Birthday Traditions - Gordonsville,VA

I bought my daughter a silver charm bracelet for her 1st bday with a birthday cake charm. I also had a heart charm engraged with her name and birthday to commemorate her birth. I plan to get her a new charm for each birthday--something that is symbolic of her interests that year, and give her the completed bracelet for her 18th bday (maybe 21st?)

I bought some markers that you can use on windows (they come off really easily) On the big window next to our kitchen table I always write "Happy Birthday!" Last year I wrote "Tori is 5!" on the front storm door. We got a lot of comments from neighbors - and Tori loved the extra birthday attention!

We always had treasure hunts on our birthdays -- clues that led to other clues that led to the present. Number of clues matches the age (The clues got harder as we got older, just be careful to make them not too hard!).

i love traditions so so so much! here are some ideas:

-decorate her room with balloons and signs while she sleeps so that when she wakes up, she's greeted with a very fun sight that celebrates HER.
-have a special plate that you use for birthdays and other special occasions. you can order a plate that says "you are special today." it comes with a marker you can use to write down each time you use the plate on the back. super cute!
-mark her handprint in some creative way, the same way, each year on her birthday.
-prepare a special breakfast. you can make cinnamon rolls or pancakes in the shape of the number she's turning.

I started taking my daughter for a real salon mommy-daughter manicure on her third birthday. Our salon does it for $7/child, and we go have lunch just the two of us.

My daughter is also about to turn 2, but one thing we did last year that we plan to do every year on her birthday is to measure how tall she is on the same canvas, so we can see how she's growing!

My friend bought her daughter a REALLY TACKY (ok, maybe just silly) adult Christmas sweater. Every year she takes a picture of her daughter wearing the sweater and its pretty cute to see her start filling out the sweater!
Another thing we did in my family was to celebrate 1/2 birthdays when we were young... that way there is something special to look forward to that is all yours. My husband and I share a birthday... I keep trying to convince him that if he really loved me he would give up his birthday and just take the 1/2 birthday. It hasnt worked yet, so keep your fingers crossed for me! ;-) This year it falls on Thanksgiving... :-P

I have 3 boys -- ages 5, 4, 2 -- we don't do the typical birthday parties. Instead we have a birthday "adventure" and pick something he would like to do for his birthday.

My 5 year old has been to the Space museum, Chuck E Cheese, and Dinosaur museum for birthdays (with family only). We find the money and stress you spend on parties aren't worth it, and usually you get too many toys than they need. So far, it has worked well, they love to pick the activity and talk about it for a long time afterwards.

That's just us, if you like the idea, take it and make it your own. If you don't like it, you will surely find one that you do from the wonderful Moms here!

:) V.

Here is something that a friends' family did that I thought was cool. For Christmas they made gifts for each other. Something cheese, fun, whatever.

Then, the day after Christmas they would go through the sale papers and make lists of what they wanted. Then everyone would run out shop. Wrap the gifts and at dinner time they would open them. They said it was a ton of fun and they saved a bunch of money at the sales.

You could do something similar with your daughter's birthday. Do small gifts on Christmas, and then a bigger gift, or perhaps something that Santa left off his list for her birthday.
M.

Hi

My daughter also has a Christmas time birthday (30th) and what we do is always make sure we talk about her birthday , so we remove Christmas decs and in place put up birthday decs (with the exception of the tree) , we always have a little party for her , just a few friends nothing too big, this year I am planning on them doing some kind of creative activity like decorate a picture frame and taking a photo of each child for them to keep and put in there frame , then we will have some free play time then pizza and cake. As for gifts we give her a few birthday gifts & then we choose x amount of $ to keep back for her and then in June (when her brother & sister has a birthday & get new gifts)we let her have the rest of her birthday money so that she can buy something aswell. It is hard when they get Christmas gifts and birthday gifts within a few days and then nothing all year , it seems like such a long time to them and they move on with their development and toys/games they had in December they have moved on from.

I hope she has a happy birthday

K.

Ruffles & Cream Baby and Children's Boutique carries the most adorable and very unique birthday tutu sets. Each set comes with a pink tutu, a black or white birthday shirt and a matching birthday hat. They are very cute and very affordable. www.rufflesandcream.com

I was thinking the same thing, recently. I came up with a fun idea, the "birthday tree". Like a Christmas Tree announces the holiday, and there is a tradition of decorating it, a "birthday tree" can do the same. I doesn't have to be a tree - especially with a Dec birthday, but maybe a poster board. You can decorate it with photos of the last year, so Baby can see how much she has grown, things like that. Then you can attach it to an easel on birthday morning, attach some balloons, and have it as a focal point with her presents underneath. And at the end, you can add photos of the party, and keep the collection of posterboards in a portfolio as a forever memory.

Good luck! Creating traditions is a great thing to do, but very difficult!

We didn't have any birthdays close to holidays and we also didn't have the monry for any sort of a big bash but what we did was to let the birthday child choose what they wanted to have for their birthday dinner (and did it no matter what it was) and also they got to choose what kind of cake they would like. The kids loved it and we did it until they left home and now that is a tradition they are using with their kids.

My family also has the tradition of the birthday person selecting the dinner menu. My dad and I also like to celebrate what we call our Birthday Week. For the week leading up to our birthday we really talk up the big day. We try to do special little things in honor of our Birthday Week, like sharing a nice afternoon snack, displaying any birthday cards that have already arrived, letting the birthday person go through the door first, etc. All free, or really inexpensive things that make us feel special. Maybe you could hold "Birthday Week" for the week following your daughter's birthday, so as to avoid Christmas encroaching upon it.