20 Meaningful Birthday Traditions to Celebrate with Kids

Celebrate your child’s birthday this year with meaningful birthday traditions they’ll always remember. Fun family traditions that will make your child’s birthday feel special and something to look forward to all year.

It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or fancy just sweet ways to commemorate a new year in their life. You’ll find it’s easier than you think to create meaningful ways to let your kids know their birthdays are important.

If you love celebrating birthdays and are looking for new family traditions to start you’ll want this list of 20 meaningful birthday traditions. You’re sure to find a few new birthday ideas to make your kids feel special on their birthday. Plus it’s a lot of fun!!

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20 Meaningful Birthday Traditions Kids & Families Love at Home

Meaningful Birthday Traditions to Make Kids feel Special on their Birthday. Fun ways to celebrate Kids birthdays with the family at home. Your kids will look forward to these memorable family traditions every year. Find a few that your kids will Love today. #birthday #birthdaytraditions #kidsbirthdays #meaningfulbirthday #family

Use our list to find fun & meaningful birthday traditions your kids will love. Easy things busy parents can do each year to celebrate their kid’s birthdays.

Start something new this year and you will have your traditions set for each upcoming birthday. Plus it’s the perfect day to step back from our crazy lives and focus on making our kids feel special and loved.

After you read this if you need more ideas visit our birthday party page filled with tons of ways to celebrate your kids.

Decorate a Birthday Door

Balloon Door Decorations are a Meaningful birthday traditions kids love. They'll be so excited to open the door on their birthday morning and see the balloons and streamers.

Start the day off by getting your kids excited about their birthday as soon as they open their door. Hang streamers and balloons from the doorframe that the kids can walk through.

We started this fun birthday idea this year and the kids loved it. They kept the streamers on their door for a week.

Related Article – Virtual Birthday Party Ideas & Themes for Kids

Balloon Explosion

Balloon Birthday Surprise for kids. Fill your Childs room with balloons on their birthday morning. An easy birthday tradition to start this year!

What kids wouldn’t love waking up to a floor covered in balloons? When the kids go to sleep blow up a bunch of balloons and then cover your child’s floor with them.

Tip: To make it easier add the blown-up balloons into a big garbage bag as you make them. Then carry the bag into their room and quickly dump them on the floor without waking your child.

After they wake up play some fun Balloon Games with your family.

Special Birthday Plate

Birthday Plates are a fun Birthday tradition for kids.

Have a special birthday plate that only comes out for their birthday breakfast. Place it at their spot so its ready when they come downstairs.

Decorate Chairs & Hang Birthday Signs

Birthday Signs for Kids is an easy family birthday tradition. Kids will love waking up to see the house decorated for their birthday.

In addition to the birthday plate, decorate the kitchen and their chair. I hang a birthday sign on the wall and swirl streamers on our kitchen chandelier. Pick out a sign with their favorite character or use the same birthday sign each year.

Another cute idea is to cover a chair with a birthday sign. They slip over your chair and it’s a quick way to make the room look festive.

Birthday Interview

Each year ask your kids a series of birthday interview questions. It’s fun to see how they answer similar questions over the years. The interview lets you create a snapshot of what your kids were thinking and how they have changed each year.

You can print out two separate Birthday Interview Questions for younger kids and another one for Tweens & Teens.

Get Your – Free Printable Birthday Interview Questions for Kids, Tweens & Teens

Pick Their Meal

Let your child pick a favorite meal to have on their birthday. It could be a favorite dinner, breakfast, or lunch. They’ll love being able to make the decision on what everyone eats on their special day.

Related Article – 30 Birthday Party Games for Kids

Write on Their Mirror

Happy Birthday Wishes & Traditions - Write Happy Birthday on the bathroom Mirror. Surprise kids with a fun birthday message on a mirror or window in your house.

Add a happy birthday message to their bathroom mirror. Use window markers so it’s easy to clean off when you’re done.

Family Game Night

Plan a fun family game night on your child’s birthday. The fun tradition is letting the birthday kid pick the games to play. You can pull out their favorite board game or a new one they got for their birthday.

If you’re having a family party print out our Family Game Night Printables or try these fun 30 Birthday Party Games for Kids or Minute to Win It games. The Minute to Win It games are hilarious games the whole family will love playing together.

Plan a Special Day Out

Plan something fun to do on their birthday. Your kids can help you decide where they’d like to go or make it a surprise each year.

Some ideas are visiting a Zoo, Museum, indoor play area, local-sporting event, local musical, or even a favorite playground with a picnic. Just getting out as a family together will make it a special day.

Birthday Countdown

Kids are excited for their birthday weeks before it’s actually their day. So help them get excited with a birthday countdown. It will also help younger kids know how long they have to wait.

An easy way to do a countdown is to use a chalkboard and change the number each day. It’s the first thing your child will want to do in the morning.

Baby Picture Display

Pictures Displays for Kids Birthdays. Hang a ribbon and use wooden clips to show off kids pictures on their birthday. A meaningful family traditions kids will love.

Hang a string or ribbon on your wall and clip baby pictures to it. Your kids will love looking at pictures of themselves when they were smaller. Plus you’ll enjoy the memories too.

Baby Book

Break out the baby book and look at old pictures with your son or daughter. It’s a fun way to go down memory lane and realize how much your children have grown and changed.

Birthday Cake

Let your kids help pick out what special cake they want for their birthday. You can go to the store and find one with their favorite characters on it.

Or start a new tradition of baking a cake together at home. It doesn’t matter how good it is just that you’ve created great memories of spending time together.

Birthday Present Scavenger Hunt

Make opening their presents even more exciting with a birthday scavenger hunt. Give your child a few clues to search around the house to find where their presents are hidden.

You’ll find tons of free printable birthday scavenger hunts on Pinterest.

Plant a Tree

A sweet memory my grandparents did for us was planting a tree when we were born. Then each year we would take a picture with our tree. It was a really meaningful birthday tradition we all loved.

Don’t worry if you didn’t start this when they were born any year you start will still be special. If your kids are older they can help plant the tree and get excited every year to take their picture. It may even become their special place in the backyard

Letter to Your Child

Write a letter to your child each year as a time capsule of what happened that year in their life. On their 18th birthday, you can give them the letters to read with all the amazing memories from their childhood. It’s a keepsake they will cherish.

School Lunch

If their birthday falls on a school day add a special treat to their lunch box with a Happy Birthday note. A simple way to make the day a little extra special.

Birthday Journal

Keep track of what happened during the year in a birthday journal. We love the Your Birthday Book as it’s a simple way to write a few things down each year and has a time capsule folder for special memories for each year.

Sit with your child and fill out the yearly interview and decide what was special that year to add into the time capsule. As someone who is terrible with baby books, I found this birthday journal to be simple and easy.

You could also create your own journal pages and paste them into a scrapbook with pictures from the year.

Measure Their Height

Track how much taller your kids get each year with a family growth chart. This is really fun to see when they are older and remember how little the kids were when you started.

You can track their height the traditional way by marking a wall in your house but I find that to be a challenge if you move.

Another option is to get a large ruler you can pull out or display and mark each year. There are beautiful wooden rulers or roll up rulers you can easily pack away in between birthdays. It all just depends on how much space you have.

Tip: Find a ruler or wall space to mark that has at least 6 ft height so you can use it until the kids turn 18.

Read a Birthday Book

Start a tradition of reading a special birthday book together each year. It can be a classic book like Dr. Seuss or a birthday-themed book. Even as they get older they’ll still love hearing you read to them.

Here are a few birthday-themed books by age

Where is Baby’s Birthday Cake – Age 1
Happy Birthday From the Very Hungry Caterpillar – Age 2-5
Happy Birthday Cupcake – Age 5-8
If You Had a Birthday Party on the Moon – Age 7-10

Birthday Crown or Hat

Make sure everyone knows it’s their birthday with a special birthday hat or crown. Kids will love wearing it while they eat dinner or open presents. We have a family hat that everyone wears on their birthday and it really is an easy and fun tradition.

If you don’t like hats use a birthday pin. Kids can wear the pin to school or on your family outing.

Are you ready now to make some amazing memories with your kids? I hope your family will love these meaningful birthday traditions as much as we have. It’s a fun way to celebrate your children’s birthdays and really make them feel special.

More Birthday Ideas

Happy Mom Hacks has tons of fun ways to celebrate kids’ birthdays. Visit our Birthday Party Page or Kids Party Games Page for more ideas or look at some fan favorites below.