We have just celebrated our son’s birthday during lockdown / social distancing. Celebrating it as a family of 6 we did all his favourite things so he could enjoy the day. I’d like to share some of my lockdown party ideas for kids in the hope we can help make birthdays special during this strange time.
Have a room in the house you can decorate as a party room. We didn’t have a birthday banner so ended up making our own personalised one and sticking it to the wall. If you haven’t any balloons in the house then make Birthday paper streamers and hang them from the ceiling. Maybe play some party tunes in the room and have some disco lights / bubbles (if you have any of these to hand).
A good way to decorate cakes can be homemade toppers. We have often used animals, character figures, Lego etc to make cake toppers. On this cake we also made a homemade mini banner with brown paper, string and cocktail sticks!
I have created a list of party themes which wouldn’t be too tricky to put together with limited resources. There are ideas to suit all ages.
Character Tea party – Tiger who Came to Tea or The Gruffalo, Toy Story, Peppa Pig etc You can watch the programs, read the book and theme the party food depending on your cupboard / fridge contents.
Teddy hospital – My little ones love bandaging their teddies up
Super Hero Party – Theme the day around their favourite characters or make up your own superheros
Home pamper party – A lovely idea for parents of tweens
Treasure hunt – One of my favourite parties from my childhood. Younger ones can dress as pirates.
Games party – Traditional games such as pass the parcel, musical statues and sleeping lions
Gaming party – One for older kids, they can game with their friends, as that’s interesting apparently!
Football party – Have a family game in the garden
Pizza party – Make some homemade pizzas
Home cinema – Bring the cinema to your living room- Again maybe with some homemade pizzas or hotdogs and popcorn. We downloaded Disney + on a trial so we could watch a film on his birthday.
Family Zoom time- Have all the family together online and maybe you can take it in turns to share your party trips such as singing / dancing and jokes.
Fun workout – With the Joe Wicks workouts being popular, we have a friend who celebrated their son’s birthday last week with everyone gathering on Zoom to do a fun birthday workout.
Slime party – There are dozens of homemade slime recipes on Pinterest from glue based ones to cornflour and shampoo. Get experimenting for slime mad kids.
Have a camp out – Set up an indoor campsite in the living room and bring the outdoors in. Or if you’re fortunate to have a garden, have an outdoor family camp. This also ties in nicely with my next idea.
BBQ party – Play games in the garden and throw some food on the BBQ.
Arts and crafts party – Gather your art supplies together and have a crafty day together.
A friend of mine has also created a blog post of favourite ways to throw. party during social distancing. Head over to her site Yorkshire Tots to Teens for more ideas!
I hope this list provides you with some fun lockdown party ideas for kids. We all want them to feel that life is still normal, in our ‘new normal’.
Of course, being surrounded by their immediate family is the most important thing right now. My son said he really enjoyed not being at school and spending time with his family on his birthday!
So don’t be disheartened, they can still have a wonderful day. Please do share how you spent the day celebrating your child’s birthday in lockdown.