Ideas For Baby's First Birthday

It's your baby's first birthday! While this milestone is definitely one to celebrate (“We actually got through the first year without pulling our hair out! Yay!”), some people take things a little too far. Fireworks and ponies? These will probably scare the kid more than anything else.  Renting out a toy store? Kids would love that, but very few stores will agree to it unless you know someone and pay through the nose. There's even a show on TLC called “Outrageous Kid Parties” about this very thing!

Most of us don't have the money or patience for things like this. However, just because you don't have a lot of money doesn't mean you can't still throw your child a great first birthday party. Here are a few ideas for “the rest of us” to celebrate our little one.

A general reminder: You will want to be able to plan whatever you do for the child around nap times and not have the party go for much longer than an hour or two.

Finger-painting party. If your children have “play dates”, make one of those a finger-painting party. Get some non-toxic finger paint and large sheets of paper or cardboard and set your kids free. If you have lots of finger-paint and the children are walking, lay it out in trays and have the kids step through them onto the paper. It's best to do this outside after the cake, especially since it's going to go all over her face anyway. 

 

Story Time.  This is another thing that works well with play dates, but can also be fun with the whole day care class or even just the family. If you have a person with an animated personality, have them put that to work in reading a story to the group. My nephew used to love it when I read The Monster At The End Of This Book to him because I would use silly voices and involve him in the story. If your child has a favorite book and this is something that can be done, everyone around will probably get a kick out of it. Otherwise, you could bring in a volunteer from the library.

Cartoon Cupcakes. Make or buy some cupcakes and insert plastic cupcake toppers of your child's favorite cartoon characters. Elmo and Thomas the Train Engine are very popular. That way, your child can play with the topper once she's done with the cupcake, and the cupcakes are small enough to where everyone can have one with less to clean up. Also, cupcake toppers tend to be big enough to avoid posing a choking risk.

As you can see, it's not hard at all to celebrate your child's first birthday on a budget. Half the fun with these party ideas is having your friends and family around to celebrate with your child. The most important thing for your child is that he feels special and loved. You don't have to spend a lot of money to do that.