My daughter’s eighth birthday is coming up and all hopes for a ‘real’ birthday party have vanished in a viral cloud of Corona (blah!).  She’s devastated (ie big noisy tears) that all her plans for her special day have been canned so I’ve had to think out of the box to find a way to celebrate my child’s birthday while stuck at home.

Amazingly, there are some really creative ways to make your child’s birthday memorable, while social distancing restrictions are in place. Here are some of my favourites:

Virtual Disco

My kids LOVE to boogie so when I heard that Bop Till Your Drop, the kid’s disco party specialists are running virtual discos in the safety of your home, I knew I had found the winner! All I need to do is send the Zoom link to my daughter’s mates and I can sit back (with a chilled glass of wine) and let the Bop Till You Drop experts keep the kids entertained. Bop Till You Drop are offering a 30 minute or 60 minute Virtual Disco Parties and each option includes free 30 minutes talk time after the dancing. The party includes a professional disco entertainer, PA System, Spectacular disco lights, fully interactive host, song requests, interactive games, cool dance moves as well as happy birthday song and cutting the cake. You can invite up to 100 kids (wow! let’s party!) and the whole shebang is recorded for forever memories.

Bop Till you Drop can also host Science, Plaster Painting or Slime Virtual Parties too. They’ve got a special offer of only $79 for a 30 minute disco if you book your party in April (the party date can be anytime in 2020) so I think this is the best deal around! BOOK YOUR PARTY NOW!

Have A ‘Yes’ day

If your child is not keen on a crowd, you can still fill their day with fun….and yes’s. It would be most kids’ dream to have a ‘yes’ day – a day in which mums and days have to say ‘yes’ to everything (within reason and safety, of course). So what better way to celebrate your child’s birthday while stuck at home with a yes day.
‘Dad, can I have another bar of chocolate?’
YES!
‘Mum, can I use your make-up?’
YES!

You may need to give them a few rules and boundaries with the ‘Yes’ day but just relax and have a bit of fun with it. Your child will be thrilled.

Get Strangers From All Over The World To Send Your Kid Birthday Wishes

COVID-19 has made the world smaller with closed groups spurting up all over social media, packed with ideas and inspiration on how to keep your kids entertained (and you sane) during the lockdown. A fun trend is to ask the group’s members to type out a birthday message to your child. And most parents happily oblige and send cute gifs and heartfelt wishes to the child who has lost out on their party this year. Your child will be so excited to receive special personalised messages from people all over the world.

Video Montage

If you’re feeling a bit creative, you can ask your child’s friends to send you a video happy birthday message and you can put these together into a personalised video card for your kid. They’ll love it!

Zoom / Houseparty

If you want a ‘no-frill’s party, all you need to do is schedule a zoom birthday party and get a few friends together to help blow out the candles (virtually) on the birthday cake. House Party is also a fun option and the kids can play party games, such as trivia, charades and drawing games together.

All Their Favourite Things

Ask your child to make a list of all their favourite things. Then fill your child’s birthday with all their faves. Serve up their favourite meals, organise their favourite home/garden-based activities, organise calls with their favourite friends or relatives and dance and sing along to their favourite songs.

Get A Cardboard Cutout Of Their Special Guests

For something a bit different, organise a life-size cardboard cutout of special people who wouldn’t be able to be at the party – perhaps grandparents or special friends. Then reveal the cardboard people and pretend they’re the real deal and get them involved in the party celebrations. You could even order cardboard cutouts of your child’s favourite celebs, Disney princess or even pets. Check out Lifesize Cardboard cutouts for options.

Have A Movie Night

My daughter was keen to have a movie party, but with cinemas all closed, that’s now impossible. So you can host a virtual movie night instead. Ask your child’s mates to get into their pj’s, organise some snacks and then they can all watch the same movie together. Use Netflix Party, which synchronises your movie play and lets everyone chat while you’re watching.

Host a Superhero

Many traditional party specialists are offering virtual superhero/Princess character parties. So you can organise Elsa, Moana or Batman to burst into your loungeroom via Zoom.

Virtual Zoom parties with Superheroes Inc offer over 180 characters and you can pick an Interactive Party, Magic Show or a Dance Off with games, quizzes, storytelling and the Happy Birthday song!

Pistachio Entertainment are also running virtual parties and are offering a personalised video message where your child’s favourite character will record a message especially for them.

Have A Virtual Cooking Party

If you’re a keen cook, you can host your own kids cooking party via Zoom. You just need to send a list of ingredients to the kids’ parents so they can be all ready to go. Another option is to use a professional kids cooking party host, such as The Kids Table, which will tailor-make a cooking party just for you. This is actually a US-based company but since the party is virtual, it doesn’t really matter where in the world, the host is. (Awesome!).

Do you have any ideas on how to celebrate your child’s birthday while stuck at home?