Can we have a thread with ideas on how to make birthdays special in lockdown?

[whereiscaroline]

Some ideas from me to start:

Virtual horse racing nights

Kahoot pub quiz. You host a Zoom call, the host shares their screen and players use their phones to submit their answers to each question. After each question a leaderboard is displayed. This really is great fun!

Cameo offer recorded video messages from celebrities (for payment, although some are quite reasonably priced). You message the celebrity with details of the special occasion and they reply with a message for the birthday boy or girl.

Hang doughnuts from the washing line and have a race to see who can eat theirs first with no hands.

Pinata

Would love to hear any other ideas. We have a birthday boy in the house and I'm racking my brains for ways to make his day special. He's a teenager so would happily spend the day on his room on the Xbox, although that doesn't have quite the "special" factor I'm aiming for!

Anyone have any ideas... pleeeeeease?

What does the teen like?

If you make an effort to celebrate by having a nice meal for tea/dinner (whatever that is in your circumstances - raiding the "nice" tins in storecupboard, getting a particular favourite of birthday person in supermarket, getting a nice takeaway....), having a cake (shop bought or homemade with love by family), perhaps a glass of something nice (fizzy pop, nice wine, favourite beer...age appropriate), then that goes a long way.

Make cards if you can, or order enough in advance so they arrive by the day. Presents could be ordered online, or an IOU given for that present when you can go back to shops in the future.

If the weather is good and you have outside space, make use of it to celebrate outdoors. Put out the nice crockery or some nice paper napkins to make it festive. Perhaps do something to relate to what the birthday celebrant likes - paper hats with characters from their favourite Xbox game drawn on them maybe...

And don't focus on "oh it's shit having a birthday in lockdown", make it more upbeat and "isn't it great to have such lovely weather and that we can take the time to celebrate your birthday together, do you want to have a skype call with A/B/C people later?"

I had a cream tea on mine (for elevenses though). Home made scones, Cornish clotted cream. It was lovely.

We've attended a couple of zoom parties using Jack Box games which were quite good.

For dd1's birthday we set up a harry potter escape room in the spare room, a funfair in the garden them have a zoom party with friends.

We camped out. Had a fire and toasted marshmallows etc. Put a movie on in the tent. Made popcorn. Are nice food. Played lots of games.

*ate!

Casino night - get a poker set with baize cloth and play cards together under low lamps with lounge music in the background? ((As a family we are pretty anti-gambling irl, but playing just for poker chips is great fun.)

BBQ with fairy lights strung in the trees and a fire pit for toasting marshmallows later.

Concert (if you are musical) Everyone does a cover version of one of his favourite songs.

Plan an amazing 3 course menu entirely of his favourite food and dress up the dining table as though it was a really cool restaurant.

Do a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt to get clues for where presents are hidden.

It's my Andy's dinosaur obsessed Dd's 2nd birthday next weekend. We're having a Jurassic picnic. Her big brother and I are making a triceratops pinata. I'm painting large cardboard dinosaurs. Going to set the playroom up with them all plus some dinosaur toys, put the picnic mat down, pile the presents around it. Thinking pancakes made to look like dinosaurs for breakfast, banana triceratops horns etc. Got loads of fake greenery too and fairy lights. She's into throwing things so will cut a hole in one of the dinosaurs so we can play throw the ball into their mouths. Going to attempt a dinosaur cake.

Weather permitting will set up dinosaurs hidden in the garden for them to find and am going to hide dino bones in the sand table as a dig. We'll zoom family and either get pizza takeout from the village pub or we'll make dino themed ones of our own. Might freeze some little toy dinosaurs in easter egg moulds to break open.

We live by the sea so will take some toy dinosaurs to a little secluded cove which has a great pool for playing around when the tide is out.