From celebrating birthdays to baby showers and everything in between. All ages will be able to enjoy the fun-filled ideas that will ensure a successful celebration filled with excitement and happiness... even in quarantine!
Our dog Flower is turning 9 years old in 2 days and my birthday is in 10 days, so I started come up with some ideas to make celebrating in quarantine extra special. First I thought of what our family enjoys about a special day: excitement, differentiation, special attention, guests, food, music, and gifts. It may not look the same this year but we can definitely incorporate some of these elements into the special days to come... quarantine style. Quarantine can't stop us from celebrating!
First, Prepare!
Building Up Excitement:
It all starts with getting excited for the big day. Be sure to differentiate the day from a regular day. To make this day extra special, you can build it up like you do all December for Christmas. One thing we do in our family leading up to a birthday is, dedicate one wall to create a colourful countdown. Sometimes we post pictures of the birthday girl/boy with the countdown to get friends/family in on the anticipation and excitement too.
Kick Start the Day:
Start the day off right by making the guest of honour feel special as soon as they wake up. You could decorate a room for when they wake up, showing that this day is all about them. You could also fill their space with balloons (If they sleep with their door closed, you can use streamers to hold balloons to the door so when they open it in the morning the balloons spill in) So fun! You can also spice up the morning routine. If they listen to the radio or read a paper in the morning, you could request a shout out on their favourites. You may even be able to get a shout out from a favourite social media influencer. Can't hurt to try anyway!
Favourite Food:
Can you even celebrate without food?! Treat the VIP to breakfast to start the day off right! Rainbow pancakes are super easy and fun for kids (just add food colouring to your pancake mix). You can also prepare their favourite meal for a special dinner and of course, bake a cake and don't forget to make a wish!
Get Extra Fancy!
What do you usually do right before a special event? If you are like us you decorate and get dressed up! This is a great way to differentiate the day and the environment. This tells our brains something exciting going to happen:
Dress Up:
So get all dressed up! What better time to bust out your suit and tie or that fancy dress you never get to wear? Even go the extra mile with a tiara, sash, birthday button... or all three! (We keep these things in a birthday storage bin to recycle through Birthdays instead of buying new ones each time). Throwing a costume party can also be equally fun!
Decorate:
We also keep our decorations for future use (phew! very handy when non-essentials are not easily accessible). If you don't have any decorations on hand and don't have time to order, you can make some with whatever you have lying around: Paper, markers, material, yarn/string/ribbon, etc. Pictures of the VIP growing up is also a great decorating option!
Don't Forget to Decorate the Car & Yard too!:
Use window markers/bath crayons on your vehicle to let others know that there is someone special inside. You can even encourage honking for extra fun! You can also make yard signs with the same goal, again encourage honking for all-day fun. Sidewalk chalk can also add some cheerful colour and let people know that you are celebrating a special day.
Now, Celebrate!:
Guests!
One of the major disappointments in quarantine is the inability to celebrate special days with the people in our lives. Here are some ways you can get around this while still keeping everyone safe:
Virtual Party (Group video chat)
We recently had a baby shower for one of my best friends on the video conferencing app zoom. This way she got to see all her family and friends (even the ones that live too far to come to a physical baby shower). We prepared games with the guests ahead of time on our Facebook event page and even used Her own decorated living room as our virtual background! We unwrapped the gifts we got her on camera and dropped them off or mailed them to her. It didn't go completely smooth with the technology but it didn't totally fail either! She still appreciated the effort and appreciated seeing all her loved ones.
Social Distance Visits:
If you really want to see the guest of honour on their big day you can do a window visit. Go to their window with hand-drawn pictures and signs to show your love. You can bring some chalk to decorate their sidewalk and even leave a gift on their doorstep.
Drive-By Parade:
Organize a time where everyone who would be invited to the celebration drives by their house and honks their horn and can do a gift drop-off. If you are going to a drive-by party for a loved one write a message with window markers/bath crayons on your car windows (be sure it is on the correct side).
Music:
No party would be complete without music! Have your friends and family send you songs that remind them of you and create a playlist. My friends did this for me this year and I love it! You can listen to My B-Day playlist with me here (Warning: It is not child friendly!). I highly recommend doing this (even if its not your birthday). It is such a great way to get a fresh list of long-lost songs you love and forgot about! You could also create a special playlist for the guest of honour and send it to them to listen to on their big day.
Last but not least... Gifts!:
Online Shopping:
Delivery times are taking longer these days, but if you are on the ball you can get your gift on time. If it is a really great gift maybe you won't mind it being a little late you can always send a picture of the gift so they can have another thing to look forward to.
Make a Dream Come True:
By saving money not throwing a traditional party with decorations, loot bags, and food you may be able to splurge on something the VIP has wanted for a while. For my birthday this year, I bought myself a ticket to a live online conference with my favourite inspirational leader/motivational speaker Rachel Hollis. It is an all-day event on the Saturday before my birthday. I am super excited about it! She has a whole line-up of amazing speakers talking about courage in this season and resources to go with the content. If you want a ticket to join me you can get one at Rise Live. I'll be there! ...(but in my living room)
Create:
Many of us have more free time and handmade personalized gifts are always a favourite. You can make a scrapbook, a baby blanket, jewelry, dish-wear, etc. don’t know how yet? Perfect. Time to learn a new skill! There are so many tutorial videos on youtube. Your gift will be cherished even if you are not a master yet. If technology is more your thing creating a video montage of family and friends sending their love and best wishes would definitely be a treasured gift this year!
I hope you were able to get some ideas here to celebrate your upcoming special days.
Love,
Sunshine
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