How I Planned My Son’s 1st Covid 19 Birthday
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Who knew that I would be having my son’s first covid 19 birthday? When I first had him in January 2020, I never imagined the world would be where we couldn’t celebrate his life with his family and friends. I knew that I had to make some modifications in December with the pandemic still in full effect.
It doesn’t seem like time is moving that fast, but it is. Of course, I had different ideas about executing my son’s birthday, but I’m glad and blessed that he has made it to one year of life because so many don’t.
If you follow me on Instagram, click here to follow; many people asked me how I came up with the theme and how I did it. The short answer is that I am an event planner, and it’s in my DNA to make every special occasion an event.
This post is about my son’s first covid 19 birthday.
Event planning is one of my many passions, and even though I am not actively in the industry, that doesn’t mean I don’t like to flex occasionally. I always knew when I had children I would plan affordable lux over the top birthdays for my children because they deserve it. Especially my one-year-old, considering his first year of life was during a pandemic.
When planning this party, I started about 45-60 days out. Due to my son’s birthday being in January, I knew it would be cold, and historically, covid 19 is more active in the wintertime. I wanted to plan close enough to learn more in real-time about my options. Ultimately, we had something at our home since that was the safest.
Another thing that I kept in mind was to come up with a budget for what I wanted to spend for this party. Since it would have to be small because of the pandemic, I knew I didn’t want to spend much money. This is where my background in event planning came into play because when you have limited time and budget, it teaches you to lean in on what is possible, and that is what I did in this case.
Interested in purchasing items you saw in the video? Click here to see where I bought everything for my son’s covid 19 birthday.
Where to Shop for Decorations
I found all his decorations on Amazon, and I made sure to buy a pack that included everything in one. Since his favorite movie to watch is Madagascar, we picked a jungle theme and made sure the decorations had a tablecloth, streamers, cups, and balloons.
USPS and the other primary delivery services are experiencing slower delivery times right after the holidays, which is very important for planning. My son was born right after the new year, so I had to get all of his items at least two weeks in advance.
If you start to run out of time, you can always visit your local party store like Party City and the Dollar Tree since those are places that have standard party decorations you can get at any time.
Birthday Cake for a 1-year-old boy
Since it was just my husband, dog, and the in-laws, we only ordered a few cupcakes as a treat for the party. We didn’t want to go overboard since I was also unsure if my son would like the cupcakes or not. It was his first time eating any time of desert, so I wanted to play it safe.
We went to Splurge Bakery in Millburn, NJ. Most of the cupcakes were already available, and then we asked them to make one particular size for my son, Noah. They were friendly, everything was correct, and the cupcakes were delicious.
We also wanted to make sure that we followed the theme that the bakery was able to do, and we would recommend them if you are in the Central Jersey Area.
Birthday Party Theme Ideas
Even though I picked the animal theme because my son loves Madagascar, you choose any birthday party theme for your kids. The best way to execute a party theme is to ensure that if you get it online or in the store, it has 90% of the core pieces you need to put the theme together.
Essential pieces in your theme would be a tablecloth, plates, cups, streamers, and balloons. While not required, if you have theme items, then you can transform the space into what you need for the party. You can also choose not to use everything in the theme, but for a one-year-old party, it’s easier, and I would recommend using what they provided.
You want to keep in mind how you want them to appear at the party for the balloons. Don’t let the packaging fool you. If you get a hand pump, the balloon will not float in the air. If you get them blown up with helium, they will float in the air and not anchor to the ground. Knowing how you want the balloons to appear is something to plan because it can be hard to find helium tanks on the day of the party.
Gifts for One Year Old Boy
My husband and I still came up with a budget for how much we wanted to spend on gifts and ensured that we didn’t go over it. My son’s birthday is 11 days after Christmas, so we had to split up the gifts. This will probably be something that we do in the future as he gets older.
Children from newborn to two outgrow everything rapidly, so you will be spending all of your money in the early years on clothing. For Christmas, we focused on toys. For his birthday, we focused on clothes and items we would need now that he was no longer using the bottle and moved on to the sippy cup stage. If you are looking for some great ideas for babies, click here.
If your child’s birthday is not near a major holiday like mine, you can always buy toys, clothes and whatever you want together. Primarily if it’s during the pandemic, functional items work best as gifts while kids are at this young age. I would just budget because it’s for a one-year-old, and 100% of the time, they will not remember.
