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

Did you know that in 1949, ice cream was ‘the health food of the nation’?  

This ad for Peter’s Ice Cream opens like a film of the Hollywood Golden Era, with a richly bound book opening us to show us its title, The Best Things in Life. There follows a full minute-and-a-half of ice cream-free reflections on the wonder of being human, celebrating our experiences of children, animals, nature and art, and illustrated with film of flowers, sheepdogs, mountains, oceans and sunsets.   

Are you ready for the long bow? Here it comes: ‘our sense of taste’ leads us to a children’s party, with various mites in bows and pirate hats tucking in to elaborate ice cream cakes as the voice-over extols Peter’s Ice Cream as ‘nature’s (almost) perfect food … it provides the necessary milk and cream.’ Fortunately, the children who are gobbling down their ‘health food’ are mostly absorbing it by osmosis, as none of them are too good at getting it in their mouths.   

The gorgeous production values and lofty philosophical treatise of The Best Things in Life (almost) have us ready to swap out our breakfast oats for a cat-in-a-boot ice cream cake. Mmmm, necessary cream!  

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