Boxing Day birthday...during a pandemic - help!

[BB8sm8]

...little one will be turning 6...her big sister had a brilliant home birthday earlier in the year with a bouncy castle & friends from her school bubble allowed in our garden keeping their safe distance...I can’t think how to make this birthday special for my youngest with the latest rules now she can’t see her cousins or school friends, the weather isn’t looking great...what can I do? I’m a key worker & I feel so guilty I’ve not been there for her much these past months as I’ve been either at work or exhausted. I just want to make it really special for her but I’m completely out of ideas! 😭

I hear you boxing Day is a crap birthday anyway ,My son turns 14 on Boxing Day ,our plans this year where to stay with family ,and we can't do that now ,I'll probably just have a buffet for him at home

It is isn’t it?! It was very nearly Christmas Day & I feel that would have been more special! She’s still young enough to not quite accept or understand everything that’s going on, for her she just knows she’s not having a class party, can’t see her friends or her cousins (whom she adores 😭)

Aw what a shame

My ds turns 4 on Boxing Day. We have the advantage that he is not expecting a party as there haven't been any friends parties for most of this year due to covid. I have bought some balloons and a banner for the house and planning on making biscuits to go with his birthday cake. I will also make his favourite food, and there are definitely a few extra presents this year. Hopefully he will have a lovely time.
Could you get your dd to choose a special breakfast and dinner to make a whole day celebration? Hopefully others will be along soon with more suggestions.

Can you have a family day where she gets to call the shots in terms of food, what to watch/do and then the promise of a post-lockdown celebration with her friends on her half birthday in the summer?

It would be intriguing to here what she’d choose if she was in charge for the day that’s for sure!

My DD had a" virtual sleepover" for her birthday

We dropped "sleepover packs" with facemasks, kiddie nail varnish, hot chocolate sachets, pop corn etc off at a few friends and they met on zoom from 9-11pm.

My DD will turn 15 on 27th. She’s been hoping that restrictions would be eased so her and 5 others could go to a restaurant together but that definitely not going to happen now. My partner ordered her a personalised birthday cake from his friends bakery so I’m going to drive her round each friends house so she can pass them a piece and she thinks she will watch a film with them online (I’m not sure what the app called but they watch online at same time). I’m currently on maternity so will be home the whole day so think we will have a nice breakfast, spend the day playing games/watching film together and have a walk out for fresh air then she can choose what we have to eat in the evening.

Shout out for all those poor children that have birthdays over the Xmas period it's a rubbish time anyway to have birthdays anyway extra rubbish this year 😭

My two had a lockdown November birthday. We did chocolate pancake stacks for breakfast with lots of fun little gifts. I made a pass the parcel, we filled a pinata and did birthday bingo over zoom with their cousins. Lunch was a drive thru mcdonalds. We made a party tea at home then had sparklers in the garden before bed. It was a lovely day xx

My eldest turns 13 on boxing Day. He's asked to drive to the coast for a walk and his favourite fish and chips (don't even know if fish and chip shops open on boxing Day 🤪).

We've ordered his favourite cake from his favourite bakery. I'll decorate the room for him. Later we will have a buffet of his favourite foods. We're spoiling him with presents two days in a row. Family will drop presents off and wave through the window throughout the day.

That's as good as I can do in tier 3 I'm afraid. We normally either take him bowling, to The Everyman cinema and then his choice of restaurant and I can do none of that this year. I'm sure they'll still enjoy.

Yep same boat, haven’t even got him a cake or anything. He’s really upset it’s just going to feel like another day on top of Christmas being cancelled. We usually have family support on birthdays two as his two siblings are autistic and don’t handle other people’s birthdays.

We usually go to the cinema or out for breakfast which is obviously not an option.

At least during the first lockdown the weather was good so his siblings birthdays were ok.

I have a family member with a birthday in Christmas week. Things we have done to try and make it feel birthday-ish instead of Christmassy:

• treasure hunt (we did it round a town, priming friends to let us hide clues in their front gardens, each clue traded in for a small present when back at home)
• made the whole day about that number so in your case, six of everything (6 balloons when they wake up, 6 spoons at their place at breakfast, 6 silly words that have to be said before you can ask for things, etc etc)
• an activity starting with each letter of their name

And an extra thing that worked well for lockdown birthday in small family - a bunch of balloons each with a tag on that has a time (times spread through the day). At each tag's time, birthday child pops that balloon and a scrap of paper inside says what you'll do at that time - simple stuff you might have done anyway like watch a film, make popcorn but apparently popping a balloon makes it much more exciting