1st Birthday Ideas

Since first birthdays are milestones for you, the parents instead of for the child, 1st birthday ideas provides inspiration for making your child's first birthday party special. Your child won't remember their first birthday, but you will, so it is important that you do it right.

Who to Invite

While parties are great occasions for catching up with friends, it is advisable not to make this party about reuniting with friends.

If your friends do not have children of their own, they won't understand the importance of the first birthday milestone

If your friends do have young children, than the focus will be taken off of your child, and centered around all of other the children.

The best 1st birthday ideas for invitations are to keep the event family orientated. Invite either just your immediate family, or invite family living nearby so that together you can relive the special moment a year ago when your baby came into your life.

The Cake

firstbirthdaycake
Image ©iStockPhoto/GameFace

One of the most obvious 1st birthday ideas is a big cake. Every baby needs embarrassing pictures of themselves covered in cake. Plus, later in life, you can use these pictures for blackmail, if need be.

It is best to get a simply flavored cake, either vanilla or chocolate, because your baby probably won't care for a fancy cake, like espresso or lemon chiffon. A good basic cake with a creamy frosting will work fine. The cake can be homemade or store bought, it doesn't matter, but it should be decorated with a whimsical theme, like balloons, teddy bears or another playful theme.

Decoration

Once you've determined the guest list and settled on the theme for the, you will need to think about decorations. It's good to pick a theme or a motif, to connect everything. Ideally, the decorations should match the cake so that everything is tied together.

Activities

You could have silly childhood games to entertain guests, and you will be amazed at how much fun adults can have playing games like pin the tail on the donkey. If you head to a party store you will find tons of games that will evoke childhood memories which will be fun for children and adults alike. Of course, most of these ideas are more for bigger parties, with numerous invitees.

Keep it Simple

That is one way to go in celebrating your baby's first birthday, but you could also have a more intimate affair, with just you, your spouse and the baby. This special moment can be a celebration of how much your lives have changed in the past year, and all the changes to come.

No matter what type of first birthday party you have for your baby, you must remember to not let it pass by. It is very important to celebrate every milestone in your baby's life, because the years will fly by, and you will soon only have memories to look back on. If these suggestions don't give you enough ideas for the party you can ask friends with children for 1st birthday ideas by getting them to tell you about what they did. Just make sure to make sure the celebration is special, reflects your family, and that you make sure to take lots of pictures!