Have you ever felt overwhelmed when celebrating your child’s birthday? Well it’s safe to say we are on the same page. I remember celebrating my baby girl’s first birthday, the planning process along with execution reminded me how stressful it can be to do it. Just a day ago she turned 4 years old. Now flash back to three weeks, this time I felt like throwing no party but I wanted the birthday to be special, so I started planning accordingly with no efforts involved. Not to mention the lockdown due to COVID-19 is getting on everyone’s nerves. Hence I thought of sharing seven ways to celebrate your kids birthday without throwing a party.
Birthday Tips
- Budget Planning: Since there is no party, it doesn’t mean there are no costs involved. You need to consider the costs of small or sizable decorations, ribbons to order, jars, cake, balloons, balloon stands etc. Now don’t jump to conclusion thinking that this is going to cost a lot. Not really! The cake, chocolates and all can be baked at home, now for jars, as reflected in the above picture, you can even use pickle jars at home if you have and decorate the jar with ribbon or you can paint on it too, to make it look more attractive. If you do not have any, you can order them from amazon, the jars are not expensive, I got three jars for around 360 rupees at amazon which was a good deal. The rest of the above mentioned items come at a low price. The budget can be planned accordingly to fit your personal preferences.
- Theme: When doing your budget planning consider the theme, if you want to match your cake colour scheme to the decor you will be doing or however. For my child’s birthday it was more of a pink theme, hence pink peppa pig cake, but I used colorful polka dot balloons as she loves balloons so much. Luckily the table runner that I had with me was red so it matched well with the rest of the decor. If you don’t have a table runner, you can always use some sort of cloth to cover the whole table or place it however you want.
- Countdown to Birthday: Even though you are not throwing a party, it doesn’t mean the birthday needs to go dull before days. Remind your child saying seven days to countdown till his or her birthday. You can do this by making a calendar and place it on a fridge and cross out the day that the kid wakes upto. Or if you have a chalkboard, you can write on it as reminder to countdown.
- Decor Arrangements: Once the theme has been decided, think of the decorations you want to do. How to place these decorations, get ideas from Pinterest, it’s a great platform to get DIYs, and ideas. I simply used two jars which were decorated with a simple gold ribbon around them, filled them up with chocolates in one, and in the other cookies. Placed the cake on a glass cake stand. Used balloons to give a party feel to the ambiance, also placed balloons on a balloon stand which gave it a pretty look. And used miniature chalk boards to write happy birthday separately on those boards. I had used those boards during the first birthday of my child, and since then saved it for future use. Always save the decor stuff you do as it comes in handy for your next decor idea.
- Surprise Lunchbox: Now this tip applies when your kid has school on his or her birthday. You can surprise your child by making his or her favorite snack and can do a little decor inside the lunchbox using food. If no school, then you can prepare a special breakfast on that day, for example you can cook up some pancakes and decorate on them saying happy birthday using chocolate chips or chocolate gems. This is another wonderful way to bring a smile to your kids.
- Birthday Tradition: Birthday traditions are those occasions where you invite close family members and would like to throw a family meal, you don’t have to spend, you can cook or if you don’t want to make, you can always order in, according to your budget needs. These traditions will always create a memory in your child’s mind and he or she shall also repeat for the coming generation. It makes the bond stronger between family members.
- Birthday Trips/Outings: Hey if not celebrating at home, no worries, you can always go out on shopping spree trips, or if your child has a favorite place to spend time, maybe a an aquarium park, or beach etc, take them there. Now you can plan a weekend getaway too at your favorite spot outside the city without breaking the bank. Also if you can surprise the kid by inviting their best friends along, this will make the journey merrier and memories will be made.
Hope these tips have helped you all. Thanks for reading!