A minimalist birthday party for children.
My baby is almost two.
Though he’s not really a baby anymore. He drinks out of a cup and is tall enough to open doors all by himself. But he’ll always be my baby, right? I mean, I’m 33 and I’m still my mom’s baby.
Last year we had a very low key celebration for Henry’s first birthday. The highlight was the two monkey cakes I made. One big and one mini. No gifts. At least not from us. His Grandma’s are another story.
I’ve had a few requests for minimalist birthday party ideas for kids. Living with less doesn’t mean no fun or, you know, just a single candle on a dry biscuit for your seven year-old’s big day. But kid’s birthday parties can be a bonanza of gifts, useless loot bags and one off decorations that are destined for the recycle bin. They can also be really expensive.
My main advice for a kid’s minimalist birthday party: think activity, not stuff.
Here are a few minimalist-ish ideas of themes and activities for birthday parties:
Toonie party. What is a toonie you ask? It’s a Canadian two dollar coin. This is an awesome trend back in Vancouver (and maybe other Canadian cities?) where instead of bringing a gift for the birthday child, guests bring a toonie.
After the party the child can use those dollars to go and pick out a toy or gift. Frugal fun and takes the focus off gifts and onto the party part of a the day. A minimalist birthday party that everyone can feel good about.
Craft the party food. Again, take the focus off of gifts and onto an activity. Decorate cookies, make fruit shish kebabs or, for the more adventurous or older children, involve them in a cooking activity. One of my favourites: make your own pizza. Pizza dough is dead cheap to make and loads of fun to play with.
Games. Can’t wait for Henry and his friends to try and balance chocolate covered donuts on their foreheads.
I’m sure there are loads of ideas out there for creating custom games, ideas that will have you up till four in the morning spray painting garbage cans and stencilling Harry Potter character names on to t-shirts.
Personally, I’d prefer a game of croquet or donut balancing, and more sleep. That’s minimalist birthday party advice even adults can use.
Simple and easy minimalist birthday parties can actually be fun and memorable.
Family far away? Go digital. This year I sent out an e-vite to family and asked if they could be online at a certain time to say hello. We’ll be eating cake and Henry will open the gifts his Grandmas have sent. Gearing up to sing Happy Birthday five or six times.
Don’t plan much. Sure, games are fun, and entertainment could be really memorable. But kids really like to play. And a big pack of kids at their friend’s place? They want to check out that kid’s toys and room and run around and generally make chaos. So don’t stress about planning activities or say up until the wee hours making a homemade pinanta. Just let them play. They will love it.
Meet up in the park. Don’t stress yourself out with having a herd of people into your home: go to the park! Or the beach! Or the woods! Sure, bring some bubble blowing wands but mostly enjoy the outdoors and let the kids play. Bring a blanket, a bowl of grapes for snacks, cupcakes and you are set. I love this New York park casual kids birthday party detailed on Cup of Jo.
Avoid planning the party over a meal time. Lunch for a dozen four year olds (and their parents) can be stressful. Have a morning party that ends at 11am or an afternoon party that ends by 5pm. An easy platter of fruit, cups of water, maybe tortilla chips and you’re done.
Got a big budget? Go to one of those all-inclusive party spots. You know them. It’s the community centre that does it all for 20 kids: pizza, bouncy castle and such for a set price. Or a trampoline park or a Science Centre. Done, simple and easy for everyone. Yes, a minimalist birthday party can mean outsourcing.
Forget the loot bags. The bane of many a parent is the birthday party loot bag. Plastic bags full of candy, erasers, pencils and a few toys that will soon be in the trash. Skip it. I love the tradition of sending the kids home with a slice of cake. We have come across this at birthday parties here in the Isle of Man. To signal the end of the party they sing happy birthday and then cut the cake. But, instead of eating the cake there, it’s wrapped up for you to take home as a parting gift. Brilliant.
Don’t have a party. Sort of. Have you seen photos of your own birthdays as a kid? The really early ones. Likely it was a homemade cake after dinner and a gift to unwrap from your parents. That was it. And guess what? You had a great day. No streamers to put up, e-invites to send out, speciality cake to order or clown to hire. Cake. Family. Celebration. More than enough!
What else? I would love to hear more ideas for simple yet fun kid’s birthday parties. Particularly for older children. Any parents of teens want to weigh in?
My boys get the same kind of parties my siblings and I had growing up
Family and maybe one or two close friends/neighbors
We do snacks , cupcakes and ice cream
The adults visit the kids play
Presents are kept to a minimum- I usually request something
that can be used up , worn, etc…
Goodie bag is always a small packet of fruit snacks , graham crackers or a pack of big league chew ( gum) my kids favorite!
My older boys had a few special parties out due to me being huge pregnant with their siblings and not wanting to do anything to prep
I’m a teenager and I went to a paint war party which was pretty minamalist, we just did capture the flag using buckets of paint and they also had water guns and stuff. It was really fun (of course you’d ruin a tshirt, but I think it was worth it.)
First – congratulations on becoming a mother two years ago! It’s amazing how it changes one’s life.
We’ve loved having at-home birthday parties. There is an awesome book called Penny Whistle Birthday Parties with loads of themes, games, craft ideas,and decorating ideas. Written by Meredith Brokaw (Tom’s wife). Don’t know if it is still in print.
We’ve had penny hunts in our house. We hid about 150 pennies on the first floor and kids had small bags to put their pennies in. They got to keep what they found.
We had a pirate party that was also greatly loved: kids arrived, were given eye patches or bandanas and then face painting of mustaches, beards, etc. We set up a very low balance beam and kids “walked the plank” while everyone else pretended to be sharks in the water circling the balance beam. We also did a water balloon toss!
One year we held a party at a farm in their barn. The kids got to pet the cows and chase the chickens. We played pin the hat on the farmer. I also printed up bingo cards and the squares were filled with photos of cows, horses, the birthday child, etc.
Have fun and take photos to share!
We just celebrated my daughter’s 5th birthday and it was so simple. I wrote a post of how we have handled birthdays up to this point. It helps that we don’t live near family. In 6 years of parenting, we’ve never yet had a formal, big birthday party.
Meant to come on this earlier – Firstly Happy Nearly Your Birthday Henry!
For Dan’s 2nd (last year) I asked everyone to pitch up at the local forest with Bikes. I took a picnic (and his Bikey Bday Cake) and the weather held, a lovely afternoon outside was had by all and no clearing up! Result!
I have been to some parties which combine the toonie and charity ideas which I think works very well. In both cases guests brought $5 as a gift and $5 for a charity chosen by the birthday child. In this way they have enough to buy one item that they really want rather than receiving a number of gifts which they may or may not really want. It is also a good lesson for them to learn about giving to others (a charity in this case). The amount is not important so this would still work with loonies or toonies!
Not sure how, but I have managed to avoid birthday chaos. I have always asked for donations in lieu of gifts, but they get a gift from each set of grandparents, our gift is the party.
As for loot bags, I would prefer to get each child something of value that will last as opposed to a bunch of crap – plus by the time you add up the price of all the crap, it tends to cost about the same.
This year we had a sleep over party – ordered pizza, ate cake, watched a few movies. Had waffles for breakfast and all (4 girls) went home with a $10 itunes card.
As kids get older they actually just enjoy hanging out with each other and don’t need additional planned activities.
I don’t have kids, but I love this post!
Forget kids parties… What about for us?? Yours is coming up soon, too! (did you know our moms met in the hospital when I was born?)
For both birthday parties we’ve had so far for Bug it has been a combo party kind of deal, since DH has his birthday just 11 days previous. It’s been on the first Saturday afternoon after Bug’s actual B-day and we just invite local friends (some of whom have kids) a couple weeks before. Cake for Bug, ice cream cake for DH, and grilling burgers and hot dogs. No mention of presents, but there are always some for Bug and this year DH got a couple as well.
The first year the highlight for the kids was the smash cake…what a mess!! This year we set up a bubble machine and a no-spill bubble bucket with wands on a small table in the backyard, as well as filled the tiny wading pool, and I set up the pebble and water table…so the kids pretty much entertained themselves outside when not eating or watching the gift opening. Of course, after the gifts were opened all the kids joined in on the playing with them.
As far as decorating goes, umm…I buy a mylar balloon or two for Bug and for DH at the Dollar Tree and tie them to the kitchen chairs. For another $3 we’ve got a throwaway tablecloth and some cups and paper plates (also from Dollar Tree) and we are STILL using the leftover plastic silverware from our wedding almost five years ago!! Besides that, it’s just a matter of having a straightened and clean minimalist house and we are good to go!! For us the focus has been on celebrating the fact that there have been birthdays and just visiting and having good fun with friends!!
simple & basic, i love the idea of letting the birthday boy/girl invite one friend for each year that s/he is turning. four 4-year-olds or seven 7-year-olds sure sounds better than 15-20 kids of any age!
This is a great idea. I’ve heard people use age for allowance as well.
Loved this post 🙂
We did a flower party for my daughter’s 6th birthday. The girls (5 in total + little brother) decorated flower pots and then we planted daffodil bulbs (her birthday is in April – Autumnn in NZ) which the girls got to take home and they have so enjoyed the process of watching their daffodils grow! It was so nice to be able to send them home with something that wasn’t a bag full of plastic cr*p!
We had a star wars party for my son’s 4th recently and we did a Jedi training course with pool noodles for light sabers which they got to take home. The boys have definitely had more fun with those than lollies and plastic!
These are great party ideas! A potted daffodil is a beautiful party favor.
We love organising the kids’ birthday parties.
Generally we tend to invite as many children as their age. (ie. 4 kids invited for the 4th birthday, 7 kids invited for 7th birthday)
I tend to prepare pizza dough and let the kids decorate their own pizza.
One of the most popular activities is when I put a huge piece of paper on the floor (or to the garden wall) and the kids can draw, colour or write onto it.
The party games my kids love are:
– picking up peanuts with chopsticks
– unwrapping a previously wrapped (with tinfoil) toy with knife and fork
– musical statues
– name the animal
– who can put the most T-shirts on in 3 minutes
– separating eg. Smarties and pasta
Your idea is great re. donating to a charity instead of gifts!
I love these party game ideas. Thank you 🙂
I’m happy that some people in our ‘hood are moving towards simpler parties with a handful of kids. I think smaller parties are more enjoyable for the kids and no quite so overwhelming (not to mention for us parents 🙂 )
We planned our own minimalist birthday party for my six year old back in August – and it went off without a hitch! I blogged about it here:http://dreamsyoudaretodream.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/get-your-party-on-minimalist-style/
Nice work, Erin. That is nice to hear that people in your ‘hood are moving to smaller parties. I’m guessing most of them are condo dwellers so it makes sense; if you want to host at home you have to keep it small.
You might want to play the donut game without the chocolate…. 🙂 🙂
A mother of 4 who has organized more than 20 birthday parties over the years, always at home (oh my, we had some really bad 🙁 ones!).
Hahaha! Yes, skip the chocolate coated ones. Particularly in the summer.
LOVE this!!! I actually wrote a post awhile back about how we planned our 3 yr old’s minimal, eco-friendly party. Being a minimalist, it helps a lot in party planning because you don’t go overboard…less party planning stress=more time to enjoy the party 🙂
I don’t have children, but I remember from my own youth that I had a lot of fun decorating cakes. We also did karaoke, just with a kids karaoke cd in the computer, nothing complicated.
We also went to a museum once about the middle east and then decorated our own middle eastern veil. Lots of fun and we also learned something.
In the Netherlands children hide the presents they bring in the house (or garden depending on the weather) and the child who’s birthday it is will have to look everywhere in the house to find it. It does focus a little bit on the gift part, but it’s more on finding original hiding places than the actual gift itself.
What a beautiful gift tradition – so sweet!
Along the same lines, I love the idea of a charity party. Your child picks a charity like the local animal shelter and instead of ‘gifts’ the guests bring leashes, blankets, toys, etc for the animals at the shelter. I would love to do this for my son, but I should’ve started last year (at 3), because this year at 4 he is set on having a Buzz lightyear party. I’ll try again next year.
That is a great idea, Leah. We did something similar at a group first birthday party for Henry and his friends (they all had birthdays within a few weeks of each other). Instead of buying everyone gifts, or doing a gift exchange, we all brought $20 and made a donation to Children’s hospital.
The animal shelter idea is adorable! I wonder if animal shelters do tours for young kids.
I love this idea. I am trying to figure out what to do for my son’s 2 year birthday and I will definitely think about this for next year as it’s too late now. I might even do this for my soon to be 5 year old daughter. Including a tour would be great!
I am happy to say there has been a trend in my neck of the woods for simpler birthday parties. The last few parties we have attended have been outdoor at the park parties with cupcakes and punch. No planned activities, other than to let the kids run around and play. The most recent party didn’t even do treat bags, though they did have a pinata. I would like to add that all the kids had a wonderful time. No elaborate invitations, no elaborate decorations, or themes, just a dozen kids running around playing and enjoying each other’s company.
Love hearing this. I’ve heard and seen of some hugely elaborate birthday parties for young children. Homemade invitations, banners, multiple cakes, etc. I think if that is your hobby, go for it, but I’m not going to try and keep up with the “Martha Stewart” set.
If Henry had a summer birthday I would definitely do something at a park or the beach. Free and outdoors!