18th birthday in lockdown

[bendmeoverbackwards]

Anyone else with dc with 18th birthdays coming up?

dd is 18 at the end of Jan, we will still have current restrictions in then I imagine, it's only a few weeks away.

Before Christmas I was looking into various options and found a company that offer decorated, heated tents for the garden. I had thought that if the rule of 6 still applied I could hire one of these and she could have 2 lots of 6 friends over during the weekend of her birthday.

Now that obviously can't happen.

I don't know whether to book the tent anyway or if it will be a waste of money. We could sit in it for a family celebration and/or she could have one friend over if that's allowed.

Any ideas how to make it a bit special? I will look for some nice pressies, cake etc and said she can have a belated party in the summer. But I want to make it just a bit special for her.

I wouldn’t book it. No/one will be allowed to have people over until schools reopen at the earliest (assume you’re in England).
Can you ask her friends to each make a birthday greeting video? We had to do that for DS 16th as his was in first lockdown.

ds was 18 in december.

We were tier 3, so had birthday cake at home, just the family, and went out to a restaurant to eat.

Pretty crappy, boring birthday, but we have promised him a party in the summer, as long as allowed.

You aren't going to be able to have anything before end of feb at earliest

I wouldn't book it. Would feel a bit flat with just the family in there, and seems a bit of a waste.

Try and make the day itself as special as you can (cake, party food or takeaway, booze, nice presents, lots of decorations, zoom calls) and just promise to plan something better when it's all over.

It's shit, but you'll be able to celebrate properly in the hopefully not too distant future.

I have been looking for ideas also as I think we will still be in lockdown for DDs 18th. I've come up with:

• hire a hot tub and decorate patio area, have champagne/music etc
• decorate and turn the dining room into a fancy restaurant and all get very dressed up for dinner or (seen on another thread) make a mock pub with bar, darts etc
• do an at home spa day - foot masage, pedicure, manicure, facial etc. Lots of youtube videos on doing treatments etc
• zoom party is an idea but not sure about that really for 18 year olds unless they are all local and you can deliver mini bottles of champagne and cake to their houses and then all celebrate together?
• do you have lots of video of her growing up - film night showing all this?

Love some of these ideas, my dd is 18 in March. I fear we will still be in some sort of lockdown.
I am thinking of doing a photo book, with pictures from all her friends and family along with messages.
We are giving her money as her main present so I'm going to make a cake where you put all the money inside attached to a cake topper and then you pull the cake topper out and the money comes with it. (Probably haven't explained that very well)
I have also seen online murder mystery parties, I think you can do them with people from other households so I'm going to look into them a bit more to see if they are any good.
Will be doing her favorite food and probably a takeaway.
Decorations
Helium balloons with pictures hanging from the bottom from throughout her life.
I get a lot of my inspiration from Pinterest so I'd recommend looking there.
Hope all your DC have fantastic birthdays.

Dd1 was 16 last week. Not the same as 18, but she still wanted it to be special and was gutted when she couldn’t do anything (tier 4 even before official lockdown).

I filled the whole living room with balloons, which was fun. Went out for a dog walk and got takeaway hot chocolate, had a takeaway And made her a birthday cake I knew she’d love. Not what she has in mind, but still not a terrible day.

I’ve also booked for her and a couple of friends to see a show on her half birthday in the summer.

I feel for all the teenagers now. I feel they’re being robbed of what should have been some of the most exciting years of their lives.