Birthday Traditions for Kids

Birthdays your way

This blog post is intended to normalize the simple and budget friendly ways families choose to do their birthday traditions for kids. Birthday’s are way more than just birthday parties. Birthday traditions with kids can range from what you do in the morning to celebrate, like making pancakes every year. Or the special outing your family does together for your kids birthdays, like a zoo day or museum of choice.

If you do go the party route, note that your kids birthday party does not have to cost thousands of dollars like your favorite social media influencer shares. While those parties can be esthetically pleasing and look amazing and fun, it can be unrealistic for families to do that every year for every one of their kids. Your birthday party can also be simple and budget friendly and still bring your child so much happiness. My point is to do birthdays YOUR way with your traditions and budget in mind. This blog post will give you some amazing birthday inspiration to consider the next time one of your kiddos birthdays roll around.

Non Birthday Party Birthday Traditions

Here are some non birthday party tradition ideas to celebrate your kiddos in your own special way

Make pancakes and have a special birthday plate that the birthday kiddo gets to eat from every year

Pick up a sweet treat (cupcake, cookie, ice cream or doughnut) at a local spot each year with your kiddo

Go to the movie theater and enjoy a new movie together or have a fully loaded movie night at home where the birthday boy or girl picks the movie and snacks. Set up the room with snacks and drinks and blankets, etc.

Go to a restaurant that your child loves or make a dinner at home that your child loves

Have a “yes day” where within reason and within your budget, your child will receive the answer “yes” to their requests for the day. I saw this on social media and I thought it would be super special for a birthday. If they ask to go to Target and get a cake pop and a toy the answer would be yes. If they ask to eat grilled cheese for dinner, the answer would be yes. Obviously within reason, but this tradition could be a fun one.

Go to a sporting event

Go to a museum, zoo, aquarium of choice and enjoy spending time together

Go to a local bookstore and let your child pick out a special book each year for their birthday.

There are so many other ways you can celebrate a birthday with your kids without having a birthday party. Just simply think of what would bring your child joy for their birthday that year and go for it. There is nothing sweeter than singing happy birthday to your child and watching them blow out the candles on a homemade or fun store bought cake. Enjoying these beautiful moments together is what birthday traditions for kids truly should be about.

Birthday Party Inspiration

If you do go the birthday party route, I have some tips and inspiration for you. I did a large birthday party for my son for his first birthday and his second birthday. Both were between 40 and 50 people. My husband and I have a lot of extended family, but most of our family do not have kids yet, so it was almost all adults at both of his parties. So for his third birthday, we chose to only invite his grandparents and his three friends that he made since turning two the year before. It was small and my son enjoyed playing with his friends. I got to really personalize the goodie bags and activities for this one since it was so small and focused on the kids. See my tips below for birthday party planning and inspiration.

Stick to your budget. Map out what you want spend first and then go from there. Cut back on decor that will just be thrown away and focus more on food and dessert, if that is your vibe. You can also serve finger foods or appetizers too. The possibilities are endless with ways to stick to your personal budget, but the one way I really do that is by limiting decor and buying a cake at Whole Foods that was ready to go and adding my own personal touches on it with candles and themed action figures that were on point with the theme of “Spidey and Friends”. For perspective, the cake I called to get a quote on would have been eighty dollars, but the cake at Whole Foods was only twenty two dollars. So finding ways to stick to your budget can be simple.

Pick a theme that your child is loving at the moment. I know, this can be hard to do with younger children because the things they like can change all the time. But bringing our kiddos joy is what birthday parties truly are about, so choosing what they like really makes sense.

Use an EVITE or a downloadable/editable invitation that can be texted to friends and family, to save on postage and printing of invitation costs. I love texting invitations. My son’s third birthday was “Spidey and Friends” themed. I found an amazing invite on ETSY (linked here), that could be edited and downloaded into a photo to send via text. This purchase on Esty that we linked also included a gift bag tag that is pictured in the next picture below. Etsy or even creating your own on sites like Canva can be simple and budget friendly. Etsy also has tons of other themes, just use their search function to find your child’s theme and add invitation in.

Invite people that will bring your child joy. It’s hard to downsize the list when you have a large family like my husband and I. But do not feel obligated to invite every one. You can choose to do things differently each year too by going bigger, smaller, no party, or party, etc.

Have an activity or two planned for the kids. I love Etsy for personalized items like this. Again, for “Spidey and Friends” theme Etsy had an amazing printable activity page (pictured above) that was editable. I printed these out and set them out for the kids to color and enjoy. But whatever your theme is, type it into Etsy with “activity page” or “coloring page” and see what is available. Some creators can even customize items for you on Etsy, which is perfect. I also had a table of blank paper and “Spidey and Friends” stickers and markers to create art. I liked simple activities like that, but party games or board games are also great ideas to include to keep the kiddos entertained.

Plan food that your child enjoys or include them in the planning. My son loves pizza with ranch and ice cream with sprinkles, so we did that and picked up a yummy inexpensive sprinkle birthday cake from Whole Foods, but got his favorite ice cream and extra sprinkles to top on it. He loved the cake, I used the “Spidey and Friends” figurines that my husband and I gave him for his birthday as a fun touch on top of the cake.

Lastly, don’t be so hard on yourself when things do not go to plan. Maybe the cake doesn’t turn out the way you wanted, or the balloon arch you DIY ‘d was a little saggy. It is okay! All that matters is the experience and joy you bring to your child’s day.

Party Bag Ideas

Party bags are a fun idea for Kids to take home when you do a party. For my son’s third birthday two of his friends came to his party so I made three total party bags so he could have one too. The key is to stick to your budget and to get creative. I tried to keep it simple and added a mini bag of cookies that were on theme, a puzzle that was on theme from the Dollar Tree (see more about my favorite puzzles linked here), a sheet of stickers, and a pack of on theme markers.

I utilized the dollar tree, buying stickers in a bulk pack, and buying the snack pack box of the treat. This way, each party bag came out to under five dollars including the gift bag and little printed tag that was included in my invitation purchase on Etsy. You can get super creative with party bags and they really are fun to make.

Birthday gifts for kids ideas

I have an entire blog post all about educational, experience, and practical gift ideas for kids . It is a labor of love of educating my son and experiencing new things and places as a family. When I gift my son something, I find it helpful to follow the practical guidelines of:

Something to wear, because our kids are constantly growing.

Something to read, because it’s a gift that promotes learning.

Something to eat, like a treat, he doesn’t get all the time.

Something to do. Like an activity gift or an experience like a place we go as a family.

I am not always perfect in following these guidelines, but it feels good to be practical and fun at the same time.

One unique and fun tradition we started this year for my son is a book as a card. So we picked out a special book to include as his “something to read” but this time my husband and I each wrote a personal message to our son in the front cover of the book. It was emotional and will be a treasured keepsake that one day my son will read himself too. I definitely want to carry this into his childhood, teen years, and even adulthood.

Concluding Birthday Traditions for Kids

Last but not least, a very important part about birthday traditions for kids is sending out thank you cards or notes to friends and family for the gifts or time spent together. My son is old enough now where he can create art and things, so this year he created e his own thank you cards. I folded white paper in half and I wrote thank you on the front. He colored and decorated them on the outside with stamps and stickers. It was a sweet and personalized way to say thank you.

I hope you enjoyed this birthday traditions for kids blog post. It is intended to inspire you to do things your way and in alignment with your family values and budget. There is no right or wrong way to do birthdays. There is just your way, and trust me the simple things can be the most magical for our kiddos.