Next month, both of my girls have birthdays (Ruby turns 5 and Coco turns 2). Rather than throwing two separate parties like I did last year, they're getting a joint birthday party this year. I am not sure if that's going to make things easier or twice as hard, but it's worth trying right? It's a Garden Party theme so I've been gathering lots of images like these for inspiration…
Have any of you been in or thrown a joint birthday party before? Any tips? I am planning for each kid to have their own cake so we can sing to each separately and especially for each one. That was a tip I heard from parents of twins who always have to share a birthday.
{Image sources: giant paper flowers Anne Ten Donkelaar, Eloise Corr Danch, Cake from Mother, balloon arch by House That Lars Built, and paper flower headbands by Oh Happy Day.}
This is so cute! So sweet that your girls have birthdays so close!
XO Helen | http://www.KaleidoscopeSpinning.com
We just went a joint party for two sisters 3 years apart. It worked well and everyone had a blast! Just like you, they had their own cakes that they were able to select and art direct (within reason). Other than that, there was no real separation. How do we already have 5-year-old girls?!
My sister and I have the same age difference as your daughters, and we always had one party together, and one cake with 2 candles. One year we had a two tiered cake, but other than that 1 cake was enough.
No jealousy since we each got a birthday song and a candle to blow, and our picture taken, our family and friends were there, what more could we possibly need?
My brother and I are 3 years and 1 day apart, and we had joint birthdays growing up. It was great—felt like Christmas.
My cousin’s boys are 1 year and 2 days apart, so they’ve been having joint birthdays since the youngest one was born (they’re currently 4 and 3). They’ve always done one big cake with several candles everywhere for both boys to blow out together, although I’ve noticed daddy usually helps too. 😉 But overall I think it’s awesome and it’s been able to save my cousin a lot of money throwing the one party.
Hi! I threw a farmer’s market party for my one and three year old. It was great! Kids were really into celebrating together. And, then people didn’t have to come to two different parties in one month, because that’s pretty annoying. It saved us a ton of money. The only issue is twice the birthday presents in one evening. I think that if I were to do it again, I would have the kids pick a charity and then guests could choose which one to donate if they felt obliged to bring a gift… There was no issue of jealousy at all.
Hi Maddie!
That party sounds soo cute! Glad to know you had a great experience with a joint party.
We are doing a book donation in lieu of gifts. I told my kids that the party and getting to have so many friends celebrate and all the activities we’ll have there is their gift. So instead we are asking guests to bring a book to be donated to a children’s charity. We’ve tried the whole “donate to a charity instead” thing but then it’s not tangible and people want to bring something so we found this solved the issue of them still getting to bring something but it still goes to other kids who need the books more.
Joy
Hi Joy!
Would love to know how you actually phrase this on an invite? Love the idea and would use it ourselves, but hoping to not sound like “we’re expecting gifts”. Thanks! Can’t wait to see what you come up with for their party!
-Diana
Hi Diana,
We said something like:
PLEASE NO GIFTS. In lieu of gifts, please bring a new or gently used book which will be donated to Baby2Baby.
We did the same last year for Cocos 1st bday and we collected over 40 books 😉
Joy