A bakery-perfect cake, centerpieces made from antique jars filled with bubble gum, and handmade superhero capes for all of the kids who attended describes my oldest son’s first birthday perfectly – and that’s the last time I ever did anything like that.
We learn, grow and change on our motherhood journey and I learned elaborate parties for my kid’s birthday just aren’t my thing. Making sure my kids feel special and loved on their birthdays while keeping as much of my own sanity as possible is how I handle birthdays now.
6 Simple Kid’s Birthday Ideas
Here are a few simple birthday ideas you can incorporate no matter if your party style is low-key or a big, fun event!
Birthday Cakes
Cake is hands-down my favorite food of all time. That’s one thing I will make completely from scratch if I feel like it. When I don’t, buying plain cupcakes or cakes from a bakery and decorating them with the kids’ favorite toys is an easy way to create something they’re excited about – and the bonus is, they get a toy with it!
Balloons
We’ve started a birthday tradition where we blow up a couple dozen balloons and scatter them outside the birthday boy’s bedroom door. It starts the day in a special way and always leads to living-room balloon volleyball.
Presents
If our kids have something special they really want that’s not insanely expensive, we do try to get it for them. But, presents aren’t the focus of a birthday. Birthdays are a celebration of the year they had and the year ahead. A fun way to give more meaning to presents is to wrap them in plain butcher paper and write (or have siblings write) a few things they love about the birthday kid on the packages.
Sprinkles
It’s the easiest way to make a birthday breakfast exciting. Pancakes or waffles, a little whipped cream, and sprinkles. Birthdays often fall on school days in our family and this is a simple way to start the day with a little celebration.
Dinner
Usually, we can’t have a party on the kids’ actual birthday but we do let them choose dinner – whether that’s something we make at home or going to their favorite restaurant.
Parties
This Birthday Party Guide is a great place to start if you’re looking for a fun activity to celebrate a birthday. Typically, we plan an activity with a few of the kids’ friends sometime around their birthday. We also try to connect with extended family for dinner to celebrate the birthday, too. We don’t try to cram it all in super-close to the actual birthday because it doesn’t tend to work out. Plus, the kids love multiple events to celebrate them!
