Illinoisans Are Spending Thousands On Kids’ Birthday Parties In 2026

Excuse me, the price tag on this 3-year-old's birthday is what?

One of my favorite stupid social media trends are parents going above and beyond for a kid's birthday party in the worst way. It's clearly never for the kids, it's to flex wealth and impress adults on social media. The kid didn't ask for a signature drink at their party. They asked for bright green frosting.

As we all know, we aren't in the economy now to cough up thousands for a kid's extravagant birthday they won't remember.

Unsplash

So a study by Giggster looked at how much parents in each state are spending on average on kids' and babies' parties (like 1-year-old birthdays, gender reveals, welcome-home parties, etc). It's a lot of money, as you can probably guess.

Cost Of A Kid's Birthday In Illinois

According to the latest numbers, Illinoisans are paying $4,495 average for a kid's party. That ranks them 13th in the country.

The biggest expense in the party are balloon services that average about $695. Balloon arches got huge on social media 2017-2019 and now you can't open TikTok without seeing one.

Nationally, the most expensive kids' party items are music entertainment and magic performers.

The cheapest state for kids' parties is Missouri, which clocks in an average of spending about $2,700.

The study also looked at venues, venue variety in each state, party service categories (music, balloon art, face painting, etc), and the overall cost of these parties.

Reminder: don't think you need to do any of the fancy kids' birthdays you see on social media. Kids, like you, love grocery store cake and a day at the zoo.