Are you looking for fun ideas to really celebrate your kids on their birthdays? We recently celebrated our daughter’s birthday, and I wanted to share with you a fun family tradition that should be part of everyone’s birthday celebration: Birthday Week!
One thing I noticed when my kids were really young was that when they received tons of presents all at once, they were not able to really appreciate or enjoy anything. So we began to set up some boundaries (that were really quite freeing) and establish Birthday Week. We scatter out small presents throughout the week of the child’s birthday, culminating in one main present on the actual birthday. Here’s what this looked like for my daughter this year.
Throughout the week, she received nail polish, hair ties, leggings, and shorts—just little things. Nothing expensive, but stuff she likes. All year long I keep my eye out for small little goodies like that, things I know she’ll like. I gather up these items and then wrap each one individually. Placing the gifts in a pretty basket, I use this as the centerpiece on the table during Birthday Week (see image above). The fun for the kids is as much in the anticipation of opening a gift as it is in the actual receiving of the gift! We usually do special breakfasts each day and open them.
On her actual birthday, she got a bicycle (purchased on Craigslist for $15!).
Around here, on holidays and birthdays, I find that the grandparents do so much for the kids that I don’t have to do much at all, but I want the kids to appreciate the things they receive, and that’s really tricky when you get bombarded with all kinds of gifts all at once. So we’ve started doing a version of this at Christmas as well.
What are some fun ideas that you have to celebrate birthdays with your kids?
