Birthday Traditions

At the Shumway house, we celebrate birthdays a bit differently than other families. We don't have birthday parties. Ever. We started out with the intention of having birhtday parties, I remember doing a pirate themed one for Austin when he was four years old. It was fun, a lot of work, and expensive. Maybe I burned out of my first birthday party because we had lots of little friends, people visiting in town, and was about 8 mths. pregnant. So, we decided to do something different for our children and for us, it works out perfectly.

The Shumway Birthday Tradition

Decorated Door and Picture Collage

The child wakes up to a decorated door, which all the children gather around and reminisce on the various activities that we have done in the past. We all love it. The kids love it so much, they leave their birthday collages up until the new one the next year. It is fun for Randy and I to gather the pictures and remember all the fun times we have as a family, and also become a little bit sad because the children are growing up so fast and we love them so.

The Birthday Donut
We put candles in donuts and sing to the child at breakfast and then we all (well the kids, donuts and I don't mix) eat donuts for breakfast. We used to go to the bakery, but as most the kids birthdays are during the school year, we now opt for the little mini donuts that Mom can purchase at the store at her leisure.

The Birthday Experience
The birthday child decides how to spend the following Saturday /weekend to celebrate their birthday, as a family. In the past this has included, movies, Boondocks (a family fun center with laser tag), Disneyland (we were already going there), fire pit and smores in the backyard, and always includes dinner out to the restaurant of their choice.

This birthday celebration works well for our family and we LOVE it. The children look forward to their birthday posters. It seems to shift the focus off of presents and chaos and more towards a celebration of the child. Every family is different, but I'm glad we thought up this tradition.