What are your birthday traditions?!

[avismama24]

Hi all,

My son is celebrating his first birthday next week. He is my first child as well so we don't have much in the way of traditions set in stone. I am looking to all you creative mama's out there for suggestions to make the day special.

We are not very material oriented. We don't do a lot of gift giving or spend a lot of money on stuff. What types of songs do you sing? Special things with candles, candle rings? Small birthday tokens? Books/photos? etc... What do you do to make it special?

Thank you!

[JudiAU]

Birthday crown

Waldorf-style birthday ring (kids love that)

some handmade construction paper decorations

party for preschool kids (no gifts please)

special dinner of choice

we actually spread it out so that is birthday week rather than birthday, I try to disassociate the day itself from being important, but rather the activity and family that participates 

[meemee]

honestly the first bday was v. different than the other bdays.

for us first bday was about family and friends celebrating together. the emphasis was a big party, gathering and not really on kids. dd loved it. we had more adults than kids. dd just ate up the attention. we held it at a park. she was in fact off crashing the next bday party. we did the whole presents (people WANTED to bring presents), cake stuff but really teh kids didnt really care. 

our bday traditions really began when dd was 3. at 2 it didnt matter too much. this time i invited our whole playgroup so we had about 60 adults (and family and friends) and 40 kids of all ages.  

our traditions began at 3 sorta and has gotten more important. its more about dd and me. not presents. not dd. she was the person of the day. so she couldnt do anything wrong. i would not yell or punish her that day. also i was her slave for the day. i had to do what she wanted. THAT has what our bdays has been like.

so the first bday - just focus on yourself - how you'd love to show joy and everything else falls into place. make the day special for you and dh. for me the specialness was the rememberance. i got out of photographs (i'd miss so many moments while trying to take pictures). i got out of videos. <shrug> for dd it was just another day with more attention. 

[pek64]

Birthday celebrations are generally family events in our household. Cake, presents, and the annual height measurement. Pretty low key. We did one kid party with friends, but my son didn't want any more, thankfully. That was a lot of work!

[avismama24]

Thank you. I love the idea of the annual height measurment and the birthday crown.
 

[pek64]

I even added his birth length as though it was a height measurement. What I regret is marking it directly on the wall. No way to take it when we moved.

[avismama24]

Originally Posted by pek64 wall

I even added his birth length as though it was a height measurement. What I regret is marking it directly on the wall. No way to take it when we moved.

I thought this too, as the wall was my first thought, but there is a good chance we will move fairly soon, in the next 2 years or so for my husbands job. I saw a really cute woodland scence wall measure in Nova Natural I may order

[avismama24]

Just purchased the woodland measuring thing and the waldorf birthday ring from nova natural....it was a bit of a spurge, but I feel good about supporting a local company as well as purchasing two items that will make birthdays special and can be used for more than one child. I ordered an angel ornament for my Son's first ornament for the birthday ring because he was born 3 months early and most certaintly had his fair share of angels watching over him!

[LaughingHyena]

I even added his birth length as though it was a height measurement. What I regret is marking it directly on the wall. No way to take it when we moved.

I know several people who have moved and taken their children's height measurements with them. Get a roll of paper, lining paper of leftover wallpaper or something and blu tac it up next to the wall with the height markings. Then you can transfer the marks across onto the roll of paper and redraw them in the new location.

[avismama24]

Originally Posted by LaughingHyena 

I know several people who have moved and taken their children's height measurements with them. Get a roll of paper, lining paper of leftover wallpaper or something and blu tac it up next to the wall with the height markings. Then you can transfer the marks across onto the roll of paper and redraw them in the new location.

Good suggestion!

[JudiAU]

Originally Posted by avismama24 

Just purchased the woodland measuring thing and the waldorf birthday ring from nova natural....it was a bit of a spurge, but I feel good about supporting a local company as well as purchasing two items that will make birthdays special and can be used for more than one child. I ordered an angel ornament for my Son's first ornament for the birthday ring because he was born 3 months early and most certaintly had his fair share of angels watching over him!

Enjoy. We love ours. Just make sure you are careful with candles (obviously) because we had one figure who got smoke and mild burn marks. Too close. Wooden Wagon has among the largest selection of figures if you want to add to it.

[pek64]

Originally Posted by LaughingHyena 

I know several people who have moved and taken their children's height measurements with them. Get a roll of paper, lining paper of leftover wallpaper or something and blu tac it up next to the wall with the height markings. Then you can transfer the marks across onto the roll of paper and redraw them in the new location.

I really didn't even have time to think about it at the time. I thought of it later. Oh, well.

[avismama24]

Originally Posted by JudiAU 

Enjoy. We love ours. Just make sure you are careful with candles (obviously) because we had one figure who got smoke and mild burn marks. Too close. Wooden Wagon has among the largest selection of figures if you want to add to it.

Thank you for the Wooden Wagon suggesstion!