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We started this birthday morning tradition for our kids years ago… when our oldest son was a toddler. It’s one of my favorite birthday traditions! It’s our “Birthday Path” and we all love it!
We have a few birthday traditions that we do every year, but this is our favorite.
Birthday Traditions at Home
- Presents and cards when you wake up in the morning.
- NO CHORES! (This is one of their favorite parts of having a birthday!)
- Your favorite dinner or your favorite place to eat out
- Stay up 15 minutes later than everyone else for your “special night.”
- Birthday Path that the kids follow… it leads them into our room where they will find their gift!
Birthday Path Tradition
I love coming up with ideas to bring our family together… and what better way than celebrating one of their birthdays! This is a great tradition because it gets the whole family involved!
Plus, this tradition is a way to help our children understand the joy that is felt in doing kind things for others, and seeing that person’s joy when they receive whatever it is we are making or doing to help is a wonderful thing.
On the eve of the birthday, have the birthday boy/girl go to bed while the others go to their rooms and “read” (this is a big secret, and part of the fun!)
We tell our kids that they need to be extra quiet while they wait in their rooms for us to tuck the birthday boy/girl into bed.
Once the birthday boy/girl is in bed, we sneak into the other kids’ rooms and have them come downstairs to get started.
This is when we make the birthday signs. We sit at the kitchen table and color signs (on printer paper).
EVERYONE IN THE FAMILY PARTICIPATES & MAKES SOME SIGNS! (Parents & kids) That’s the fun part— seeing how everyone makes different signs, draws different pictures, writes different words, or shares different memories on their signs.
NOTE: GET CREATIVE! They can be pretty, silly, simple, or elaborate! We just need a lot of them. Usually, we make around five or ten signs each, so we have about 25-50 signs when we are done.
Once the signs are made, have the kids make a path (quietly) from the birthday child’s bed into your bedroom, or wherever you want to have a morning surprise (It could be their present, balloons, cards, a cupcake…)
The kids have so much fun keeping this secret until the morning (not that they have anyone to tell except each other, but they don’t realize that!)
The trail leads to our bedroom, where they find the gift at the very end.
We usually cover the gifts with a small, blue, decorative blanket that I keep in our bedroom.
The birthday trail is ALWAYS something that they look forward to every year!
P.S — We had his homemade Jello Pudding Pop Birthday cake, at home, with our family! The perfect way to end the day!
