Birthday Traditions

Obviuosly, birthdays have been on my mind, as of late, and I've been thinking a lot about birthday traditions. With Anna, I have carried over some from my own childhood, and some seem to have developed on their own.

Back in the days of yore, when I was growing up, here were our birthday traditions:

• We got to pick our favorite kind of sweet cold cereal (like Cap'n Crunch, or something) because we never got the good stuff, ordinarily.
• We got to choose what we had for dinner.
• We got to pick the kind of birthday cake we wanted.
• The kitchen was always decorated with crepe paper and balloons.
• * UPDATE * I totally forgot about the special birthday plate and goblet! I'm so ashamed. (Thanks for reminding me, Jen.) Anyway, we got to use these fancy things when we ate our birthday dinner. I always looked forward to this part of my birthday.

I think that pretty much covers it, besides getting a few presents, obviously. Way, way back, the kids in my family also got to go out to dinner, just ourselves with our parents, and to a movie. I think I only got to do this once or twice because it became extremely hard with eight kids and the birthday-date tradition was eventually abandoned. I even remember doubling up once with a brother whose birthday was in September because my parents hadn't gotten around to him yet. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Probably 15+ years ago, I made a birthday banner (that we still use to this day) from cardstock, curling ribbon, and scotch tape. With quality supplies like that, it's really kind of a miracle that it has lasted this long. And this thing has traveled to many homes and places. We have even been known to send it to different states once in a while if someone is having a birthday.

For some reason, my sister and I started a tradition of making a birthday sign written backwards and putting it up on the wall opposite the bathroom mirror. This year was the first year I did that for Anna, which she loved (probably now that she can read it).

When you're concentrating so hard on writing backwards, it's easy to forget silly, unnecessary letters like H . . .

Last year, I decided to make Anna a shirt with a 5 on it for her 5th birthday. She got to pick the color of the shirt and the ribbon I used to make the 5. 

Although I hadn't necessarily planned on making one every year, she was excited this year to have a 6 shirt, so we made it happen. And a new tradition was born.

The lace she chose had a string of fake pearls up the middle—very fancy. We'll see how long they last. While I was in the middle of sewing this, I mourned the fact that I hadn't thought to do it when she was 4 (because of the straight lines), but I'm totally looking forward to 7. That's going to be a breeze.

I love the traditions. They make the celebrations that much more fun because, while the presents are fun surprises, you anticipate the traditions and know what to expect. It's fun that Anna's at an age where she can remember last year's birthday and birthday traditions and can look forward to them again. All the traditions don't always show up every single year, but when they do, they're delightful.

So now I want to know about some of your birthday traditions, old or new. Last one to comment is a rotten egg!