Half Birthday Party - Anyone Had One Before?

E.,

My nephews b-day is ON Christmas day and we did the 'half b-day' for him for a couple of years when he was younger. It was cool and the ONLY way he could have an actual party...not a lot of people out there who want to cut their Christmas short to go to a b-day party!

Now that he is older, almost 14, he no longer wants/needs a half party. Us family just divide the day in half. Christmas morning for christmas presents and family breakfast, etc. And then around 4pm we usually put up the party decorations and bring on the gifts and he always picks Christmas dinner and when its over we have b-day cake! Yum!

K.

cute and fun idea! There is also a song out of the Alice in Wonderland that i had when I was a kid, "A very merry half birthday to you...to me? A very merry half birthday to you, to you..." You should try to find it! Excellent idea and parties are great for all kids, not just the birthday girl or in this case, "half birthday girl"!

Maybe have it be an "un-birthday" like Alice In Wonderland. You could do dress up stuff and a tea party or something like that. Most of the little girls I know would like that and it would be a birthday type celebration for her (meaning you have an excuse to have a cake and balloons!) without it seeming like you're greedy for gifts. You could even have every guest bring an under $10 book to exchange or something like that. Then everyone gets a gift but nobody has to spend much.

Its a great idea during the summer my sons birthday is also close to christmas and there is also so much more to to so we celebrate in July or August with family and friends ,he can have a sleepover.... and then on his actual birthday its just me and him and one gift and a cupcake we rent a movie and call it good...

I'm a 29th kid and on occasion my mom did this for me at the end of the school year (big end of year party - didn't call it a birthday party really). But not every year. Some years it was a just me and 1 friend getting a nice day together and as I got older it was new years party, etc. I would call it a summer party then get some extra special photos at disney for her to share with friends back at school in the new year over cup cakes or something. I don't remember ever being upset by not having a party every year so I don't think it is necessary - a few friends over for the summer will be just as memeorable.

I think this is becoming very normal for people to do these days. I have had more requests for this with my business doing kids parties. Also my neice and nephew are twins and have a 12/28 b-day, so we always do a 1/2 b-day celebration for them. there is just so much more you can do in the spring/summer than you can do in the winter.

I you have not decided on a theme, check out my site. www.FunPartyForKids.com I have over 25 different themes to choose, but I also have so very good ideas you can use. Feel free to contact me.

T.

Yes - I've heard of people doing this, particularly when their child has a birthday near the holidays or just in the middle of winter when activities are more limited. It will help your daughter feel like she still gets her special day.

The Peppers & Pollywogs site has some tips & ideas for doing this:

Quick Tips for Throwing a Half Birthday Party
http://www.pepperspollywogs.com/blog/index.php/a-half-bir...

Summertime Half Birthday Party
http://www.pepperspollywogs.com/blog/index.php/summertime...

I also read some good tips recently on alternatives to the traditional birthday gift-giving (ask everyone to bring a book and have a book exchange, have guests bring wish-list items for your daughter's favorite charity, etc.)

Alternative Ideas to Requesting No Gifts
http://freebirthdaytreatsblog.com/alternative-ideas-to-re...

Have fun!

R.

We have been invited to half birthday parties and they are totally fine. My son just got an invitation yesterday to his friend's 10 1/2 bday party. He wants a swimming party and his bday is December too so this works out fine. Another thing they have done which I love is they state on the invitation to bring something to trade (no gifts). For example last year it was a comic book so everyone brought one and got to pick one out....very cool idea. Maybe you could try something like that.

Hi E.,
I think that a "half" birthday party is a fabulous idea. I, too, was an "too near Christmas" baby and was always told how hard it was for a party just after Christmas. Call it "Susie's (insert her name) Summer Fun Fest" or something and tell everyone that it is a belated party in her honor (one that is just for fun but no presents). You can have a cake made or make one yourself that shows the name of the party rather than "Happy Birthday" or just have cupcakes. If you are up to giving party bags to the kids - go to the dollar store - they have lots of bulk party stuff at many of them so it wont cost you too much or Party City has mini bottle of bubbles you can buy by the each or in bulk.

Great idea to celebrate outside the box so to speak - I always wanted a big party at my birthday. You will give her such good memories - and she will feel special that you gave her a party in her honor at a time other than her birthday.

Have fun! L.

A friend of mine just did this for her son born 12-26 - on that day - there was cake and balloons for him and then they let him know he's half birthday would be in June.

My daughter's b-day is 12-20 - we were all set to do a half birthday but October - one night at dinner - she told us it was getting dark and pretty soon it would be her birthday then we'd put up the tree then it would be Christmas - so we elected to keep her birthday celebration on her birthday.

Granted my sister's birthday is 12-18 and my husbands is 12-12 so we have lots of history on December birthdays.

We'll see how it goes - it was really hard to find people in town to celebrate - in addition we had winter storms that prevented people from coming further.

I have this same problem, my son has a birthday 4 days after Christmas and there is still the holiday rush going on. We normally celebrate just as a family on his birthday and then let him have a party with friends over a few weeks later towards the end of January. We tried the 1/2 birthday thing and it didn't work very well with friends being busy and on vacation since it was summer time.
As for the present thing, I would let the person you invited decide if they want to bring one. No one has ever accused us for asking for more when we do the party after the birthday. Good luck!
K.

Although we don't have a child with a holiday birthday, we know a man who still celebrates his birthday in April because of this. I just wanted to chime in that it seems to work well because it is the same day every year. That way it makes it more official -- instead of just whenever -- it makes it special. And if it were me, I'd just put on the invites, "You're invited to sweet X's birthday party!" ... not even mentioning this isn't the actual "day." And then come December, have cupcakes (etc.) for your little girl.

My brother was born on December 27th. Instead of having a party during the busy holiday season, my mom "moved" his birthday one month later. On his birthday, we'd have a family dinner and he'd get presents from family, but the friends birthday party was always celebrated in January.

His friends never knew the difference, he got to celebrate in school and no one had the conflict of not being around during Christmas break.

Now, my niece was born on December 1, and never had a conflict of friends not being in town or receiving birthday/Christmas presents.

E., My son has a Christmas Eve Birthday and the day he was born I was determined to have half birthdays... didn't work. We did make sure that he has a birtday partys with friends, family, cake and birthday presents on his birthday. Now at age 16 we still go to the local bowling ally on Christmas Eve for lunch, cake, presents and bowling and the whole family looks forward to it, really gives the kids an outlet on Christmas Eve. If you work on it... you can figure out how to have her birthday on her birthday but it does take some work. J.

My middle child was born 2 weeks after Christmas and as you can imagine, the last thing anyone wants to do is attend another party. We do have a little family thing on the day of her birthday but the big hang out with friends thing we do during the summer. We let people know that it is to celebrate her birthday and those that are new friends we do explain the why. I also let them know that gifts are not expected as this isn't her "real" birthday. It works out pretty well for her so far.

My brother was born on Christmas so my mom made sure that we celebrated his half birthday with his friends in June. That way he had a day just for him like most everyone else. It worked out great.

Have fun!
S.

WHAT a grand idea-- please do --- and please make it a ''tradition'' -- that's wonderful--. You know --- this is YOUR life and you can shape things any way you want--- when my ( now 4year old ) grandaughter was 7 months- a friend of her Moms' was married - and asked that Miss Lily ( the baby) be the ''flower baby'''' --- she was carried in by her mother ( the maid of honor) and looked so adorable--- you can do whatever you wish to allow ''' Joy to be the Natural State of Humanity''''' --

Blessings,
J.

My birthday is 2 weeks before Christmas so I understand... my husband suggests "moving" my birthday every year (to top it off he was dumb enough to agree to getting married 2 weeks before that!!!)
In my opinion, it's not a bad idea to have an "annual summer party", but to make her the center of attention as a birthday party might be overstepping things a big. For one thing, if something does come up in December... such as the trip to Disneyland... she gets two big things for her birthday and I personally, would worry about that becoming an expectation from her. For another, I think other parents might frown on this, even if you didn't ask for presents. But I know several kids that my kids play with that have summer parties every year and do it up pretty big.

What a fun idea! My daughter's birthday is just after Christmas...I know the feeling.
I think its great, especially if you state "no gifts". You are going to get those who critisize, but so what! If they dont like it, they dont have to come. If you are overly concerned about it though, just call it a summer party or some catchy name. I think its great.
i will add though, about the no gifts thing...I struggle with this because i think it sounds kind of rude...if some wants to bring a gift they should feel free...but if you dont want to encourage gifts find a fun way to say it, like: no gifts required, just you ready for fun or something...instead of stating "NO GIFTS"...Good luck, have fun, and do what you want!

I did this with my daughter and it worked out great. Her birthday is on the 4th of july and everyone always has plans that day so it was impossible to have a party for her.

Hi E.,
I can give you the perspective from a child because my birthday is just after Christmas. When I was a child, I didn't have many parties, but when I did, we had them at the beginning of December. That way it is still in the month of my birthday. If you do a half birthday celebration in the summer, to me it would be just a summer party and not a "birthday" party even if you say no presents. This year you could do a birthday party at the beginning of December with a Mickey & Minny theme to get ready to go to Disneyland with the family. It would be a great start of her 5 birthday celebration.
Have fun at Disneyland!

I have a Dec birthday too shortly b4 christmas. I think that moving to a half birthday might be good but also just having it at the very beginning of dec like dec 1 or 2 might be better because you can still celebrate it as your bday

Hi E.,
My kids (3) all have winter/fall birthdays. We started having our summer party about four years ago. There are so many fun things to do in the summer for parties that I decided I didn't want them to miss out. We still celebrate their regular birthdays though. My kids are school aged now so we call it the "Schools Out For Summer Lewis Backyard Bash" or something along those lines. We do the same thing every year- we have backyard water games and relays, a shaving cream fight, squirt guns, and this year we made mini pizzas for dinner. The kids absolutly love this and look forward to it every year. Its so much fun.
H.

Sadly I had to celebrate half birthdays because my birthday fell the week of mothers day ( did I say my mom and I don't get along at all ;) Anyhow not a bad idea I don't think because of the birthday being so close to Christmas. I know my husbands grandma always hated her birthday being Christmas eve because she always just got one set of presents.lol. Anyhow I personally hated having a half because mine fell in the winter when it should have been in the summer. But I think it would be grand to be able to celebrate in summer. I would still do a mini celebration with family on the actual birthday though.

Actaully we had a friend who did this with there son, who was born on christmas day! So they celebrated every June and had a party and on his bday/christmas they still had a cake for him. As he got older he still chose to do this, as christmas is a hectic time for partys especially bdays.

Have a very merry unbirthday party. Its a tea party where people can dress up if they want. Also we usually do silly food like brain salad (jello with fruit in it). My kids have always had lots of fun with them.

Have a good day

I think a 1/2 birthday party is a great idea. I wouldn't specify "no gifts" I would just let chips fall where they may. Just have a great time, treat it like a birthday party and if people bring gifts so what! And if they don't, that's not the point of the party anyway so who cares. Just make up cutsie invites saying I'm having 1/2 a birthday and want you to come celebrate with me. If it's a friend party you can always explain that Dec. isn't a good party month, so you celebrate the 1/2's instead.

My b-day is 12/21.......I can tell you it was much better when I had 1/2 birthdays. Friends were never able to come to my party in Dec.~ they were either out of town for the holidays or their parents were too busy or too broke...it was horrible! Then there were the "well meaning" people that would give a "birthday/christmas" gift - and all I could think as a child was that I was getting cheated and only getting 1/2 the presents my brother (who is 5/29) would get over the course of the year.
I say go for it. But if you don't, the one thing I remember was that my mom would always try very hard to make sure not to use any xmas wrapping paper even if it was what was handy - little things - as an adult I've gone back to my actual birthday :)

Hi there! I was going to read your responses first before I wrote, but there are so many! So, I'll just tell you about me and my experience! My son is now 19 months, and was born just a couple weeks before Christmas (December 3rd, to be exact). Around the time that his first birthday was coming, I was having a really hard time in life... one thing after another.... 2 car accidents, starting a new job, getting the flu, a sick kid, my car broke down... I just couldn't pull things together enough to plan a party, get the invites out, etc... so, we ended up having a small little party at his daycare, then we went out to dinner with family. Well, I was feeling horrible that for his very first birthday, he never had a big awesome party! So, I decided to do one in June... just had it a month ago. When I invited people, I explained the circumstances... that it was a belated birthday-funn BBQ-friendly get together... all mixed into one... I even told people not to worry about gifts, but some people actually brought some anyways! After the party was over, I was SOOOO happy that I made the decision! It was so fun! We had decorations, and balloons, all outside, a BBQ, lots of friends... it was just so much fun... I did have someone say an off-comment about the fact that it wasn't his birthday, but I just ignored it. Everyone else however had a lot of fun, and was also glad that I did it.... we had about 30 or 40 people total. So, long story short, I think it's a great idea. And, I've decided to do it every summer!

My duaghters friend has a half Birthday for exactly the same reason, every year. We love it and all her friends attend like a regular birthday. Nobody sees it as greedy and everyone brings gifts and sings happy birthday. I think it is a wonderful way to celebrate the child with her friends and everyone is able to make it, because it is not Christmas. Have fun.

Hi, I am going to have a 1/2 Birthday party for my son too this June. Was curious what you did for invites??? Would you mind sharing? Thanks!

Elise,

My oldest daughter's bday is at the end of August, so most of her school friends are not around for her bday parties.
Last year we had a 1/2 bday party for her in Feb, and it was a huge success! She and her friends had a ton of fun.
I think people will understand that you are just moving her special day, not present-grubbing!
On fun thing I did was to cut a round cake in half and stack the halves, to make a tall,"half" cake.