Your child’s birthday is one of the biggest days of the year! By adding these easy, inexpensive and imaginative touches throughout the day, you can make it even more memorable!
- Wake your child up with bundles of balloons. Some time before your child awakes, inflate a bunch of balloons, and while he or she is still asleep, fill up his or her closet, bathroom or even the whole bedroom with balloons.
- Give your child a birthday hat. Buy or make a funny hat which you can decorate with candles, balloons, ribbons, and so on. Or, make him or her a special birthday t-shirt using fabric paints, stick-on decorations, decals and ribbon ties.
- Bake the cake together. Instead of ordering a cake from the bakery, make it yourselves, and allow your child to decorate it any way he or she wants, with colored icing, candies or even little toys.
- Send your child on a treasure “present” hunt. Hide his or her birthday gifts and create a treasure hunt. Leave clues leading from one gift to another until he or she finds the loot.
- Wrap your child’s lunch up like a present. If it happens to be a school day, wrap your child’s lunch in party paper and place it inside the lunchbox or bag to unwrap at lunchtime. For added fun, fill his or her backpack with birthday cards and balloons.
- Send a surprise package to your child. A few days before your child’s birthday, mail him or her a surprise package. Kids love getting mail! You can insert a card with the gift and sign it from a “Secret Admirer” or “Mystery Friend” to keep your child guessing.
- Go out for a birthday lunch. Take your child out for a special lunch at a nice or even a fancy restaurant – just the two of you. Order a decadent dessert and don’t forget to tell the staff it’s his or her birthday so they’ll sing “Happy Birthday to him or her!”
- Make your child “King/Queen for a Day”. Allow your child to do whatever he or she wants through out the day – within reason, of course!
- Create “Happy Birthday Coupons”. Write down a some suggestions for your child to enjoy, such as “Good for 1 Dozen Cookies”, “Good for staying up one hour later” or “Good for a movie night”. or any other ideas you may have. Create a coupon book, and give the book to your child on his or her birthday.
- Cook your child’s favorite dinner. Allow your child to create the dinner menu for his or her birthday by selecting all of his or her favorite foods.
- Wake your child up to breakfast in bed. When your child wakes up, bring him or her breakfast in bed. Fill the tray with your child’s favorite breakfast items, a little gift. Maybe a small toy or if for a girl, maybe some flowers!
- Allow your child to do the decorations. Let your child help you with the party decorations. He or she will feel involved and proud. Inflate balloons and let your child draw the faces of his or her guests on them using permanent markers or stickers to create eyes, noses, and mouths.
- Make a “Personalized Picture Puzzle” of your child. Surprise your child by getting an enlarged photo of him or her and glue it to cardstock paper. Cut the picture into puzzle shapes. Then place all the pieces in a small box or envelope and have him or her do the puzzle without letting them know that it is a picture of them.
- Present your child a “My Life Retrospective” display. Collect pictures of your child growing up, tape them onto colored construction paper, and stick them around the party room so everyone can see how much he or she has grown and changed over the years! Have the guests try to guess how old the birthday boy or girl is in each picture.
- Videotape memorable messages. Gather special messages from your child’s friends and family members on videotape then play it back at the party.
- Disposable Camera. Capture the Memories. Give your child a disposable camera and let him or her take pictures of everything that happens throughout the day. Then give your child a scrapbook to fill with snapshots of birthday memories.