Our son will be turning 1 in a month and we are trying to think of some traditions to start. Do you have any traditions that you do with your family? Thanks for sharing!
We wake the person up and sing happy birthday to them while they're in bed. Not too early. We have them pick a place to eat for dinner (which at age 1, he won't be ready for that unless he has a favorite.)
For my son's first birthday I bought a couple rolls of crepe' paper streamers to hang across the room. When it was over and done, I rolled them back up and stuck them on a closet shelf. I ran across them the next year and hung them up again. Saved them,, next year, saved, year after year. When our daughter had her 1st birthday I used them again. The kids are now 28 and 34 and I still have the streamers with HAPPY BIRTHDAY and cakes and candles on them, rolled up in a ziplock bag on the closet shelf. I used them for our grand daughter 4 times now too! The fun part is, I used to sneak into their bedroom after theyd gone to sleep and decorated so when they woke up on their birthday thats the first thing they saw. I have taken small strips of it to our sons apartment and hung it over the stair railing so when he got off work that morning he'd find them when he came home. I took a strip and taped it across our daughters car window last year at her house before daylight, knowing she would wake up and go out to find it. One year when our son lived too far away, I mailed him a birthday card with about 1 foot of the streamer in the card. Its just a silly thing, but they get a kick out of seeing that same old stretched out streamer every year. Im real careful with it now. I take it down myself and roll it up and am careful of the tape to not tear it. Its been fun for a lot of years. If you want to try this,, be sure to buy plenty to last you a long time! And put it somewhere you wont forget. We are getting ready to move and I actually packed it the other day and labeled the box, BIRTHDAY STREAMER. Its a fun tradition that just grew and grew over the years.
EDIT:: I searched and found a picture of the streamers. Check my profile photo. It was my sons 33rd birthday and he was sleeping on the couch. He came to town to party with friends and our daughter and her little girl spent the night. You can see them asleep on the floor and they all woke up to streamers across the room.
When my brothers and I were little, my mom bought some white plates and food-safe paint from Michael's, and she wrote our names and decorated the outsides of the plates for us. Every time one of us had a birthday, we got to use our "birthday plate." She would make us anything we wanted for dinner, and our dessert of choice. We felt so special because everyone else had to use the "regular" dinner plates, but the birthday boy or girl got his or her special plate. We loved it!!
The birthday boy/girl gets to pick what they want for dinner... we are generally healthy eaters, but on your birthday anything goes!
We also take our son to the toy store and let him pick out one toy just from us. We have dinner somewhere and hit the toy store after. He has a very big extended family, so we don't go overboard on gifts ourselves, so it's one thing that he really likes/wants from mommy and daddy!
I'm sure we'll do the same for the one due in April.
Our friends make pancakes for each birthday breakfast.
1 pancake per year. So, when they turn 18 for example, they get 18 pancakes.... they just adjust the size to smaller portions.
We had a special birthday plate too, something happened to it in a move, I need to make another!
we do the whole birthday child gets to pick the dinner. thing. but a cute idea I read about was to put the baby into one of mom or dads suit's with a tie each year on the birthday. as the child grows of course the suit gets smaller and smaller as the child gets bigger. it makes for some cute photos
I like what a friend of mine did with her children. She got a 'large' size T-shirt, and used iron-on letters to put her son's name on it in the front. Every year on his birthday, she puts the shirt on him and takes a picture of him in it. She also got paint, and has him write his name on the back. (for the first year, it was a hand print, second and third years he scribbled, and by the time he was four he was able to scrawl his name.) He is 10 now, and it's really cool looking at the pictures and seeing him grow into the shirt. It's also pretty cool to see the progression of his signature. :)
We decorate the birthday child's room with crepe paper and signs...go crazy and do it around their bed too.
We purchased a birthday cake hat from Oriental Trading Co. and take a picture of the birthday person sporting it each year. We have so many pictures of everyone from hubby down to littlest kid in it every year.
Good luck and best wishes at starting some fun birthday traditions in your little family!!
We do "Half a birthday" at 6 months of each year until they're 9.5 or so. We get cupcakes or a small cake and sing "Half a Birthday" to the tune of "Happy Birthday" ; )
Well per Christmas time... every year, before Christmas (so I have it in time to decorate our tree), I order photo ornaments of my kids, from Kodak. www.kodakgallery.com
I have done this, since my kids were born.
Then each year, you can see how your child is growing and changing.
AND then, once my kids are grown with their own families, I will give them, their photo Christmas ornaments... for their own tree and to share with their own family/Husband/children.
It is a keepsake.
My kids love it.
Kodak, as it nears Christmas time, will be having their photo ornaments on their website.
They have great quality photo products.
I order from them all the time.
Every year for my SD's birthday, I would decorate the doorway into the
kitchen w/twisted streamers hanging down.
The kitchen would have a happy birthday banner hanging up & balloons
Her presents would be there for her to open up after she got home from school.
Her dad would bake a cake.
As she gets older, we all go out to dinner for her special day: restaurant
of her choice, come home to open presents & have cake & ice cream.
I will start these traditions for my son this year. :)
We cook them what ever they want for thier birthday dinner and what ever kind of cake they want.
Plus once they turn 2-3 they get to choose where ever they want to go on the weekend before or after thier birthday. When little its cute because they choose Grandma or Papa's or the park, Chuck E. Cheese's. Other places for the older ones have been camping for the weekend, staying the night at hotels, movies, zoo, skate park. One year my oldest melted my heart when his destination was to go visit my grandma out of state :)
For our oldest daughter - we bought her a Tiffany bracelet (yes - I know a bit over the top, but let me finish what our plans are). Each year for her birthday we buy a new charm and add it to it. Our plan is that when she is 16 she will have the charm bracelet completed and will become her cherished piece of jewelry (and also a reminder or her childhood). Our youngest daughter will be turning 1 next month and we will be doing the same.
The other thing we have done with the girls is the Precious Moment train figurines.
For our son? Well I haven't really done anything special like I have with the girls, but we do allow the kids to pick what they want for dinner and where they want to celebrate their birthdays.
good luck!
My daughter gets a Precious Moment piece from the PM Birthday Train. We have a "family" (our family doesn't live close by so our family of friends comes over) night with cake and ice cream. I make her a shirt that matches her cake. For example - if she has an Elmo cake I make her a shirt that has Elmo on it with her age. Since her birthday is on Christmas we do Christmas in the morning. After we shower and get dressed it's her birthday the rest of the day. We have cake for her and open gifts. She's turning 3 this year so we haven't had an opportunity to do something in which she chooses the event yet but probably will this year.
