The pandemic has meant a lot of us have had to give up a lot of celebrations this year. For children, this is much harder. If your child has a birthday coming up and you’re worried about making their birthday special when you can’t have a normal birthday party, then you could try some of these ideas. You can still give your child a memorable day, and make sure they don’t feel too sad about missing out.
Nine Ways To Celebrate Your Child’s Birthday At Home
Have a Zoom party. Make sure your child doesn’t miss out on getting birthday wishes from their friends and the rest of the family. Set up a Zoom call for people to stop by and say happy birthday. You could play party games over Zoom too. Send out some party hats for people to wear on the call, and you can make things feel more festive. You can up the party spirit with a virtual photo booth too.
Do fancy dress. Make the day feel different from every day at other home but getting the whole family involved in fancy dress. Choose a theme, and all dress up together. You could buy costumes online, or spend days leading up to their birthday making costumes if you’re creative. Making costumes together would be fun, and you can use things from around the house for a cheap option.
Decorate the house. Choose a theme and decorate the whole house. For example, if your child loves Batman, decorate the house to be Gotham. You could buy or make decorations. If you’re going down the fancy dress route, match your costumes to your theme.
Order a bouncy castle. You can hire a small bouncy castle for the garden, and have a private bounce party for one. The birthday boy or girl will feel special, and you can all have fun, even if you can’t have any guests. No waiting for your turn on the bouncy castle, and being bounced on by a bigger kid.
Ask for messages. There’s no reason your child has to go without all the birthday attention. Ask the family or their friends to record short video clips of them saying happy birthday and edit them into one video together, to show how many people are thinking of them.
Hire a video call entertainer. If you had a party planned with a children’s entertainer, there’s no need to miss out. A lot of children’s entertainers have turned to virtual parties and can send messages, play games, lead songs, or tell stories through a video call. Whether you want a Disney princess or a magician, there’ll be someone out there to help.
Have a treasure hunt. Make the day feel a bit special and make the excitement last longer by holding a treasure hunt. Take their birthday presents and hide them throughout the house. Set them clues to help them track down their gifts. This spreads out the present opening a bit and gives them something fun to do, so they don’t feel too sad about not having a regular birthday party.
Make a special menu. If there’s a day when you can eat whatever you like, it’s your birthday. Let your child choose a menu for the day of all their favorite things. Cook a special breakfast, make their favorite for lunch, order in a takeaway from somewhere that they love to eat from for dinner, and stock the cupboard with their favorite snacks. Don’t forget the birthday cake, of course.
Have a movie night. Choose a favorite movie to watch. You could have a movie night just for the family, and make popcorn and curl up together, or you could use a tool to let you watch your chosen movie with friends online, so you child’s friends can join in too.
With these ideas, you can make a special birthday for children of any age, and still make them feel spoiled and special, even if you have had to give up on what you had hoped to do. Make sure your child understands why plans have had to change, but that they can still have a nice birthday.
It might help to get them involved in the planning. Ask them for their own ideas on what they’d like to do. Share these ideas with them and let them choose what they’d like. Get them to help with making decorations, costumes, or food, so they can build up the excitement as much as you can before the big day comes.