Planning A Birthday In Lockdown

So In case you don’t know, today is my Birthday. Well kind of, I’ve officially put my 22nd Birthday on hold this year. I’m just not ready for the golden year of 21 to be over just yet.

But birthdays are meant to be unique. It’s a chance for us to celebrate and is usually a reason for us to bring all our nearest and dearest together for a good old fashioned knee up. But for most of us, the concept of a traditional birthday will not be a reality this year, or potentially the next. So we’ve got to look for alternative ways to celebrate.

My friendship group is pretty spread apart, so the idea of an ‘over the hedge’ party is pretty much impossible. Plus our official first birthday girl of lockdown was our beautiful Gibraltan. So unless we all climb onto a rowing boat, we couldn’t even throw a socially distanced bash.

That’s where our Zoom parties officially started. We’ll probably have the rest of this year birthdays over a video call.

Which is fine, we’re keeping calm and looking for ways to stay positive together.

My Birthday will probably be no different than this. I’m writing this post-3-weeks in advance but at the moment my Birthday is going to involve me eating loads of food at my favourite independent bar and getting a hefty discount from the governments’ eat out to help out’ scheme. But I’ll also have a themed party with my friends over a video call.

Now, as I begin the planning stage, I thought I’d take the time to write a birthday blog post so if you’re planning on throwing a birthday party during lockdown (Either virtually or in-person).

Send an E-vite

Who else remembers the old fashioned E-vites? I used to sit up the PC and take ages crafting the perfect email invitation for my birthday parties. Now Y2K style is slowly coming back into fashion I think this is the ideal excuse to put together some virtual invites!

Luckily, the process is a lot easier and comes with a lot more creative freedom compared to 2005. Set up a free canvas account and get designing!

If you’re not a fan of E-vites then not to worry, you can get just as creative by making a Facebook event page for the gathering or Zoom party. That way all the people you invite have a place with everything and anything they could need for the event.

Plan the night

I know many people aren’t a fan of strictly planning stuff. But I’ve noticed that socialising has changed a hell of a lot since lockdown began. You’ve gotta remember that there’s not been many (if any) face to face conversations over the past six months. So I think it’s best to have a bit of a structure and a rhythm to these gatherings. Nobody likes awkward silences so if people are stuck for stuff to say, then at least you can fall back onto the cute games you planned out before the night.

I wrote a blog post on planning the perfect zoom party a few weeks ago; you can find some inspiration by clicking the link here.

Dress Code

There’s no risk of having to walk home in your fancy dress. So why not pick a theme for your virtual party? You only have to dress up from the waist up; nobody will notice if you wear Pajama bottoms with your Halloween outfit. But we also found it fun to dress up for our zoom parties. We did Halloween, devils and angels, 00’s themed parties, to name a few!

My absolute goal is to throw an Angus thongs and perfect snogging party. I want to dress up as the Olive.

Presents?

Are you doing presents? So many businesses are offering cute little gift sets that will make your friend smile from a distance. This can be anything from letterbox gifts to the sweet personalised marshmallows that Boomf offer.

Savour The Moment

I know this probably isn’t the Birthday that you had planned. But that does not mean that you can’t make the best of it. Fingers crossed, this will be our only chance to celebrate this way in our lives. So let's make it positive and let's make it unique.