A kid’s birthday party is a big deal. You only get so many of them when you’re young, and every single one of them should be made to count.
Of course, in the era of Covid-19, getting everyone together for a huge celebration might not be practical. What’s more, you’ll be restricted to the confines of your home. But that doesn’t meant that you can’t make the occasion a memorable one, even if it is low-key. Let’s run through a few of the major elements you’ll need to throw the best possible birthday party.
Pick a Theme
One of the best ways to inspire creative thinking is to limit your options. If anything goes, then all you’ll be creating is a gigantic mess. Put a theme in place, however, and everything will start to look coherent. If the theme is space, then the decorations might be the planets of the solar system, the costumes might resemble space-suits, and the cake (which we’ll get to) might be modelled after the Saturn V rocket. Think about hosting an adventurous pirate-themed party with decorations like treasure maps and flags. Costumes featuring eye patches and striped shirts, and parents joining in on the fun by wearing their own pirate costumes, bringing an extra layer of excitement to the celebration. Choose from a wide range of party supplies and make sure that they’re suitably co-ordinated.
Transform the Space
If you don’t decorate, then you’ll struggle to get your guests into the mood to party. That means making the space visually stimulating. Hang decorations from door-frames, light fixtures, and curtain rails. Cover blank walls with posters, and cover posters with modifying details like moustaches and helmets.
Plan some Games
For your party to go down well, you’ll need to have some activities planned. Make sure that your kids have a say in the activities they are a part of and be sure to consider their various ages. There’s nothing worse than trying to persuade kids that the game you have in mind will be fun, eventually. Bear in mind that younger children will have shorter attention spans, so try to arrange activities in blocks of twenty minutes or less.
Don’t neglect the Cake
At the centre of every birthday celebration should be a sizeable cake. It’s not only there to taste good, but to provide a ritual that will really mark the occasion: blowing out candles. You don’t need to bring a showstopper to the table (though making the attempt will surely be great fun), but you do need somewhere to blow out all of those candles. Bear in mind that, in blowing out the candles, your child will be spraying tiny particles of spit all over the cake – so in an age of Covid-19, perhaps wafting the candles with a suitable fan might make a better alternative.
Involve Everyone
A practical consequence of the coronavirus is that not everyone will be able to make it to your party. If you have relatives in distant locations, or even distant countries, then you can still try to involve them in proceedings by setting up a video call. Now, calls of this sort are powerful things, but if you have twenty or more of them spaced throughout the day, then you might be testing the patience of the average eight-year-old. Try to arrange these calls for before your real-life guests arrive!
