Digital invitation: Halloween snack at home, ages 3-6

It's 5:40 on a Friday in late October. Six parents stand in a stairwell, coats half on, scrolling a message that says "Halloween snack, Thursday, afternoon-ish". Three of them think pickup is at six. One is sure it's seven. That gap is exactly what a Halloween party invitation for a snack at home with kids aged three to six has to close: one line with the time, one line with the door, and the same words for everyone. You can put a Digital invitation together from the catalogue today and have the link in the class group before the pumpkin on the step starts to sag.

A snack at home for three-to-six-year-olds isn't a party with a timing problem. It's a small logistics puzzle: where do the coats go, is dinner included, what happens when the mask comes off, and what time do I come back? Five lines answer all of it — and most digital invitations for children's parties skip four of them. Put them in the invitation itself, not in a group chat that scrolls away by Tuesday.

Start with the pickup time, in numbers

Give an exact time, not a window and not "the afternoon". Write "doors at 5:00, we start handing children back at 6:30" and put the two numbers on separate lines. A parent reads this standing in a doorway with a coat over one arm; two times on one line get mixed up. Then say what happens to anyone running late — "if you're after 5:15, ring the bell and we'll come down" — so nobody waits on the pavement in the cold.

• Pickup at 6:30, at the gate — in numbers, not "later".
• Snack at 5:00, pizza and fruit at 7:00, pickup at 8:00: each hour named.
• Costume optional, no masks: ears, a hat or a cape.
• There's a cat called Mici, and she hides when she hears voices.

Dinner, costumes and the cat that hides

If the children stay for dinner, separate snack from dinner with names and times: "snack at 5:00, pizza and fruit at 7:00, pickup at 8:00". Without that, three families feed their kids at home first and your pizza goes cold. Say what you're putting out and what nobody needs to bring — "we've got the food, come empty-handed" saves you four bags of crisps and no cups. And say how many adults are in the house: "two of us here all afternoon" is the line that lets a parent leave a four-year-old for the first time.

Costumes: write "optional" and give a small example — cat ears, a witch's hat, a cape. A full costume on a four-year-old is on the living-room floor by 5:20. Ask for no masks and no face paint over the eyes; a genuine fright ends the afternoon early, and the fun kind of spooky stays in the carved pumpkins by the door. Offer an out — "not dressing up? Wear something orange" — so nobody is the odd one in the photo. Finally, describe the house so the children arrive knowing it: "the pumpkin at the gate, cotton cobwebs on the door", "there's a cat called Mici who hides as soon as she hears voices". At this age a landmark beats an address, and "no stairs to worry about, the dog stays behind a closed door" answers the question parents won't ask.

An invitation isn't the decoration. It's the line that tells six families the same time, the same door and the same pizza.

How to create a Digital invitation for a Halloween snack at home

Take a design from the collection, fill in the fields — time, address, the note about Mici, plus one last line of your own: "if your little one has an allergy, tell me when you reply" — then add up to six of your own photos and a bit of music and publish. The link goes in the class group or on a QR code; nobody installs an app, and everyone replies from their phone. Move pickup from 6:30 to 7:00 and you edit it in place: same link, no resending, no reprinting. Replies land in one ordered list inside the invitation, with the questions you chose to ask. One payment of €29.99, no subscription. Write the five lines, try a design for free, and send it tonight.