I love birthdays! It’s a day where you can really show the people you love how grateful you are that they were born! And it’s fun to know that you are loved on your birthday too. 🙂
I love when my husband’s and kids’ birthdays come! I love to plan out things a few weeks before and get them all ready to go. It’s especially fun while my kids are small because they are easily pleased and everything is exciting for them.
We have a couple of family birthday traditions that I wanted to share with you! Our birthdays are mostly at the beginning of the year so we’ve been doing lots of birthday stuff lately which is why it’s been on my mind.
So here they are!
1. Decorate their door/room
Growing up my parents would decorate our room the night before our birthday with streamers and balloons so we could wake up to the decorations. I wanted to do this with my kids, but found that Alan and I were too noisy and woke up Kami. You can read more about our EPIC FAIL.
So this year we decided to just decorate the outside of our daughter’s door. She loved it all the same!
2. Let them choose what to have for dinner and their cake
On your special day you should be able to eat your favorite foods right? So the birthday person gets to pick what they want for dinner and what type of cake they want. My daughter wanted a princess cake this year. This is the first year where she was old enough to have an opinion about it so that was really fun!
3. Have each person in the family say why they love them
This is a family tradition my husband’s family does. At first I felt super awkward doing it, but then I loved it! You just go around and each person says something that they love about the birthday person. It’s a good opportunity to share with that person the qualities that they have that you think are great! And sometimes we don’t always let that person know what you love about them, so this is a great time.
4. Make them a yearly book
I started this tradition with my first daughter and am so excited to do it for each of my children. Around their birthday, I go through the pictures and events from the previous year and make them a photo book just for that year. So then they’ll have a book of pictures from every year until they’re 18! So far my oldest has 3 books and it’s so fun to see what she’s done and how much she’s grown. And both my girls love looking at the pictures!
5. Write in their journal
On the day of their birth, I’ve started each of my children a journal. I write down the events of their birth and my thoughts and feelings. I write in it every few months the things that they’re doing and funny things they say. I also write in it on their birthday and write down as many things as I can think of about their personalities and what they like and don’t like so they can see how they change as they get older. I think I’ll probably give them this journal when they’re about 8 so they can start to write in it themselves.
I hope there are some new ideas here that you can start with your families too! What birthday traditions do you have?
Audra Day says
I love each one of these! I don't remember many birthday celebrations growing up, and I'm hoping to change that for my two boys. These are great ideas – thank you for sharing!