How to Celebrate a Birthday in Quarantine

It’s no secret around here, we love to celebrate, and we love to plan intricate parties to accompany those celebrations. We attribute much of our shared passion for party planning to our grandmothers who never missed a special occasion or an opportunity to honor a loved one. We can remember countless get-togethers at Mimi’s and Nana’s growing up, where they often left us in charge of all the fun details like decorating, setting the table and selecting the entertainment. So, this year as we anticipated Charley and Max’s first birthdays, our heads were spinning with all the details we wanted to include to celebrate our little ones.

And then, about a month before the parties were to take place, social distancing and safer-at-home orders were put into place. There wouldn’t be the intimate gatherings we envisioned with family and friends from near and far, and thus, there wouldn’t be the need for many of the fun details we had planned. However, just because the parties were postponed, celebrating our little ones on their special days wasn’t! So, if you have a special someone to celebrate during this time, we are sharing how to celebrate a birthday in quarantine including many of the ways we celebrated our little ones this year. Plus, our friends over at Paper Goat Post, who helped us make these at-home festivities extra special, are sharing their best party tips to help you celebrate even bigger.

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How to Celebrate a Birthday in Quarantine

Clean and Tidy in Advance

Just as you would want a clean and tidy space for family and friends to gather, you will want a clean and tidy space to celebrate your loved one. The key is to do so a day or two in advance so your attention can be focused on them on their special day. Our houses tend to get messy every day with little ones running around so cleaning and tidying the evening before and after they went to bed worked best for us.

PGP Party Tip: Plan to get some festive paper partyware to eliminate the need to do lots of dishes on the day of the party! Combine paper partyware with serverware you have around the house to elevate the feel of the day.

Prepare Favorite Meals

The key to anyone’s heart is through their belly, correct? Make a BIG breakfast, order their favorite lunch for take out or delivery and prepare their favorite meal for dinner, so you are continually filling them up with their favorite eats. We both opted for baked dishes for dinner that cooked low and slow most of the day. The aroma of the dishes filled our homes all day long which had everyone eager for dinnertime. Giving your special someone something to look forward to will encourage them to savor it when it’s time to indulge. When it comes to sharing how to celebrate a birthday in quarantine, this just might be the best way to do it!

Order or Make a Cake

Support a small business owner by ordering a themed cake or dedicate your time to making something homemade. Jenna’s neighbor made a vegan rainbow cake for Charley’s smash cake and her older kids made a boxed cake for everyone else to enjoy. Shannon ordered a smash cake from our favorite baker in town, Everything Cake, that tied in Max’s “Hole in One” birthday theme complete with is custom logo. 

PGP Party Tip: Order a simple cake design and add in your own festive elements to the design… grab a themed cake topper, some fresh flowers or fancy sprinkles to add a personalized touch.

Celebrate with Favorite Things

Let the day be filled with your special someone’s favorite things! Shannon woke Max up with bubbles, which are one of his absolute biggest joys in life. Jenna filled Charley’s new water table up because she loves to splash around!

Here are a list of favorite things your special someone might love:

• Massags
• Manicures or pedicures
• Bike rides, rollerblading, skateboarding, etc.
• Hikes
• Games – card games, board games, video games, hide and seek, tag, trivia, etc.
• Music – make a special playlist or tune into a free concert
• Scavenger hunts
• Crafting or art
• Cooking or baking
• Movies
• Reading
• Writing
• Dancing
• Karaoke
• Gardening
• Swimming

Bombard Them with Balloons

What’s a birthday without balloons? Make it an even bigger celebration with oversized, embellished balloons sure to make your special someone feel loved. The Billy Balloons Charley and Max received from Paper Goat Post on their birthdays were definitely a hit! They provided hours and even days of fun! 

Charley’s Billy Balloon featured a Rifle Paper Co. inspired hand painted design that coordinated with her “April Showers Bring Birthday Flowers” theme. To add to the fun, Jenna bought a bunch of pink balloons, blew them up and filled her dining room floor with them so Charley could play with them throughout the day.

Max’s Billy Balloon adorned his custom logo created with Paper Goat Post for his “Hole In One” birthday theme. For a little extra fun, Shannon ordered a few standard, helium balloons from PGP, that Max loved tugging on and toting around all day long.

P.s. Paper Goat Post delivered these beautiful balloons right to our doorstep, so we never even had to leave our house!!

 

Choose a Special Outfit

While family and friends will not be gathering for the special occasion, a special outfit is a sure way to make anyone feel special. It also makes for great photo opportunities you can cherish for a lifetime. Charley wore a first birthday outfit and checkerboard Vans from Mimi, and Max wore an adorable outfit and bow tie intended for Easter that he never got to wear. They both looked absolutely adorable!

Accessorize

Whether it’s a cute bow, a handsome bowtie, a party hat or a birthday crown, accessorize your special someone so there’s no mistaking who is being honored. Charley wore the most adorable bow in her hair and Max wore a tiny party hat donning the number one from Little Blue Olive. Both were too cute for words!

Plan a Parade

Call up your local family and friends and organize a birthday parade! Encourage participants to make signs, fill their cars with balloons and purchase noise makers. Have them line up down the street and bring your loved one out to the driveway just before giving everyone the cue to begin their procession. 

Make it a Virtual Celebration

For those who aren’t local, create a virtual meetup via Zoom or plan to FaceTime loved ones when it’s time to sing Happy Birthday and/or open gifts. Invite them to partake in the celebratory moments, even if they can’t be there physically.

PGP Party Tip: Make your guests feel like your virtual celebration is just as special as celebrating in person. We really do feel like milestone occasions, even if celebrated virtually, still deserve an invitation. Of course we prefer one sent via snail mail, but a digital one can be fitting too.

Birthday Montage or Shoutout

Consider having family and friends record a birthday message and compile them all into one video for your special someone. What a special keepsake it will provide and something they can cherish for a lifetime!

Also, did you know you can book celebrities to create a personalized birthday shoutout for your special someone via Cameo? How fun is that?! And for a limited time, Cameo purchases support COVID-19 relief. Additional details can be found on their website.

PGP Party Tip:  Include an interactive element to let everyone play an active role in the party. Ask your guests to mail a letter with best wishes & memories to the guest of honor to commemorate this milestone. Better yet, design themed letterhead (we can help with this) for your guests to use. What a fun keepsake!

Celebrating Is Not Cancelled

While it may not be your traditional celebration, it can still be meaningful and memorable. Parties have been cancelled but celebrating loved ones has not. A little bit can go a long way, and if you’re intentional in celebrating your special someone, a birthday in quarantine can be just as special as any other birthday.

If you have additional ideas on how to celebrate a birthday in quarantine, please share them in the comments below so other readers can be inspired. Hap-Bee Celebrating, friends!