The Gerakiteys family celebrate their daughters’ birthday in their family garden. Their younger son watches on as the girls sit with their birthday cakes. Other family members are shown and the whole family poses for a portrait.

Summary by Poppy De Souza

This film was donated to the National Film and Sound Archive by Steven Gerakiteys.

A pet rabbit and a dog are guests at a tea party. Filmed between 1947 and 1970, the Australian Diary series records how Australians have lived, worked and played over the years. Made by The National Film Board.

Treat yourself to more cuteness in the children's parties curated collection.

Children wearing party hats at the Dyer family home are seated around a table. Janet, the birthday girl, wears a blue dress and matching ribbon in her hair. A suitably coloured birthday cake topped with six candles is iced with the words ‘Happy birthday to Janet’. Janet attempts to light the candles then blows them out. The candles are lit again and the lights turned out so the flames flicker in the darkness before they are blown out once more.

Summary by Poppy De Souza

This film was donated to the National Film and Sound Archive by Joy Litherland of the Dyer family.

Adults and children hold hands and form a large circle in the back garden to play the children’s games 'ring-a-ring-a-rosie’ and ‘oranges and lemons’ as children pass underneath the arms of the two adults. 

Summary by Poppy De Souza

Like many cinema advertisements of the 1940s, this one for Peters Ice Cream plays like a short film with opening titles and voice-over narration.

Titled The Best Things in Life the ad shows young children at play before taking the viewer on a journey showing the wonders of the natural world, including flowers, loyal pets, mountains, farmland, birds and rugged seas.

The narrator describes life as a feast for the senses which begins in childhood and develops as children grow and gain knowledge and wisdom, with good health being a key component.

Interestingly, the product is not mentioned until the closing sequence of the ad, as the strange journey finally circles back to a children’s party.

We see children feasting on cake and ice cream as the narrator states the importance of eating good, healthy food and describes Peters ice cream as ‘nature’s almost perfect food’. Viewed 70 years later, through a modern-day lens, this creates a striking juxtaposition!

While the advertiser may draw a long bow to equate good health with ice cream, the production values of this ad are very high. Interestingly, the production company reuse a shot from their earlier CE Miller & Co. Removals advertisement, with a couple on a bench feeding swans in a Melbourne park.

This clip begins with a family of four – Mrs and Mr Albion with their two children Douglas and Wally – posing for a family portrait and is followed by a close-up of the youngest child, Douglas. The next scene films the father blowing bubbles through a pipe with Douglas, who is seated opposite him. The child gives it a go. A child dressed in a clown outfit – probably big brother Wally – stands nearby. The clip ends with the child clown blowing bubbles and the younger child looking on.

Summary by Poppy De Souza

This clip includes five-year-old Wally being picked up and hugged by his parents; an older man dressed as Santa Claus; children on a seesaw and playing ring-a-rosie; Wally being pushed on a swing by his mother and then father; guests and family members standing in the garden; children dancing; Wally standing on a table spread with cakes and sweets about to cut a cake; and Wally blowing bubbles towards the camera.

Summary by Poppy De Souza

This clip, shot by the Archibald family, shows a little girl’s birthday party in the early 1930s. Girls, all dressed in white dresses and with bobbed hair, play 'Ring-a-ring o’ roses’ and 'Oranges and lemons’ before they sit down to eat party food. This film was donated to the National Film and Sound Archive by Helen Phillips, the daughter of John Ernest Archibald. Summary by Elizabeth Taggart-Speers

This clip contains shots of children playing in a garden for the fifth birthday of Wally Albion. It begins with a fixed shot of five-year-old Wally sitting on a table playing with a train set. This is followed by a series of shots including girls playing by a swing set, two girls posing for the camera and a long dining table adorned with sweets and cakes. An intertitle ‘his numerous playmates’ is followed by a slow pan of around 30 boys and girls seated in front of the camera. The next shot shows Wally sitting in a miniature car on the grass. A group of girls are filmed dancing and the clip ends with Wally standing on the long table covered with party streamers. Summary by Poppy De Souza

Children perform dances at a garden party while adults look on. This includes children performing ballet and three children dressed in Japanese kimonos. The camera pans across the garden to film party guests relaxing around a marquee.

Summary by Poppy De Souza