like sweet 16 parties, bar mitzvahs and weddings were the occasions when parents spent big bucks on their kids, but parents these days are coughing up cash for less significant celebrations and birthdays, even those that their children might not remember.

"Parties today have gone over the top," Cookie magazine's Rebecca Ffrench said. "They are so extravagant. People are having parties at the Four Seasons hotel. People are renting out huge spaces. They are not birthdays, they are almost like bar mitzvahs."

A spiraling level of competitiveness to keep up with the "baby Joneses" is driving parents across the nation to pull out all the stops and their checkbooks to make sure that Junior's birthday party becomes the talk of the town.

"Extravagant parties are happening in cities and in rural areas, not just New York and Los Angeles," Ffrench said. "People everywhere are really pushing the limits. They are spending a lot more than they would have five or 10 years ago."

Families are forgoing "pin the tail on the donkey" in favor of renting out mega toy stores like FAO Schwartz for upwards of $25,000. Other attractive options include booking sleepovers at zoos and museums, even reenacting entire Broadway shows with professional actors.

Arthur Backal has been in the party planning business in New York City for more than two decades, and as the founder of his company "State of the Art" he has literally seen it all -- from celebrity-studded bar mitzvahs to million dollar weddings. So when his own daughter Amanda turned the ripe age of one recently the pressure was on.