You know what’s worse than school being cancelled or sports being cancelled or most of the rest of life being cancelled right now? Needing to cancel the birthday party your kid has been looking forward to for months. As someone who loves birthdays and holidays both big and small, I will not stand for that. There may be a global pandemic happening outside, but you can still celebrate inside. Here’s how:
Host a virtual “party”
Perhaps the most obvious and popular method for having a birthday party while so many of us are getting our “stay at home” orders is to connect the way we’ve already been connecting with friends, family and colleagues right now—through video chat.
Send out an invitation to gather on Zoom, Google Hangouts or Caribu at a certain time. Let the birthday kiddo open some gifts, organise an activity for everyone to do together (dance party, anyone?) and then have everyone sing Happy Birthday while you present them with a cake, cupcake or other special dessert.
You could also make it a costume party for the extra fun visual effect and to add to the excitement for the youngest guests.
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Host a Roblox party
This can either be part of their virtual party or you could let them have a marathon Roblox session, allowing them play way longer than you normally would by having them take turns playing with different “guests” at pre-determined times.
Talk to the kids or their parents ahead of time to decide which games on Roblox are a good fit for everyone. Give out your child’s Roblox name and have them start the game at the appointed time. Guests can search their name and click to join them in the game. Have them also jump on Zoom or Google Hangouts together so they can see each other while they play.
If you want to ensure that the only people in the game are your kid’s friends, you’ll need to pick a game that has enabled VIP servers, which you can purchase with Robux to make the “party” private. That’s what parent Mark Scianna says he did recently for his son Robby’s birthday:
Coordinate a birthday drive-by parade
Your friends and family need to break up the monotony of their day, too, and this will help. Have “guests” decorate their vehicles with balloons, streamers and birthday signs. Set up a meeting place (say, the next street over) where everyone can line up in their cars. Once everyone is accounted for, walk the birthday boy/girl to the front door and let them enjoy the parade down the street in their honour.
Go ahead and encourage guests to honk their horns and roll down their windows to call out their birthday wishes or sing Happy Birthday. After all, this is a party!
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Go overboard with the decorations at home
I tend to go overboard with decorations for special occasions anyway, so my son wouldn’t be surprised to wake up to streamers hanging in his bedroom doorway, balloons littering the hallway or colourful lights strung around windows. But if you don’t typically do this? Now might be a good time to start.
Use decorations from previous parties, make a homemade birthday banner, scrounge up anything you can. This is the time to decorate to the extreme while they’re asleep to surprise them with a festive this-day-isn’t-the-same-as-every-other-day effect.
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