As Sydney faces yet another lockdown, you might be needing to think of other ways to celebrate your child’s birthday during lockdown in July or August! If you want to make their birthday one to remember, we’ve come up with 15 fun ways to celebrate birthdays during a Covid-19 lockdown. Let’s get the party started and show your kids that a lockdown won’t stop you having a fun-filled, extra memorable birthday.
1. Virtual Kid’s Party
Whilst we have to stay home, why not throw a themed online party to celebrate a child’s birthday during lockdown, hosted by your favourite character via live video stream? From Superwoman to Elsa, Spiderman to Star Wars, invite your child’s hero into your lounge room – virtually. Here are just a few on offer…
- Bop till you Drop donโt want you to miss out on your childโs birthday altogether. They have put together 3 awesome packages bound to suit everyone. Virtual Disco, Virtual Science and Virtual Slime Parties, all these parties use minimal, easy to obtain ingredients. Suitable for 4 โ 12 years, now your child can still have fun with all their friends, but in a Covid Safe way!
- Pistachio Entertainment are offering a Personalised Video Message where you get a recorded message customised for your child for any kind of celebration. Or choose a Live Character Virtual Party to delight your child with real time games, singing, dancing and more!
- Superheroes Incย have launched Virtual Zoom parties. With more than 180 characters on offer, you can choose your preferred format including an Interactive Party, Magic Show or a Dance Off with games, quizzes, storytelling and the Happy Birthday song! They offer 15, 30 & 45 minute options. They also offer a FREE Video Message with a character.
- StarDust Kidsย have also created a virtual party for kids and their families via live video stream. Get a unique party link and invite your โguestsโ to join in the fun! The innovative and interactive 30-minute party includes a welcome show, birthday song and plenty of classic kids party games and activities, plus a personalised birthday video.
2. DIY Online Birthday Party
This is actually any parent’s dream come true – a party without the mess! Organise your own online party with a video conferencing app like FaceTime, HouseParty, Messenger Video, Google Hangouts or Zoom.
To make your Zoom call even more special, you can create lots of fun virtual backgrounds on Canva from their easy-to-use templates.
You can still play party games like:
- A disco! Get all your friends to request a song before the party and create a playlist on Spotify. Add in coloured lights, a disco ball and get dressed up to dance around your lounge room.
- Musical statues
- Scavenger hunt – get all guests to run and find something in their house that’s cuddly (for example), and bring it back to the computer.
- Get everyone to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ while you blow out the candles
- The Slime Store can send all the guests a DIY Slime Park before the party, and you can hold the party on zoom.
3. A Drive-By Birthday Party
If your kids are desperate to see their friends in real life, organise a birthday convoy. Friends (from the same neighbourhood) can drive slowly past your house within a dedicated time frame, while you stand out the front to wave and maybe have a quick (socially distanced) “hello”. You could even ask them to throw a few decorations on the car for a bit of fun! A drive-by party is the perfect way to make your child feel special.
For safety reasons, this style of celebration is better suited to houses on quiet suburban streets – and make sure you don’t travel more than 10km from home!
Have a quick ‘socially distanced’ chat with friends as they drive past
4. Organise a personalised message from a celebrity
This is an awesome way to celebrate a child’s birthday during lockdown! Kids will blown away by a personalised message from a celebrity through Cameo. Whether it’s for a special birthday, gender reveal, good luck, an anniversary or any other reason, this is a really memorable way to make someone’s day.
They’ve got thousands of actors, musicians, comedians, gamers and more waiting to record a message for your birthday boy or girl! Like Greg Paige (the original Yellow wiggle), Kellie Crawford (from the original Hi-5), The Umbilical Brothers or even Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives) for a girlfriend!
5. Movie Night
Have a virtual movie night with friends! Tell your friends to get in their pyjamas and grab some snacks, then watch your child’s favourite movie from different lounge rooms, at the same time! Netflix Party synchronises your movie play and lets you chat with your mates while you’re watching.
6. Decorate the house
Decorate the house with birthday cheer! Surprise them when they wake up to a house decorated with balloons, streamers and a big birthday sign. These DIY balloon garlands and party at home packs make it super easy to decorate with style.
You can even get the party delivered. Order a bunch of balloons, a box of cupcakes, or a delicious meal from their favourite restaurant delivered straight to your front door.
Surprise your Frozen fan with a Balloon Garland
7. Make them a birthday movie with messages from friends!
Ask all your child’s friends to send a video birthday message. You could interview them with funny questions about your child or compile a collection of their Tik Tok dances! Turn it into a little movie so your child can relive the birthday love from their friends for years to come.
If you want to get a professional video made, Remember When Family Films is a is a video and photo montage service (based in Pymble #supportlocal) for families who want to relive and remember their special moments. They use the video clips and photos from your phone to create unique family short films and videos. Each video has up to 1,000 photos and unlimited video clips. Find them in the North Shore Mums Directory.
8. Look at favourite family photos
Sit down together as a family and scroll through photos of holidays, birthdays and fun times you’ve loved. It’s not often that we take the time to look back over the millions of photos we snap each day, so doing this together can be a really special moment on your child’s birthday. It can also inspire some great ideas to add to your post-Coronavirus bucket list!
9. Action-packed party day at home
Forget work or home school for the day, and let the whole family have the day off. Plan an action-packed day of fun activities, games and party food at home! Hide and seek, baking, Twister, a treasure hunt and a backyard picnic will keep you busy all day.
10. Enjoy some dress-up fun
We all have the big box of dress-ups stashed somewhere. The adult dress-ups too! From costume parties you have been to in the past. If not, go through your wardrobe and mix and match some pieces to create a very ‘outrageous’ outfit for some birthday fun. It’s the perfect way to celebrate a child’s birthday during lockdown. Get the whole family to go and ‘dress-up’ for the occasion in whatever they like! You can even get crafting to create a beautiful birthday crown to add that perfect final piece to the outfit.
Let’s face it, everything is more fun when you’re dressed for it!
11. Give them a YES day!
Not sure what a ‘Yes’ day is all about? Time to head to our movie list and get watching (number 15 on the list!). The concept is simple: give the kids a whole day where you say yes to anything they ask! Of course, you need to lay some ground rules in place first (COVID-19 restrictions will help with that). But otherwise, be prepared to go with the flow and enjoy the crazy ideas they come up with.
12. Bake a cake together
Is there anything better than a good home cooking challenge? Brush the dust off those cookbooks and go on the hunt for a cake recipe (or just find on online), and get the kids to join in. If you’re feeling up to the challenge, ask the birthday child what sort of cake they want: butterfly, rainbow, rabbit… it all depends on how challenging you’re ready to go.
If you want a little help, check out Cake 2 The Rescue. They deliver EVERYTHING you need to create the perfect cake, including ingredients and a detailed how to. Plus, they have so many amazing designs to choose from on their site.
13. Have a disco party
Grab yourself some glowsticks (they sell them in Coles) and turn out the lights for a dance party. Put the birthday child in charge of picking the music, and everyone can dance along. It’s a great way to kill a little bit of that pent up lockdown energy, while really having some fun. There’s no better way to throw a party than with some dancing and tunes. Depending how many people in your household, you can also throw in some party games. Play musical statues or musical stairs and crown a winner at the end.
14. Make your own pinata
It’s one of the best parts about any party… the pinata! Stock up on lollies from Coles or Woolworths and then get crafting with the kids. There are so many amazing DIYs for you to make your way through on Pinterest. Let your child pick what type of pinata they want (lion, fairy, turtle) and look for a DIY. You might need to raid the recycle bin and arts cupboard for this one. Here are some great DIYs to give you inspiration:
15. Family pizza night
Ordering pizza is easy but getting together to make your own dough is a real memory maker. Kids love getting hands on with mixing, rolling and topping their own pizza and doing it together makes the pizza taste even yummier. Here’s an easy recipe for the dough and you can even set the table with decorations that fit your party theme to make it extra special.
Finish off your day with a slice of leftover cake (that you baked earlier in the day) and mark this birthday down as one you’ll never forget!
Thanks to Rachel Green from Shine Copy for collaborating with us on this article on how to celebrate kids birthday during lockdown! Follow Shine Copy on Instagram.
