Birthdays are a big deal in our family as most of them happen all within the same week! Whether or not you host a party for your child, you can make your child’s birthday seem extra special by starting a tradition.
Simple things to do:
Some families decorate the child’s door for his/her birthday. If you are super creative, you can make decorations using scrapbook paper and party supplies! You can also make a birthday poster or get everyone in the family involved in making a poster with encouragement and compliments! If you lack that creative part, which is totally okay, you can always just put up a few streamers. Kids love feeling they are special, and it is the thought that counts!
I love to make special breakfasts for my kids for their birthdays! Character waffles are a specialty of mine. Even my teenager loves when I still do this just to show him I love him. It is silly, but it is fun!
Sometimes, we plan special day trips. When my son turned ten, we went to the Miniature Village in Hamburg, PA because he loves trains. For my youngest daughter, when she turned 3, we went to American Girl in Columbus to get something special for her Bitty Baby. They can be simple trips or extravagant! We always have fun with them. My 12-year old has already put in a request to go to Lakewood, OH for her thirteenth birthday so that she can have bubble tea at Thai Thai and go through the cool little shops!
In our house, we have a special dinner for every birthday. The birthday child gets to pick his/her place to eat. My son loves to reminisce about where he ate for his special day for past birthdays. The best part is that it is something you can do just as a family. Since most families are so busy, it is refreshing to take a break from the norm and do something fun.
In the end, I am sure whatever you do, your kid will love it. Creating fun birthday traditions creates happy memories for years to come. I love making my kids feel special on their special days, and this year will be a doozy for all three as I will be celebrating a sixteen-year old, thirteen-year old, and five-year old! Three milestones in one year! What do you do to celebrate your child’s special day?
Editor’s note: This article first appeared back in 2010 when I first started writing. I have been dealing with health issues the past few years and haven’t blogged much. I have been working the past several months to catch up on things and am now going through past posts to clean up the blog a bit. This was a post that I felt needed an update. I hope you enjoyed it!
aww i love this- we just celebrated my daughters birthday on wednesday and these tips would really come in handy for my little ones upcoming birthday! we let my daughter pick out a breakfast and dinner treat or a special meal to make for her big day 🙂
Great ideas to make children feel special. Birthdays can often get quite stressful. We also used to choose our favourite restaurant and it always felt special and exciting 🙂
Great ideas. These special moments create memories for the rest of their lives. My kids are all in their 30s and they still talk about the way we celebrated their birthdays when they were young. They do the same now for their children.
We have a tradition of filling the living room with balloons the night before when they are asleep, so when they come downstairs on the morning of their birthday the room is filled with balloons. They love that. We also sometimes do special trips: they pick to either have a party or go to Disney. Three out of four them picked the latter once, but interestingly most of the time they prefer to have a party. I think it makes them feel special. Great ideas, thanks for sharing.
These are such sweet ideas! I love when families try to go all out for each other’s birthdays. There’s so many things you can do to make someone feel special, and it’s not about the money spent, but the effort put into each surprise. My boyfriend grew up with the tradition of waking up to streamers and balloons around the house on his birthday so he does that for me each year and I love it ☺️
Great ideas to make their special days even more special!
Thank you for sharing these great tips!
These are great ideas! I usually let my children choose what they want for dinner and what kind of cake or dessert they would like. Sometimes we have a party and sometimes it is just family but we try to make it a little special either way.