Would you rather consider a virtual birthday or just let the pandemic steal your child’s shine this year? Well, I have an idea that works. My child has raised this because his birthday is fast approaching and surprisingly, he said he could facetime with his friends if we cannot have them come around! Wow! Tells you how aware our kids are of the current situation in the world. I am mostly excited because he had thought about it ahead and even came up with a possible solution! What a problem solver. LOL 

The pandemic is changing a lot of things and we must find a way to adapt. As with the birthday tradition, most kids hope to celebrate the day with friends and loved ones around, cakes, music, and games. But will all these stop because of social distancing? Not exactly, it would be great to have a virtual birthday as against not doing anything. The idea is to make your child happy and entertained on that day and a virtual approach to this will be so nice

So, consider a virtual party using a video platform as the birthday party venue.  

Wondering how? These ideas should work! 

Tip 1: Decide on what technology platform to use

Aren’t you amazed at how technology rose to the occasion in 2020 allowing people to work from the comfort of their home? You can utilize technology in the case of your child’s birthday too. Think of zoom as your viable option. Zoom allows you to host free hangouts and share your screen with up to 100 people for 40 minutes at a time. You can either drop the call and reconnect every 40 minutes to keep it free or signup for an account that enables you to organize a virtual hangout for up to 24 hours for a fee of $15 dollars per month. But trust me, 40 minutes is just about enough for the entire party, but it still depends on you. 

Tip 2: Plan Plan and Plan

Because the success of this is solely predicated on technology, be sure to work out all the kinks in advance. Talking about technical glitches because you cannot escape them, network provider issue and power supply. 

Be sure to put the following in check;

• Test in advance and provide login instruction for all the people you are inviting.
•  Let everyone make sure their devices are loaded with sufficient data and well charged or plugged into a power source all through the event.
• Please do not assume they know; explain everything parents need to do to ensure their kids are logged in on time.  
• Decide if you want to be the MC or hire one, someone must be there to make things lively

Tip 3: Fix a time and communicate it to your invites

As stated earlier, if you plan to use the free version of zoom, it can only accommodate up to 100 people with a maximum time of 40 minutes. If you want something beyond this without having to log in and log out, you will have to go premium. So, fix a time and tell people to be punctual so you can start early and end it within 40 minutes except you plan to spend more time. 

Tip 4: Games

Prepare a lot of games that the kids can play and have fun throughout the event. Being a virtual event, the barrier in distance may lead to boredom or tiredness if activities get too repetitive or are lacking the fun elements.

Some suggested games that could be played are:

• Names of Anything: A game in which a broad subject is given, and players are expected to mention related words. For example, names of boys, then players call the names that are associated with boys in any order but ensuring no one makes a repetitive call.
• Facts about the Celebrant: This form of question could also be used to test how well the guests know the Celebrant. Fun questions about the Celebrant are asked and people take time to answer until the answer is finally given.
• Mimic a thing, actor, or animal.
• Question and answer: The Mc can throw a question on anything for the guests to answer.

Tip 5: Plan to send a cake

If your invites live within close range and you want to really add some life to it, you can as well send some cake and drinks ahead to them. This is different from the cake your child will be cut during the event. Watching each other eating and drinking during the event will help kids feel they are right there with your kid, celebrating together.

Tip 6: Cake cutting and wishes

Getting everyone to sing the Birthday song could be tough because of the technology used. One very way to do that is by getting a birthday video via YouTube while everyone sings along with their audio microphone muted. While the song is playing the cake is being cut. 

Tip 7: Snap photos of guest

Do not miss out on this, you could either take a screenshot or record the sessions and send it to all the guests via WhatsApp to make them remember the moment. 

If your child’s birthday is fast approaching and you are really worried about how to make some fun out of it, I hope this helps you to come up with some ideas to make your child’s big day memorable regardless of the social distancing rule.

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