Birthday Away Wishes
At the time of writing this post, our country is in the middle of an unprecedented quarantine because of the Covid-19 virus. We are all finding creative ways to stay productive, entertained and sane. One problem area where this remoteness causes real strain and sadness…is a birthday. Especially for the younger ones. But those of us ‘young-at-hearts’ also can’t help feeling a little sad to be “celebrating'“ alone. While this article is written for the current situation, this will work for any long distance birthdays!
My newly 11 year old just celebrated a birthday at home. As a parent, I was feeling the pressure to stay upbeat and positive while silently struggling to find something that would be a surprise and bring him joy. While he is quite aware how much his parents love him, we still wanted to him to feel the love of family and friends. But social distancing left us in a bind.
We started asking relatives to take a picture of themselves holding a sign that shows what they love most about our son. We have a wide age range of relatives, so we tried to keep it simple; 1. write on a piece of paper, 2. snap a picture on your phone and 3. text it to me. Now you can get way more creative if you have the (eh hem) experienced participants. They can record a short video with a spoken (or sung) message. If files get large, you can always exchange them through Dropbox or Google Drive (free!).
I tacked the pictures on the end of a 10-year recap video for him. (I produced a slideshow of how he has progressed over the first decade of his life!). I did this entire video in Adobe Premiere Pro, which can be a complicated software. I would recommend Adobe Premiere Elements (which is a paid software), or IMovie or Windows Movie Maker. There are plenty of apps if you want to keep it all on your phone. Some highly rated ones include;; InShot, Photo Editor & Music Video Maker, Video Shop and Magisto.
You can show this slideshow or video on your phone, tablet or post it on YouTube or Vimeo. You can always record the birthday person’s reaction to watching the video, attach that video to the end of the birthday wish one. Then share that link with the participants so they are able to take satisfaction in a job well done.