8 ways to make a birthday feel special during lockdown for kids and adults

 

Whilst the world is a little crazy and unpredictable right now, there are some things that are inevitable. Getting older is one of them. If you are having a birthday soon, chances are you’ll be celebrating in lockdown. 

Social distancing however doesn’t have to mean a miserable birthday, we’ve thought up 8 ways to make a birthday day special for kids and adults during the corona lockdown.

DRESS UP

Pyjama chic may be the look you’ve been rocking for a while now, and we are 100% with you on how good that feels. When it comes to birthdays however, it’s fun to mix things up a little.

If you’re planning a birthday occasion for a child, why not have their friends raid the house for dress up items before joining each other on a video call to guess which character they are? Encourage kids to really get creative - the crazier the better! If dressing themselves up is a bit too much work, get them to dress up a teddy or toy.

If you have a few quid to spend, there are also plenty of children’s entertainers who will dress up in character to do a video call with your child or record a personalised video shout out, both of which are sure to make the day feel special. 

For adults, why not host a murder mystery “dinner party”, with character dress up and maybe even a shared menu. Daft hats, silly accents and terrible acting all very much encouraged. Red Herring games offer downloadable versions, perfect for  lockdown. Find them at https://www.red-herring-games.com/product-category/games/dinner-party-games/

 

CREATE A THEME

Just because you’re in different rooms doesn’t mean you can’t have a party theme!

There are plenty of free printable downloads available right now, including our colour in cup cake cases 

Get your party “guests” to print out and make up bunting, place mats and party hats in advance so that when you all join up on a video call the birthday child will feel extra special. 

Music also helps to set the tone, so don’t forget to make that spotify or YouTube playlist and share the link!

 

GET MUSICAL

We spent a little time working out how it would be possible to host a karaoke night over video and we figure you’ll need the following things:

A video call platform like zoom

A YouTube playlist of videos with lyrics 

A way to sync up the videos, such as  Watch2Gether

We found it’s the most fun if you put the video call into “gallery view”, so that you get a little grid of back up dancers whilst you  belt out “I will survive” into a bottle of hand sanitiser, but maybe that’s just us. 

It works best if everyone except the performer mutes their mics during each track so you don’t get a ton of echo.

Don’t forget to line up the birthday boy or girls fav tracks and a box full of costume props and objects to act as substitute “microphones”. 

If all your guests have had enough of your musical stylings, you can always head over to https://karaoke.camp/ and sing along with a few strangers. They have karaoke sessions running 24/7 with performers from across the globe.

 

MAKE A MUSEUM TRIP

Loads of museums and historical sites are hosting virtual visitors just now, so why not make use of this and visit the Louvre or the Great Wall of China? Adding a soundtrack, from bird song to classical music, will make this more fun, as will comedy narration if you’re on a group call or chat.

If you’re in full party organiser mood, you might even want to pay a visit beforehand and create a scavenger hunt for your “guests” to enjoy - get them to screenshot the items as they find them. 

 

 

HAVE A WATCH PARTY

Did you know Netflix has a chrome extension called “Netflix party” which allows you to watch with someone remotely? The extension features synchronized video playback (so everyone's screen will pause and resume at the same time) plus a chat room so you can share your thoughts on the film.

Why not expand on the movie theme with yet more dressing up, a themed snack menu that guests can receive in advance, and some printout decorations. There are lots of printable colouring sheets for popular kids movies too, so you could include a colouring competition or relevant craft project. 

 

 

CLASSIC KIDS GAMES

Many of the classic kids party games you might have played in your own childhood can be translated across a video call so long as you have adult volunteers to help out. 

Simon says and musical statues are pretty simple so long as everyone can hear the music and instructions, and are favourites that most kids know.

Remember Kim’s game, where kids have to try and remember a list of objects hidden under a tea towel? Perfect for a lockdown birthday. 

Scavenger hunts can also work brilliantly - get kids racing to retrieve the socks of the nearest adult, something that smells terrible and something they can wear. Goose chase has created some social distancing scavenger hunts over on their blog if you need more inspiration https://www.goosechase.com/blog/

If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could even ask mums and dads at home to pre-wrap a few layers for pass the parcel!

 

AND CLASSIC ADULT ONES...

You may, like us, already have taken part in a virtual pub quiz of some kind. There are plenty being hosted via Facebook live, like the Thursday night one at https://www.facebook.com/thevirtualpubquiz/. Our team members conferred on answers via a four way Facebook messenger call whilst sharing a few beers. The best bit was - no queue for the lady’s.

We also had a stab at pictionary using https://randomwordgenerator.com/pictionary.php where you can also generate words for charades or guess the catchphrase, both of which get funnier after a glass of wine.

If you’re feeling extra brave and your party is all adults, you could start an online game of Cards Against Humanity. Just hop on over to playingcards.io. From there, scroll down and press “Cards Against Humanity,” then “Start Game,” and send that link to other players, who will join by pressing “Enter Game.” This is much more fun if you are also all on a video call at the same time, because then you get to see the scandalised faces of your opponents. 

 

 

GET PERSONAL

If you can’t be there in person for someone’s special day, you can still send a meaningful or hilarious gift with a personalised message. We are currently offering gift wrapping and personalised messages on all our products, we can even write inside your card for you.

We hope we’ve given you a little bit of inspiration for how to celebrate during social distancing. If you are still looking for ideas, join us in our Facebook group, The Lockdown Birthday Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/151997882759070/?source_id=161455193908906

Stay safe everyone!