Celebrating a child's first birthday: interesting ideas and practical advice

• Invitations
• Who to call
• What time should I schedule it for?
• Selecting a location
• Room decoration
• Holiday menu
• Entertainment program (script)

How to celebrate a child's first birthday is a difficult question for parents of a one-year-old baby. Who should he invite to the first holiday in his life: close relatives, all his girlfriends and friends, or only those who have small children? What script to prepare, and is it needed at all? Organizing an entertainment program requires special attention, because all guests should be interested and have fun. Options for holding a celebration can be different: you can have a cozy tea party in a close circle or throw a huge celebration. In any case, this day should remain in the memory, because it marks the beginning of your baby’s life journey.

Especially for you, we have prepared a small instruction that includes all the attributes of an ideal holiday. May your child's 1st birthday be joyful and happy!

Compiling a guest list and distributing invitations

For a one-year-old baby, the main thing is that mom and dad are nearby. Too many people, strangers at that, can frighten a child and his first holiday will be ruined.

You can choose two options: invite your closest relatives and godparents, or several mothers with people the same age as the birthday boy, so that the baby can celebrate his first birthday with his peers. In any case, the baby will be more comfortable in a familiar group.

After compiling a list of invitees, start preparing and sending out invitation cards. If the mother of a child has free time and a little imagination, it’s worth thinking about creating invitations with your own hands. It is very nice to receive such a handmade card as an invitation.

Entertainment options

When a child is one year old, you shouldn’t expect his patience to last longer than half an hour of active fun. Accordingly, all preparations aimed at involving the baby should fit within this period of time.

It's usually enough to let him try a small birthday cake and play with new toys for a while.

The rest of the celebration scenario should be aimed at adults and older children.

Regardless of the birthday theme, you can hold several entertaining competitions:

1. Quiz. You can make a list of questions regarding the baby’s habits, his preferences in games and food. It is better to prepare answer options and sweet prizes for the winners in advance.
2. Book for recommendations. Anyone can leave a parting message for the hero of the occasion in a specially designed notebook. If there are enough sheets, you can even make it an annual tradition.
3. Watching a movie. If you have a computer, it’s easy to make a slide show or video clip with the most memorable situations associated with your child. It will be interesting to review them not only for parents, but also for the entire older generation.
4. Taste test. This is a great way to get adults to empathize with babies. It is enough to buy several jars of baby food and ask them to guess what it is, blindfolded. When entertaining children in this way, it is better to choose only fruit mixtures.

Of course, you don’t have to be tied to a specific scenario. But fun and playful games will remain in the memory much longer than ordinary conversations at the table under the inscription: “Happy Birthday!” 1 year old.”

Room decoration

Traditional inflatable balloons will help create a festive mood. Let some of the balloons fly under the ceiling, and a few remain on the floor so that the birthday boy and his little guests can play with them.

A separate option is foil balloons. They don't burst, unlike regular ones. Colorful and shiny, with various designs and inscriptions, they will certainly create a festive aura in the room.

Various paper decorations look elegant - garlands, caps, posters, pompoms. Paper decor, like invitations, is not difficult to create yourself. You will need a minimum of materials - paper, scissors, glue, string and a little talent).

Guests will certainly love the collage of photos of the birthday boy. It will be interesting to see how the child whose first birthday they came to celebrate has grown and changed in his first year.

Deciding on the menu

The birthday menu should not differ much from the daily one. Your baby should not eat heavy mayonnaise salads, so try to choose dietary recipes for the holiday table.

If you yourself are breastfeeding or nursing mothers will come to visit you, this must be taken into account when choosing a menu . And although you, as the mother of a one-year-old baby, are gradually moving away from dietary nutrition, you should still pay more attention to the choice of products and the method of preparing them.

• There should be no smoked meats or pickles on the festive table menu;
• It is better not to fry meat or fish, but bake it in the oven with a minimum amount of spices;
• Salads from the holiday menu are best seasoned with sour cream or homemade mayonnaise with lemon juice;
• Avoid using out-of-season vegetables and fruits in your menu; they almost certainly contain a lot of substances harmful to you and your babies, thanks to which they ripen quickly and can be stored for a long time.

If you are afraid that guests will not like such a dietary menu, you can prepare different versions of dishes: for kids and for adults. In addition, if other kids come to your house, you need to think about a menu for them, and not just for adults. Ask moms what fruits they can eat, and prepare a buffet of cut fruits, berries, cookies and juices for your little friends.

Feeding children store-bought cakes is very dangerous, since their composition can be harmful to babies . It would be best to bake a sponge cake for little guests yourself, and coat the cakes with baby puree. It is better to prepare this treat a day earlier so that the dessert has time to soak in. Both babies and nursing mothers will love this cake.

If you want to include some other sweets in your holiday menu, carefully study their composition when purchasing. If the cream on the cakes is of bright colors, it is better to refuse such a dessert.

Birthday outfit

When thinking about how to celebrate a child’s 1 year birthday, every mother wants her child to look like a little prince or princess on such a special day. But do not forget that for a child one of the main criteria for choosing clothes is how convenient and comfortable they are. If you really want memorable photos with the birthday girl in a fluffy dress or the birthday boy in fashionable tight trousers, wear this outfit only for a photo shoot, and for the main celebration, prepare more comfortable clothes.

Buy an outfit for the birthday boy immediately before his birthday, a maximum of a couple of weeks before the celebration. After all, the baby is growing so quickly and it is quite difficult to guess the size he will wear in a couple of months.

How to decorate a room for a 1 year old child's birthday

Firstly , a baby’s first birthday cannot be complete without balloons, so get inspired in my article “20 ideas for decorating a room with balloons.”

Secondly, a large decorative number “1” or the first letter of your child’s name on such a day is not just a decoration. These are significant symbols in the life of a little man. Here are 50 Letters and Numbers for Holiday Decor pictures.

Thirdly , I am an opponent of family photographs against the background of furniture, wallpaper and curtains. Here are my 15 ideas for organizing a photo zone.

My children have already grown up, but I suddenly thought that at one year old I would have decorated the room something like this: the sun (a large yellow ball), clouds from bunches of blue and white balls, grass and flowers from long sausage balls and inflatable animals in this colorful forest...

Festive table for guests and child

There are no special restrictions in terms of the choice of dishes, because the baby is unlikely to sit at the table with adults. You can prepare his favorite food separately for him. If people the same age as the birthday boy come to the holiday, then it makes sense to set and serve the children's table with several simple and healthy children's dishes. Let your little guests also celebrate your child’s first birthday at the table.

One of the main attributes of the holiday is cake. Here you also need to take into account that a small child will eat it, which means you should take care in advance to find a pastry chef who can bake and decorate the cake without using harmful dyes, preservatives and flavors. Or prepare a small separate cake for the birthday boy personally for him. Such a small cake will look very interesting with one candle in the center.

Holiday menu

The choice of dishes must be taken especially carefully in order to please both the parents of the invited children and adult relatives, as well as the invited children with and without their first teeth (depending on age).

The cake is good both as a treat and as entertainment.

If you do not know for sure that children have food allergies, then it is better not to include dishes made from allergenic foods on the menu: eggs, chicken, milk, nuts, brightly colored fruits, citrus fruits.

Since a short celebration is expected, the appetizers should be light enough and few in number to quickly move on to the main thing - dessert.

Here are dish ideas for 1 banquet in honor of a child’s birthday:

• Tartlets with minced meat (pate or meat soufflé). Such portioned dishes can be taken with your hands and this is their advantage for older children. Parents will be able to feed both children with their first teeth and completely toothless babies.
• Portioned cakes with cottage cheese. You can put berries on the table to decorate cakes.
• Slicing meat products. This is more for adults than for children.
• Slicing vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers).
• Cheese slicing.

Having quickly dealt with the appetizers, you need to move on to dessert. Here are some ideas:

• Jelly. It’s better to make it yourself at home from the least allergenic berries and fruits: apples, raspberries, currants. Toddlers will likely play with it more than they eat. The jelly should also be poured not in one piece, but in small pieces. You can use silicone baking molds in the shape of animals, flowers, berries and fruits.
• Sweet cakes. Make them small too, literally 2 bites.
• Cookie. Buy or bake unusually shaped cookies. If you are going to buy cookies, then carefully study the composition (to avoid an allergic reaction in young guests).
• Cake. According to tradition, the main decoration of the festive table for a child’s first birthday is a huge cake, the design of which can be very diverse: soft marshmallows, colored fondant (you can decorate it with your child’s favorite fairy-tale character or a cartoon character, or you can decorate it with bows or soccer balls).

The cake, according to tradition, is brought with a lit candle and a congratulatory inscription accompanied by the song “Happy Birthday.” Good ideas: sing the song “Loaf”, dance around the birthday person.

Don't forget about drinks:

• For adults, you can prepare a variety of lemonades and compotes, tea and coffee. Alcohol – in small quantities for those who wish. For children - special juices (according to the age of the invited children and the birthday person).

It is better not to use cocoa-containing products on the birthday of a small child. Firstly, all the little guests will get dirty, and secondly, many may experience allergic reactions to chocolate.

Entertainment, competitions

A one-year-old baby will not be able to take part in competitions or games, which means entertainment should be selected for an adult audience. But since it is still a children’s holiday, it is better to choose competitions with a children’s theme. What kind of entertainment can you choose to celebrate your child's first birthday? Here are some options:

Guess where the birthday boy is

Several photographs of children are laid out on the table, one of which is of the birthday boy. The guest’s task is to guess which one it is.

Who has the better memory?

guests take turns guessing at what height and weight the birthday boy was born, when his first tooth appeared, when he took his first step, etc. Most often, the winners of such competitions are grandparents, for which they receive a commemorative medal.

Pet names

Which of the guests can name more diminutive forms of the baby’s name?

Puzzles

You can make puzzles with a photo of the child in advance and invite guests to assemble them at speed.

Present for the wedding

Papers with gift options are placed in a bag or hat: a car, an apartment, a refrigerator, a set, etc. Each of the guests takes out a piece of paper and announces to those present: “I will give the birthday boy a wedding gift...”

These are just a few options for competitions; in fact, there are a lot of them. Don’t be too lazy to organize at least a couple when deciding how to celebrate your child’s 1-year-old birthday, because what guests will remember is not the feast, but the entertainment part of the event.

Entertaining guests

In addition to decorating the room and preparing dishes, you also need to think about how to entertain the guests and the birthday boy, because this is the baby’s holiday, and everything that happens during the birthday should be dedicated to him. Think about how best to organize the celebration so that it is interesting for everyone without exception. It is important to mark this date in a way that guests will remember.

It’s almost certain that kids won’t be at the table with adults for long, so they need to be given some safe corner with interesting toys. Older guests can also be captivated by small competitions dedicated to the birthday boy.

"What will you become?"

This is a fairly common competition that has ritual roots. Place objects in front of the baby that symbolize certain activities, professions and fate. Based on the object that the child picks up, you will determine his “inclinations”:

• if the baby took a coin, wealth awaits him or his profession will be closely related to money;
• a ball will mean long life;
• a child reaching for a book will be smart;
• a child who takes a comb will become a hairdresser;
• if a child chooses a brush, his life will be connected with creativity and drawing;
• the ring will indicate that your child will have a happy marriage;
• if the baby reaches for a flower, his life will be happy;
• The kid who grabs the keys will live richly.

Guessing games

Since all your guests will be closely connected with your family, they will likely know details about the baby's life. Make a flower, on the petals of which write questions about the birthday person.

You can draw significant numbers on the petals (the child’s weight at birth, his height, date and time of birth, months of achievements - that is, when the baby crawled, walked, his first tooth grew). To make it interesting for guests to guess, prepare small prizes for them.

Fun competitions

1. Invite guests to guess what fruit or vegetable it is made from based on the taste of the puree. For those who are not familiar with these products due to age or the absence of children in the family, it will be quite difficult to guess.
2. Adults may enjoy the nipple spitting distance contest. Divide the guests into pairs and arrange a tournament, noting the farthest “spits”. Do not forget to wash the “props” before each stage of the competition.
3. You can arrange a competition to see who can drink liquid from a baby bottle the fastest. To make the competition fair, select identical containers and pour equal amounts of juice, water or lemonade into them.

A tribute to traditions - fortune telling and the first curl

Perhaps they will seem old-fashioned to some, but still traditions are traditions, and whether to observe them or not is everyone’s right and choice.

For fortune telling, you will need several items that could characterize the baby’s future. The items are laid out in front of the birthday person and he chooses one of them. For example, a book means that the baby will be interested in science in the future, and a phone indicates that the birthday boy will open his own business. Approximately 5-10 such items are selected.

Cutting the first lock of hair is a very ancient tradition that can be interpreted in different ways: both as dedication and as taking under guardianship. The first curl is a kind of amulet that was kept until adulthood, and sometimes until the end of life.

There is also a superstition associated with the first haircut, which says that it is necessary to cut the first fluff in order for thick and beautiful hair to grow. In fact, it is impossible to change the hair structure with a haircut, since it is genetically determined. But the tradition has been preserved, so you can observe it when celebrating your child’s first birthday.

Holiday decoration

There is no need to limit ideas for celebrating a birthday to standard schemes that can be seen everywhere.

Of course, you can stick to the standard design option: buy balloons filled with helium, make a streamer and a huge one. In this case, it is necessary to place the cake on the table, and hand out cardboard caps to the guests.

The advantage of this option is that everything you need can be easily found in the nearest specialized store.

However, while creating pleasant memories, you can be creative in decorating. Congratulating you on your first year, you can decorate the party in a certain style.

Once you have chosen a suitable theme, you can use suitable images for posters or stickers to decorate walls and tableware. Even at 1 year old, a girl, like a boy, will love to see bright decorations around her. And he will be happy with the cartoon characters that the baby has already met.

Bright toppers on treats and themed dishes look very festive.

Considering the general workload of parents who need to work and look after their one-year-old child, you should not hope that preparations for a birthday can be completed in a day.

It’s better to give yourself a couple of weeks so that you have time to purchase and make all the necessary decor with your own hands.

Present

The baby does not yet understand the essence of what is happening, but he will definitely be delighted with new toys, clothes or accessories. However, you should not give all the gifts to the birthday boy at once; due to an overabundance of impressions, the baby may become capricious. It is better to give gifts to the child gradually so that he can examine and study each one.

If guests don’t know what to give a child for his first birthday and ask you for advice, there is nothing wrong with voicing a list of things the baby needs. And in order not to embarrass the giver financially, offer several options to choose from.

A completely acceptable gift option for a first birthday is money. The baby does not yet understand that they are giving him something, but the parents will be able to buy a really necessary and useful thing with the donated money. An alternative to money is a certificate for a purchase in a children's store.

Invitations

Any holiday, regardless of whether it is the first or twentieth birthday, begins with inviting guests. You can call all your friends and relatives (some, by the way, will call themselves and ask when the child’s first celebration will take place), or you can send a postcard by mail or hand over beautifully decorated invitation cards in person. You can include a small chocolate bar or several sweets with your children's birthday invitation.

Invitations for the birthday of a one-year-old baby.

Be sure to indicate in the invitation what format the holiday will take place, what time and where you need to arrive, and all other organizational aspects that a delighted guest may accidentally forget.

Photo and video

This is what will remain as a memory when the celebration is over. Therefore, it is better to entrust a professional to capture the joyful moments of an important event. He will select the right angle and capture the moment, something that guests or parents with an amateur camera cannot do.

And immediately order a print of the pictures or a photo album, because photographs in electronic form can get lost or accidentally deleted, but the printed photos will delight parents years later and tell the grown-up child about how his first birthday went.

The article uses photos from pinterest.com

Holiday photo shoot

Birthday photos are a very important part of the holiday. This is a memory that a one-year-old child definitely cannot retain, and an opportunity to brag to others about the happiness in the family.

Don’t neglect taking photos and videos of the holiday, even if it doesn’t seem entirely successful. In a few years it won't matter anymore.

If the atmosphere at home during the celebration does not seem too festive, you can order a photo session from a professional photographer.

It doesn’t cost much, but a specialist will help you with themed decor and costumes so that your first birthday remains in your memory as a magical, precious time.