Half-Birthdays

[grumo]

I thought for sure I'd find a thread here about half-birthday celebration ideas, but my searches aren't bringing up anything. Anyone got any ideas or links to threads?

[Twocoolboys]

We celebrated ds#1's half b-day when he was 6 months old and again 18 months old, but that was all we did. I know that it was very low-key. No presents or anything. I think all we did was have half a b-day cake. Of course, he wasn't even eating cake yet at 6 months, so I think it was an excuse for my dh and I to eat cake - LOL.

[3boysmom]

I've never heard of celebrating half birthdays. Is this something a lot of people do in your area? Does this mean everyone gets two "birthdays" every year?

[flminivanmama]

we used to do it growing up & now I do try to do something for the kids. we sing "Hap Bir t ya" etc. my aunt used to go so far as to gve my cousins half a card and half a cake. one year she gave my cousin a purse strap LOL

the kids love it - maybe I should start really doing this more...

my half birthday was 2 days before my moms birthday & my twins half birthday is on my dh's birthday...

[chel]

we do a half-birthday with dd. The only reason we do, it that her preschool and her current school always do something special for birthdays and since dd's birthday is in the summer this way she gets a chance. Birthdays in general are very low key in our family so the half-birthday can't really get lower. Basically it's cupcakes at school and a pick your dinner and cake at home. Real birthdays have all that and a party of close friends/family (usually 5-10 people total).

[coolfiremom]

My DS is now 10 years old and has a February birthday. We have celebrated half-birthdays since he was a baby since his birthday is so close to Christmas.

We usually let him choose dinner and have some sort of special dessert, usually a cake that I bake instead of a store-bought one. I buy him a small gift.

I think it's nice to give him another special day each year. DS has always loved the tradition!

Patty, Mama to Ren (1/26/06) : and AJ (2/8/06)

[grumo]

We ended up doing the half cake (complete 4 and a half candles), and having dd pick lunch and dinner. The cake was quite fun to make!

[frogguruami]

www.birthdaypartyideas.com has ideas for half birthdays.

I wish my mom would have done half birthdays. My b0day is 6 days before christmas so i never had a birthday party.

I think it is cool of you to do that for your little one!!!!

[maya44]

My three dds have always had half birthday celebrations.

I order a half cake from the grocery which sells them anyway, decorated with "Happy 8 1/2 (or whatever) B-day" on them

The half birthday girl gets her favorite dinner with candles (including a broken 1/2 candle)

They get presents that are sort of fun and silly like my dd who turned 10 1/2
got:

Archie Comics

Wacky Pack Stickers

1/2 a Pack of Bazooka Bubble gum

"1/2 a Necklace" (you know how they well those necklaces at Clair's that can be broken in two that and one says things like "Best" and the other says "Friends"...i gave her the one that says Friends on it)

[fyoosh]

I am going to see how my son's 4th birthday goes, and if it goes as miserably as his 3rd, I will start celebrating his birthday at the half-mark. His birthday is halloween, and we had a terrible turnout (one kid) last year. My birthday is the day before his, and I always had dismal turnouts too. Everyone seemed to already have a party to go to on that weekend.

When I was in high school, my friends and I would celebrate half birthdays in goofy ways... we'd get really baby-ish cards for each other and give balloons that said stuff like "LOOK WHO'S THREE!" or something to embarrass each other. It was fun

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by amseiler

I wish my mom would have done half birthdays. My b-day is 6 days before christmas so i never had a birthday party.

I've heard of people celebrating their half-birthdays instead of their real birthdays in this scenario. I've always really enjoyed having a June birthday, simply because it is 6 months from xmas. I like the idea of 6 month and 18 month celebrations for babies, because they are such milestones and ready for new things, developmentally.

[Drummer's Wife]

We celebrated half-birthdays growing up. We would pick our favorite dinner and my mom would make a cake. We would get to use the special *birthday* plate. It was pretty low key, no guests or gifts just our family. But it was a nice way to celebrate that we were half of a year older, which I remember being a kinda big deal as a kid... as in I'm 7 1/2 yrs old not only 7

We have done similar with our kids, I've made cakes and celebrated the day with them so they know it's their half b-day... they are all really young now so they don't exactly understand but it's a tradition I wanted to continue.

[hipem]

I used to love my half-birthday. We celebrated dd's for the first time earlier this month. We just had a cake (with 4 and 1/2 candles) and sang. It was fun!

[melamama]

dd is 6 and really into the idea of 1/2 birthdays.

We've always celebrated them (low key as well) just as a special day and 1/2 a birthday cake. Plus all of my kids have winter birthdays, so it's nice to have a fun outside birthday day.

[trini]

I like the idea of 1/2 birthdays. We never did them in my family but it might be a great tradition to start. Oops! We missed ds's first 1/2 birthday.

I am a teacher and we do them at school for students who have summer birthdays so they get the same sort of "special day" at school that other students get.

[jenniey]

how am i this old and ignorant of half birthdays?
we do the unbirthday for the boys, it was something dh had as a kid.
i guess we do it because it is a random day when we will all just focus on that kid without family/friend expectations, hence avoiding too many toys, too much plastic, too much noise, too much chaos.

sorry OP, did i ignore your actual question?

as to the actual celebration:
we tend to use that day to do whatever the un-birthday-er requests: breakfast for dinner, dessert before food, sleeping in your clothes on the couch... it does tend to become a topsy-turvy day, now that i think about it.

[hottmama]

I want to start doing this! Both of my kids have bdays close to Xmas, especially the littlest (Dec. 21). I'd like some celebrations in June and July!

[Greensleeves]

h

[Dmitrizmom]

I would really like to do 1/2 birthdays for ds (Dec 26 bday), but dh says no. I may just start doing them anyway.

[LIZnCHAD]

I think 1/2 birthdays are great so long as they don't replace their original birthday. It can send the message that their real birthday was just too inconvenient so we moved it 6 mo away.