Children’s birthday parties changed forever at our house in about 1994. Once again, I found myself in the midst of 20 – 30 very young children as I attempted to create a lovely memory for my son’s birthday. I was completely caught up in the Southern California children’s birthday hooplah. First, you had to come up with a unique theme. Then you had to choose a destination: perhaps a cute restaurant, golf spot, interesting pool, fire station, etc. Finally, you were compelled to spend too much money on thematic party favors, food, games and even music.
If you chose to remain at home you had to make up for this by providing the latest decor, face painting, jumping equipment and even a clown or character to provide entertainment at the party. Of course you also had to provide lovely adult fare for the parents as you could not serve them the age-appropriate food the children were enjoying. In the end, you were exhausted. Your child was grumpy from over-stimulation and overwhelmed by too many gifts. You absolutely had spent too much money. In the long run, no one really benefited from this experience.
The point of a birthday party is to honor your child and to make the day particularly special. This can be accomplished in a lovely and stress-free manner.
The changed face of our birthday celebrations was evident yesterday as we honored our daughter who turned seven. We started the day by blessing her with birthday wishes, hugs and kisses. She picked her menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner (nothing terribly lavish but it was her choice!). She observed the finishing touches on her favorite birthday cake, a cheesecake.
The actual ”party” was thrown in the afternoon with only our immediate family present. Our dining room was decorated with a princess motif complete with pink streamers, party favors and a tiara for the guest of honor. We tied pretty pink balloons to the chairs with pink satin ribbon. All in all, it looked quite festive. We sang, she blew out the candles, I read her a birthday letter recapping her year and we feasted on cake and pink lemonade. Everyone played musical chairs and our daughter unwrapped a few presents. We all enjoyed the party and our daughter was thrilled with it. She was blessed and honored, but not overwhelmed.
Birthday celebrations can be memorable, special events for your family without elaborate staging and costs.