how we celebrate birthdays in our family

we LOVE birthdays in our house, but one thing we don’t do is friend parties.

we have nothing against friend parties! we always attend if invited to one, but they get EXPENSIVE to throw. we prefer to spend all that money on our child instead of on venue rental, food, etc.

so instead of friend parties, we do little trips! this is something my parents did for me a lot growing up and it has been SO much fun doing it for my son as well. for example, when i turned 16 instead of having a party my parents took me and my friends to nyc for the day. my son usually requests the zoo for his birthday and always has a blast. as he gets older if he wants to start bringing a FEW friends on these trips he will absolutely be able to!

in terms of presents, we try to avoid gifting our kids toys. we know their grandparents, aunts, and uncles will spoil them with toys, so we prefer to spoil them with experiences! we got my son tickets to the parkour gym as a gift once and he had the best time! we still get them presents to open, but focus way more on experiences.

if we live near family (we currently don’t) we would host a family birthday party while they’re young, but these are very causal and inexpensive and they’re hosted at home!

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