"My kids’ birthdays often make me a little bit sentimental. I can’t believe another year has already passed. It feels like my kids were just babies on my hip and tiny toddlers with their arms outstretched asking me to “hold you?” But even if my kids’ birthdays get me in my feelings, we all love to celebrate. And our simple family birthday traditions—beyond blowing out birthday cake candles and singing the “Happy Birthday” song—have become something my kids look forward to each year.
Maybe your family’s birthday traditions are passed down from generations or are something entirely new. Either way, a birthday tradition can be a sentimental and easy way to connect with your child on their special day. Maybe you want to write your child a letter every year until they move out for college or record a video message for them on every birthday you’ll later edit together, or you want a special birthday morning moment and fill their bed with balloons. A birthday tradition doesn’t have to be elaborate to be special. And don’t worry if you didn’t start on their first birthday—a kid’s birthday tradition can start any year.
Not sure where to get started? Here are 15 ideas for kids’ birthday traditions:
1. Hang Streamers from Their Bedroom Door
One year, I decided to tape streamers over the door frame of my daughter’s room the night before her birthday. She loved waking up and walking through the streamers so much, it’s since become a birthday morning tradition for her and her younger sister. They look forward to it every year. So much so that this year my type-A kid reminded me the night before her birthday, “Mom, don’t forget the streamers.”
2. Surprise Them With Birthday Balloons
Another cute way to mark the year? Buy a birthday number balloon—or adorn their room with a bunch of balloons—for another special way to wake up. Plus, these props double as a background for a cute photo opp year after year.
3. Create a Self-Portrait Progression
If you’re looking to get creative, play with the idea of self-portrait progressions of your child every year on their birthday. Set them up in the same spot every year and take a picture of them, and then curate it into a file or book to keep.
You can also have them join and draw a picture of themselves every year, or if you’re feeling creative, too, do a drawing of your own. It’s a great way to see your kid’s creativity develop and change through the years, and it allows you to be just as hands-on as well.
4. Start a Growth Chart and Measure Their Height
In the past, it was tradition to note kids’ heights on a door frame. But nowadays families prefer a growth chart that doesn’t have to stay with the house in case your family moves. Growth charts make a great first birthday gift and can start a family tradition of marking their height every birthday to see how much taller they are in a year.
5. Open an Email Address
Set up a specific email address for your child (a good idea to claim their name, anyway) on or around their birthday, and send them an email from your own email about what their life is like from your eyes at that current stage in life. As the years go by, you’ll be able to see and reflect on how much they’ve changed and what goals they may have for themselves as they grow older. You don’t have to limit it to just birthdays either, as you can also send fun videos or small stories throughout the year to highlight that age in their life.
6. Write Physical Letters Every Year
Similar to sending emails, this follows the same format but with handwritten letters. There are countless movies where a character receives letters written by a beloved family member at a certain age, so why not try it yourself?
Whether you buy special stationery or put it in a keepsake box, your child will truly appreciate receiving all their letters at a different time and age. If you can’t wait to give them all at a later time, when they’re a bit older, give them a letter every year so they can read about your life and what you learned at the age they just turned. Either way, a handwritten letter is a perfect way to preserve what you’re trying to convey.
7. Ask Family and Friends to Contribute to a Birthday Tradition
Have family and friends write short stories or messages to your birthday kiddo. It doesn’t have to be an every-year tradition but could follow a pattern like every three to five years. Then have a spot to compile them in a keepsake book to be read at future birthdays.
8. Create a Birthday Journal With Mementos
Another creative venture: Create a scrapbook or “junk journal” and dedicate however many pages you want to the specific years of their life. The tag from their favorite shirt? A receipt from an ice cream night or school certificate? Paste it in the junk journal, which can be more attainable and low maintenance than a scrapbook. Plus, this one is fun for both you and your kiddo to look back on.
9. Record Video Diaries
Possibly the easiest way to create a special time capsule is to sit down and record a message to your child. It doesn’t have to be too long but could include everything you’d want to say to them in a letter, highlighting the type of person they’re growing into, their favorite things, and hopes you have for them.
Another video idea, once they’re old enough, could be to ask them the same interview questions every year to see what’s changed as they grow. For example, who are their best friends? What do they want to be when they grow up? What’s their favorite show, etc.?
10. Create a Birthday Time Capsule
It’s not very often we hear the words “time capsule” anymore. Sure, your mind may think of a big silver container that is buried for years and years to be unearthed sometime in the future, but realistically, a time capsule can be anything that shows how life was at a given time.
What’s a time capsule birthday tradition, you may be wondering? Think of it like a baby book, but instead of just information about your little one when they’re a baby, it’s information about their life and yours collected through many years and given to them at a later date, like on a milestone birthday (like their 18th) to see how much they’ve grown!
11. Let Them Choose the Menu
Pasta for breakfast? Donuts for lunch? Their favorite restaurant for dinner? Consider their birthday a mealtime “yes day.” Choosing our meals was a birthday tradition in my family growing up. In fact, I spent quite a few childhood birthday dinners at Denny’s because I thought they had the best chicken tenders around.
12. Bake Their Cake Together
My mother-in-law was big on baking creative birthday cakes. Growing up, my husband and his sisters were always wowed by her creations. Me? I’m not really a creative baker, and my MIL doesn’t live nearby to whip up something for my kids. So we’ve started a different family birthday tradition—my kids help me bake and decorate their birthday cake. It checks a birthday to-do off my list and turns it into a fun activity. Are they as wow-worthy as my MIL’s? No. But my kids love decorating the cake almost as much as eating it.
13. Use a Special “Birthday Plate”
Everyone likes to feel a little special on their birthday. A personalized birthday plate they can use year after year is one more way to do just that!
14. Make a Birthday Banner
I made a “Happy Birthday” banner for my daughter’s second birthday and still hang it up every year (she’s 12 now!). All you need to create a simple birthday banner is card stock, some string or ribbon, and a hole puncher.
15. Leave a Surprise While They Sleep
Parents are getting really creative on social media with birthday morning ideas for their kids (have you seen this adorable Toy Story-themed birthday surprise that went viral?). But the surprise doesn’t have to be elaborate. Sneaking a wrapped gift by their bed that they can open first thing is a simple birthday morning idea kids will love.
Kathy Sisson, Senior Editor
Kathy Sisson has been a key contributor in the editorial parenting space for eight years, not only as a full-time editor at The Everymom but previously as a freelance writer for top parenting sites, including Scary Mommy, Motherly, Parent Co., and more. As an editor at The Everymom, she has produced hundreds of articles on a range of parenting topics, reviewed dozens of family-focused products, interviewed leading experts in the children and parenting world, and created viral parenting social media content. A mom of two, she is committed to sharing the honest, helpful, and often humorous stories of motherhood.