Simple ideas to make children’s birthdays extra special

When it comes to celebrating children’s birthdays, it seems that no two families celebrate in the same way. Many of you in the Be a Fun Mum community shared the special traditions and festivities that you undertake each year with your family, and your ideas were so touching and inspiring, we just had to share them. We’re not talking about lavish parties or expensive gifts; we’re talking about the little things you can do to make your child feel loved and valued. It could be as simple as recreating something fun that you remember from your own childhood birthdays. Or it could be a new idea, which may become a treasured family tradition for many years to come. For those of you that don’t yet have any special traditions surrounding family birthdays, it’s never too late to get started. Here’s some beautiful ideas:

Birthday morning

• Begin the morning with the birthday child sitting in between mum and dad in bed while the siblings sit at the end of the bed, sing happy birthday and gift presents. The present giver kisses the birthday person on the cheek before giving the gift.
• Fill their room with balloons while they are sleeping, so they wake up to a colourful surprise!
• Leave special notes, messages and pictures on their bedroom wall for them to wake up to. It could be things you love about your child, poems, memories, cute photos and prayers.
• Tape up their bedroom door with crepe paper so they have to burst through it on their birthday morning. Happy birthday banners create a festive atmosphere too.

Birthday morning balloons.

Food, glorious food!

• Let your child pick their favourite dinner and make it for them (or perhaps their favourite dinner to eat out).
• Have a special meal at home with grandparents and other family.
• Continue a family tradition that your own parents began. If they always bought Chinese takeaway for dinner, you can continue this with your kids. Share with them the history of these traditions.
• Let your child choose their breakfast for the day – perhaps they’d enjoy a cooked breakfast, or a treat you wouldn’t normally let them have. One reader suggested choc-chip pancakes. Yum!
• If you child goes to school or care, include a birthday message in their lunch box, and perhaps a little treat.
• Allow them to have tuckshop for lunch, if it is a school day.
• Even if you’re not having a party, enjoy party food for dinner – party pies, sausage rolls, fairy bread and ice cream cake are always winners!

Birthday Teddy Bear Pancakes

All the cake

• Let your child pick a cake and attempt to bake and decorate it for them. It could be cupcakes, a traditional cake, ice cream cake, donut cake or perhaps a cake chosen from a cook book.
• Browse online together and find a theme you like.

Ice Cream Drip Cake

Presents

• Have a gift tradition of giving “something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read, and something special.”
• Encourage siblings to save up their money and buy a small gift for their brother or sister.
• Arrange for your child’s siblings to make a special card, with a heartfelt birthday message written inside.

Draw a simple drawing – cake, candle, balloon or birthday message – on the driveway to welcome kids home on their birthday.

Birthday surprises

• Give them a day off chores and tidy the child’s room for them. It’s also nice to lay out all their opened gifts on their freshly made bed.
• As your kids get older, you can buy them a simple bunch of flowers to greet them with after school.
• Make a poster with the number they are turning, and decorate with photographs from the past year.
• Set up a special area with balloons, streamers and their presents. Sit together to open the presents.
• If it’s possible, take the day off work to spend special time with your child.
• Greet them when they wake up or after school with a bunch of helium balloons.
• Organise a present hunt – begin with a birthday card and include a list of clues or a treasure map. Your child then searches the house for their presents.
• Arrange a special outing to a theme park, beach, pool, zoo or entertainment place of your child’s choice. Kids will love the family time and memory making.
• Make a whole weekend of it – their favourite cake, a much wished for present, special treats to eat, and generally make a fuss of them for the whole weekend.
• Write on the white side of a big piece of wrapping paper the number of things you love about your child, correlating with the number birthday they are celebrating.
• Draw a simple drawing – cake, candle, balloon or birthday message – on the driveway to welcome kids home on their birthday. This can be a fun photo opportunity also.
• Plan for some one-on-one time with the birthday child – perhaps take them out for an ice cream or a hot chocolate.
• Decorate a special birthday chair with bunting and balloons.
• Hang up garlands made of photographs – one with baby images, one showing the child with different family members and one with the sweetest pictures ever taken. Children love to look back at photos of themselves.
• Run a birthday bubble bath, with coloured water and lots of bubbles!
• Gift wrap an item in their lunch box.
• Use a glass/chalk pen to write a fun or crazy birthday message on your car windows! For example something like this: Wave to the birthday child!
• And finally, don’t forget to get a photo of the birthday child, and a family photo too, to mark the occasion. This will become a precious keepsake for your child one day, and a reminder of how much they are loved.

Many florists sell rainbow flowers for a bit of fun