January is normally WNY Family’s “Let’s Party!” issue but under COVID restrictions, families have had to come up with new ideas for celebrations. Here’s one of them!
My daughter Lucy is a big fan of birthday parties. She’ll throw them for her stuffed animals and dolls, complete with decorations and snacks. So, looking forward to her 8th birthday this past November, she had a variety of ideas and opinions regarding what the theme might be and what her party would look like. She started the conversation shortly after her 7th birthday party wrapped up in 2019, which was at a movie theatre, to see Frozen II.
As 2020 brought changes starting in mid-March, her birthday planning chatter continued. She saw many friends have birthday car parades, lawn balloons and decorations, and birthday Zooms, and (like many of us, at least initially) thought that after a while, things would go back to normal. As weeks turned into months, and what will soon be a year, it was clear by the Fall that any birthday party plans would have to be reconsidered.
After going through several different phases (disbelief, denial, and anger), she finally settled in to discussing what we could do for her birthday. She had a handful of friends that she had been having regular playdates with in-person since the summer, so we figured we’d start there for the invite list.
In the week or two before the party, our county moved into the Yellow Zone. The weather wasn’t going to cooperate for an outside party, so that meant that even with masks, we didn’t want more than one kid in the house at a time.
We decided to have an all day “mini party marathon” and so Lucy would essentially have 3 different birthday parties. Each party would be 2 hours long, with 30 minutes between each party for cleaning and resetting. Everyone would wear masks (including my husband and I) and instead of cake we’d do cupcakes. Her big brother would also be out of the house for the day, meaning she and her guests could have free reign of the house.
The schedule looked like this:
• Party 1 - 10:30am -12:30pm
• Party 2 - 1pm - 3pm
• Party 3 - 3:30pm -5:30pm
No fancy invites; just quick texts to each guest’s parent and we were good to go with a week’s notice. We did order some fun decorations, got cupcakes in her favorite colors, and allowed her to pick out a small toy to gift/play with each of her guests.
Each party wound up being totally different, based on the party guest’s matching interests with Lucy, and she was thrilled with the result. One party was all about making and playing with slime. Another was focused on surprise toys and building a pretend grocery store. The last one was all about LEGOs. Lucy and each guest got to call the shots on when they opened gifts and had cupcakes, and the time seemed to fly by for each party.
It was a long day for my husband and I, but the result was memorable and happy for Lucy. After Christmas when she starts talking about birthday planning again, I suspect she may want to continue with the mini party idea even when it is safe for everyone to get together. I wouldn’t be opposed!
Jean Bezek is the mother of two children and the daughter of WNY Family Editor and Publisher Michele Miller.