Over the past year I think we have all now pretty much experienced a birthday in the various stages of lockdown. With a couple of birthdays close together for my eldest two children I was looking for some inspiration as to how to make their birthdays at home extra special.
With the help of the lovely folks in our hang out I put together this list of ideas and suggestions that I thought I would share here just in case, like me, you are in need of a bit of inspiration.
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Afternoon tea, either ordered in or homemade. I thought that this was a great one for all ages and a brilliant excuse to dust off the posh cake stand. I don’t know about you but I find that an afternoon tea always seems to add the element of special to any occasion?
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Traditional party games, pass the parcel, musical statues, pin the tail on the donkey, charades. Oldies but goodies.
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Getting crafty – pottery painting, cookie decorating and t-shirt printing for starters.
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Treasure hunt, to theme or not to theme, that is the question?
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Zoom catch-ups with friends and family. Quizzes, bingo, sharing a party tea or simply chatting - it is so good to see everyone’s faces, even if it is just virtually for now.
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Favourite meals. This was the focus for a lot of planning in our house! Having the chance to choose their three favourite meals for the day was the cause of huge excitement!
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Dress code for entire family, fancy dress or your Sunday best.
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Decorations - party balloons, streamers, bunting, banners, flowers - the works!
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Movie time, sharing a film together with cinema snacks.
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Hiring play equipment – if you can’t go to the soft play mountain then the mountain can come to you. Bouncy castles, giant Jenga, ball pools, slides and huge, squishy playmats.
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Sleep over tents. I absolutely loved this idea, a sleep over in the living room with teepee tents, comfy cushions and fairy lights. Magical!
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Disco, disco, disco! Glitter ball optional.
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Mini pamper party – foot spa, face masks, all kinds of lovely relaxing treats. After this past year we all deserve a bit of pampering.
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Party bags, well, who doesn’t love a party bag?
As it happened, I discovered that what was important to my children turned out not to be the big, elaborate party plans that they have experienced in the past but simply that it was their day and the day was special because it was about them.
It was the extra thought and small details that made their birthdays memorable. Birthday wishes have been different this year and maybe always will be from this point forward, the simple things we took for granted are now top of the wish list.
This year has been the year where we have had to be a bit more creative with celebrating occasions and I know in our family we have started some traditions that we will carry on in the post lockdown years. It has been about finding different ways to make an occasion memorable and I think it is certainly a year of birthdays we won’t ever forget.
It turns out, keeping it simple doesn’t just work, it works very well indeed.