Many of us are missing out on celebrating important moments and milestones with our family and friends. Graduations ceremonies have been cancelled, weddings have been postponed or streamed to guests across the internet, and funerals can feel more tragic and isolating than ever before. Even birthdays are difficult to celebrate while social distancing!
With all the heartbreak that stems from this pandemic and the effects of social distancing, you may be wondering what you can do to celebrate and show your love to family and friends from a distance. Especially when it comes to birthday celebrations. Whether it’s your spouse or your child or grandchild’s birthday, how can you still make the day feel special for them?
Listed below are five different ideas that you can use to celebrate a loved one’s birthday during social distancing:
Drive by Birthday Party Parade
Organize a Birthday Party Parade to celebrate your loved one. Start by asking family and friends if they would be willing to decorate their cars with signs and balloons, and drive by your house to send birthday wishes from a distance. It’s best to tell your parade participants the time you’d like the parade to start and to end. You’ll also want to make sure to tell them all to drive the same direction on your street.
Here is an example of an invite you can send out: You’re invited to celebrate Emma’s 10th Birthday with a Birthday Party Parade! Our address is 1462 Appletree Lane. Please drive by our house heading west towards Orchard Street between 6:00 and 7:00 pm to share birthday wishes from a distance. We know it will make his day seeing you there!
Host an Online Birthday Party on Zoom
If you don’t like the idea of a Party Parade, or if you’re home is in an inconvenient location for one. You can always host a Birthday Party on Zoom.
To make it more interesting and fun, you can tell everyone to dress up for a specific themed party. You could ask guests to dress up from the roaring 20s, or flashy 80s. If it’s for a child’s birthday you can ask everyone to dress up as their favorite superhero for a superhero party, or dress up as their favorite animal and have a zoo themed party.
With a little corporation from others, you can still play a few party games on Zoom. For example, you can play Bingo, Pictionary, and Charades.
Birthday Video Messages
Another special way to celebrate during social distancing is to ask family and friends to send you a short video of themselves wishing the person happy birthday and sharing a little message of love. You can then compile these videos into one long video as a gift.
A birthday video message is sure to be treasured for many years.
Create Something Personal
Are you a creative individual? Then why not offer something personal and unique as an extra birthday gift? You could write a poem, record a song, or send a painting or drawing through the mail. The personalization and creative energy won’t be overlooked.
Have Food or Dessert Delivered
Never underestimate the joy of giving someone their favorite food or dessert. There are many companies that will deliver giant warm cookies right to someone’s doorstep. Or if you know what their favorite meal is at their favorite restaurant, you could pay to have it delivered to them.
I hope these five ideas help you celebrate your loved one’s birthday during this unique social distancing time.
