6 Tips For Celebrating Birthdays And More At Home

Planning a party can be difficult under normal circumstances (yes, we need those custom invites, backyard bounce house and a taco bar!) but with the stay-at-home order in place for Ohio residents, celebrating from home can seem like a greater task. With birthdays, anniversaries and other milestones still happening this month, there can be ways to still make wonderful and lasting memories for your family and yourself. Tara Berger, owner of One Stylish Party, and Catherine Blubaugh, owner of Oh Pink! Party Shop are here to help you plan a celebration you’ll never forgot.

Reuse, Recycle
If you have a habit of keeping old party decorations around, break them out for whatever celebration you have. Use old birthday banners, dinnerware and leftover balloons to create your space into a festive gathering place. Even old magazines, newspapers and construction paper can be reused as throwable confetti. “I just think working with the resources you have within your home is really important right now,” says Berger.

Heads Up
Bachelorette parties around the country can’t be wrong: Nothing beats a good custom-made accessory. Blubaugh suggests making do-it-yourself headbands, using letter board letters you might have around the house that you can affix to a headband. “I spray painted the letters,” she says. “Then you can make it look fun with personal phrases and wear it as a birthday headband. It’s a cute little accessory.”

Get Crafty
If the person with something to celebrate doesn’t live with you, a hand-written letter or hand-crafted card shows you care. Grab a piece of paper from the printer, fold it in half and go wild with markers, crayons and whatever else. “This is one way my kids and I have kept in touch with some of our family and friends,” says Berger. “My parents celebrated their anniversary [recently], so we kind of just made our own card to mail to them.”

Sharing The Care
While plenty of spots are offering ready-made care packages, surprise the person you’re celebrating by sending them a party package filled with supplies to decorate their spaces. Berger’s One Stylish Party offers festive streamer backdrops ($53.99) in a variety of colors or balloon garland kits ($40-$64). “They’re easy to assemble, impactful, colorful, celebratory,” says Berger. Blubaugh’s Oh Pink! Party shop offers a handful of prepared party packages such as the Spring Brites Party Package ($28), but you can also order a mystery box that she’ll assemble based on the price point you pick. “I'll kind of curate something for you given like a couple of key words,” Blubaugh says.

Make That Happy Ours
Celebrating a birthday or job promotion in isolation does nobody any good. So, if your crew usually heads out for after-work happy hours to ring in good news, organize a virtual meetup on Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangout or House Party. “Set a scene with your friends,” says Blubaugh. “You can make [it] fun just by breaking out your fancy glasses or playing your favorite songs, or even just getting dressed up — putting on real pants — just do anything to make something seem a little bit more special.” 

Put It In Drive
If you just have to get outside to celebrate someone, Berger says organizing a parade of cars to drive by their house is a good way to spread cheer while keeping socially distant. Create signs (make the messages large enough to read from a short distance), play fun music from the car and honk your horn so they know you’re thinking about them. “For kids, it is the big way to celebrate a birthday right now,” Berger says. For pre-teens or teens, Berger has seen people use sidewalk chalk or homemade signs to help celebrate. “They’ll draw on the sidewalk and leave messages for the person or decorate the mailbox with balloons,” she says. “All while keeping a safe distance.”