How To Plan A Virtual Birthday Party, Invitation And All!

As you may know, birthday parties are one of my favorite ways to show loved ones how special they are, and are a great opportunity to get those creative gears turning, especially when it comes to original decorations and simple yet festive cakes. Now that most of us are staying home and practicing social distancing, one can still throw a memorable birthday party, just with a new twist, a virtual birthday party! The party hosts could even be in a different location from the honoree, amazing! The other really nice thing about a virtual birthday party is that you can invite as many people as you like and certainly friends and family that would not normally attend because of geographical distance. So no reason to be sad, this may just be the birthday party of a lifetime! And if we are fortunate to see a speedy end to the Corona virus epidemic before the date of your planned party, the locals can always come to your house, nothing lost only gained, as this year you included loved ones from afar!

For those folks who do not have a computer in their home, or possibly do not have a computer for family use, this idea can still work! Follow all the non-virtual ideas and then connect on the phone via conference call. Ask all the party participants to take photos and send them to you, and wonderful memories will also be made! Okay, lets get started, as depending on when that upcoming birthday is, and where all your invitees live, near or far (?) time might be of the essence!

Invitations:

Do something you wouldn’t normally do, and order a quality invitation online. A beautiful printed invitation that looks really professional will let everyone know that you are really serious about this virtual party you are planning! Birthday invitations can be fun or elegant or humorous, depending of course for whom the party will be, and actually choosing an invitation design might be a great starting point for determining the theme of your party. If you live in the USA, for example, 21st birthday invitations might include a bottle of champagne, in which case you could do a virtual champagne brunch!

Decorations:

Once you’ve chosen your theme, the fun begins! It would be so wonderful if each of the invitees could decorate a wall or more for the party in their home, as well as the table, and you’ll send them the decorations, and any instructions for assembly. Practically speaking plan on filling a large padded envelope with decorations, either homemade (preferably, in my book) or commercially made, and have fun with this. Include balloons, party hats, a party table cloth, tiny battery operated string lights (to put in jars for the party table, for example) lanterns, streamers, garlands, folded posters, personal messages, photos, cake decorations (like my paper cake skewers) and more. If you’d rather not be practical this time around, send a pinata, large string lights, paper plates and napkins and anything else needed for the table, wow! Or if you are hosting the party for a loved one say in the same country, send them everything that is needed, that will surely melt their hearts.

Above: Birthday crowns are simple to make and add so much to your party. Check out my simple tutorial here.

Party Favors:

Depending on the type of party, party favors are always great, so give that some thought. You could make simple sparkly birthday crowns for everyone, or choose to send chocolate bars wrapped in a custom wrapper that you’ve designed at home. Stencil your own tote bags or t-shirts, or even dishtowels, which are all easily and inexpensively sent in the mail. You could also have custom shirts printed at an online print on demand shop and let them take care of the shipping, perfect! For a more personal touch, have fun with graffiti style t-shirts, (fill the shirt with words and numbers and symbols that are all related to the honoree) time consuming but a great way to keep busy right about now! My daughter made a shirt like this for Purim and is now working on a sweatshirt, will share that soon.

If sending actual physical items is too difficult, why not send pdf files for everyone to print themselves? There are many great free templates online that can certainly be made in mulitiples and become great party decorations. Just make sure you know your folks, as many or most are not nearly as crafty as you are?

Games:

Every birthday party needs some games to keep it fun and interesting. You could send a classic pin the tail on the donkey game along with the party decorations for starters, and even make your own version. You could write a set of trivia questions about the birthday honoree and see who knows the most. You can certainly play any form of charades virtually, or do games that are timed, like how long it take to draw something, or any number of options. I’m sure you can come up with many more ideas that are perfect for your party, no pressure, once the invitations are sent you’ve got time to think about it! Any forms or sheets can be sent via email for the attendees to print themselves.

Above: A fun cardboard cake made from recycled materials is just as cute as can be, tutorial here.

The Cake:

Depending on how many you’ve invited to your party and where they live, the cake could be an actual edible cake, or even a cardboard one! You can deliver a homemade cake or cakes to those who live nearby, and/or have a cake(s) sent to loved ones via an online bakery. A whole cake sent to multiple locations could get costly, so also consider sending a selection of cookies, or for the bakers in the bunch, send them a recipe to create in their home. A simple cake can be budget friendly and if you send the the decorations to put on the cake, that can work nicely.

The Actual Party:

Whew, the big day has arrived. Connect at the exact hour of the party via a platform like Zoom, or any teleconferencing platform that works for you. Get a fun playlist together or even make a slideshow, the important part is to really eat the cake and/or that champagne brunch together, and make memories. Ah yes, and with everything else going on don’t forget to sing happy birthday!