A Virtual Affair…

It’s always great to MEET, GREET, and HUG all your dear ones during the annual meet-ups. But now that times are different we can keep those hugs and kisses for later. Celebrating a virtual birthday may sound uninteresting and dreary, but you can make it a hit with some innovative ways. Here is what I did on Pahi’s 8th. The birthday girl was happy, and so were the Lil ones.

Theme- Decide on the theme of the birthday and start working on it. Start buying decoration stuff or DIY-ing it in advance.

Gifts – Know what your kids like and buy gifts accordingly. You can even inform your close family members about the birthday girl/boy choice of gift and ask them to order in advance to avoid the last-minute rush.

Invites- Prepare the invites in advance. There are a lot of apps for making birthday invites. I used Canva, it has some cool templates.

Building the momentum- I created a WhatsApp group with all those I wanted to invite, this made things a little simpler. To keep the group alive and build the momentum for the upcoming party you can keep posting throwback memories of the kids in the group. So, go through your album of all the previous years’ birthdays parties, search for pictures and videos, and keep the group alive till the party to generate curiosity.

Selecting a channel-GMeet, Zoom, MSTeams- choose what suits you and others. You can discuss this in the group with the mothers and plan accordingly.

Virtual Surprises- Now that you are celebrating a virtual birthday, why not plan for a virtual treat. Ask the birthday girl/boy’s friends to send in their birthday wishes in video format. Collate all the videos together and prepare a video collage. Please inform their friends in advance. You can play this video at the party. It can be a good surprise for all and a keepsake for the birthday girl/boy. We also made a photo collage of her friends wishing her on her special day.

Plan the day- Now that we are all stuck at home, I thought of making her day a little more eventful. I planned a mini treasure hunt for the birthday girl early in the morning. She was soo excited to find all her gifts one by one. You may also write a riddle on each of the wrapped gifts and ask them to guess what’s inside the package. These small things are a great way to keep the Lil ones excited.

Bake a cake together- Involve your child and bake a cake together. They are always excited to bake, trust me. DIY a cake topper and surprise them during the party.

Party Games- Decide on a few games which you can play on zoom or meet. There are a lot of them which you can refer to online.

Virtual Party- Now comes the final event of the day, the virtual party. Please keep separate parties on zoom/meet- one with their friends and others with family members. Never mix both. Play games, show them the surprise video, photo collage, cut cake, let them dance, and make merry.