Birthday Decorating Ideas

Getting Harder to find, but worth the effort

I am lucky to live in a neighborhood that's great for raising a family because many of the children are the same age.

There is a real sense of community sprit and we all try to help each other out with car pooling, school projects and organizing local events.

With so many local children there are frequent birthday parties and it becomes more and more difficult to come up with birthday decorating ideas that have not been done before.

Having three children of my own means coming up with birthday decorating ideas at least three times a year. As the children have gotten older they have become far more fussy about what they like and don't like.

My daughter is especially picky and always wants things to be different to the other birthday parties she has been to.

As her birthday approaches she generally asks me well in advance what birthday decorating ideas I have planned. She is soon going to be eleven years old and at that awkward age when she is no longer a child, but not yet quite a teenager.

We planned to have an outdoor event on the patio, so I decided to browse online to get some outdoor birthday decorating ideas.

Online Stores - A Good place to Look for Ideas

I found one interesting online store that's well, not one store but 13 stores with a wide variety of themed costumes, wigs, party supplies, magic tricks and games.

One store specialized in making Luau Parties even more festive with everything from flower leis, tiki lights, headbands, hats, party tableware, party decorations and games.

If you have a budding magician in the family who wants to mystify and amaze with magic then what better way than with card tricks, rope tricks, coin magic or conjuring up balloon animals.

Or if you want a theme party you can get costume accessories for any occasion and in all sizes.

Everything from costumes for pirates, babies and toddlers, super heroes, Disney and Nickelodeon characters, star wars fans through to masks and glamour makeup.

They also had costumes for adults from every period in time from biblical to the futuristic fantasy realms, movie and television characters and every style in between.

These stores are certainly worth a look if you're searching for birthday decorating ideas to give your party a theme.

My daughter has recently taken a liking to Chinese food so we decided to adopt a Chinese theme with colorful Chinese paper lanterns strung along the patio deck.

This was one of the simplest birthday decorating ideas I have ever had. We bought the Chinese lanterns as well as a stream of matching lantern lights.

We also bought the customary paper plates and cups, but with pretty oriental floral designs.

The catering was simpler still, as I ordered a variety of takeaway menus from our local Chinese restaurant.

The owner of the restaurant was very helpful and since he had catered to children's parties before, he added some birthday decorating ideas of his own to the food.

One of the restaurant owners birthday decorating ideas was to add personalized fortune cookies with my daughters name and that of her close friends.

It was great fun for the children and went down a treat.

Another of the birthday decorating ideas of mine involved the birthday cake.

I managed to get a cake shop to duplicate the oriental design on the plates and put it onto the birthday cake, complete with small lantern candles.

We also laid out several backyard games for the children to play and overall everyone enjoyed the Chinese food as well as the birthday decorating ideas - it was a great success.

The End to a Perfect Day

After the party I surprised my daughter by taking her into the family den, which during the party had been off limits. I had strung a set of Chinese lights and balloons around the room and set out sleeping bags for her and her closest friends.

I also managed to rent a movie that she wanted to see when it was on release but could not go, because she was too young at the time.

Added to that I included her favorite drinks and snacks and the end to the evening was complete.

As time passes I know the children will no longer expect the same type of parties and me having to come up with these birthday decorating ideas will be a thing of the past.

But despite all the hard work it's fun to plan the events while the kids are still young enough to enjoy them - and they certainly do !

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