Social Distancing Kids Birthday – is that even possible?

We all want some normal back in our lives don’t we?  The lockdown in the UK has been eased, but it will be a while before we are back to the big kids birthday birthday parties we were used to organising for our kids.  Social distancing kids birthday parties sound slightly impossible, but I have come up with some ways that will work.  I have come up with 8 social distancing kids birthday ideas that I hope will help you to make your little ones birthdays special despite the current restrictions.

I also have another post about Lockdown Birthdays which offers 13 ways to create birthday fun without even leaving your own house.

CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS

Scavenger Hunt and Obstacles

You could arrange a scavenger hunt for a small group of your kid’s friends at a park.  You could either make the prize chocolate and do a separate hunt and set of clues for each child so that they are moving away from one another or if that seems like hard work then choose a family that also has siblings and just have a very small gathering with you and another family so each set of children can be a team and compete against one another to complete the clues first. 

A way of making it more exciting and fun would be to have tasks that the children need to complete in order to get their next clue so instead of just finding the next clue they have to find it half of the clue and do an activity to get the other half.  For example perhaps they have to complete a short obstacle course;  jump a certain distance in sack, balance on a log, kick a ball into a goal before you get your next clue.  These are all simple activities to set up and you can have one set up per child or per family so that the children can still do a social distancing kids birthday party

Pizza Making Social Distancing Kids Birthday

This might sound slightly crazy if you have ever been to a kids pizza making party, but I really think it is a great way to create a social distancing kids birthday party as the kids will be occupied and sitting down rather than running around.  In fact the only time they won’t be busy will be whilst the pizza is cooking and during that time I would suggest that you have perhaps some fun and silly races (like the sports day ones I have included below) organised so that you can keep them having fun without jumping all over one another.  

I think this idea suits slightly older children better when it is being social distanced.  I have done a pizza making party with 4 year olds before, but they need a lot of help and that means that you need  to get involved with them which is tricky if you are trying to socially distance.  So for that reason I think this would especially work with children aged 9 or over who will be able to do it independently.

To make a pizza making party work as a social distancing kids birthday I would:

1. Create the pizzas outside so that you minimise the amount of time that anyone spends within the house
2. Space the children out around the table so that they can be apart (check distance regs for your location)
3. If you can invite just one other household (depending on your local rules) then even better
4. Pre prepare individual ingredient portions to avoid lots of hands in bowls.  (You of course need to wash your hands loads whilst preparing)
5. Cook each pizza on a separate tray and mark them so that you know which pizza belongs to which child. 

Hold a Sports Day

How about organising an outdoor Sports Day.  As long as you space the kids out when they are racing then this is a really easy way to do a social distancing kids birthday as you don’t have to change things too much from normal.  The kids will barely even notice any difference.

You don’t have to buy a sports day kit, but if you do then they tend to come with different coloured items so in the one we have there are four different coloured sacks, eggs and spoons and bean bags. 

If you have different coloured equipment all you need to do is allocate each child a colour and then that kit is theirs for the duration of the party.  It makes it easier for the children to not accidentally touch someone else’s.   

You could allocate the kids their colours in advance and ask them to wear their colour or perhaps send them a t shirt in their colour to wear for the party.  

The set I bought would only work for four kids and that may feel like not much of a birthday party to you, but I actually think that the birthday child tends to have more fun when they are in smaller groups as it is not so overwhelming.  

With a Sports Day I would stick with silly games like a sack race, an  egg and spoon race, balancing bean bags on the head and an obstacle race that involves stopping at key points in the race and perhaps kicking a ball into a goal or doing a forward roll or doing a certain number of jumps rather than just straight running races especially within small groups as you don’t want one child feeling awful as they lost everything.  If you mix it up with silly races then there is more chance of spreading out the ‘winners’.

Some other silly Sports Day ideas are:  walking backwards race, rolling on your side race, silly walking race, throwing bean bags at water balloons or throwing a welly (you can wipe the welly in between throws)

Traditional Games Party

Have you ever heard  of Croquet?  You might have, but Ill bet your kids haven’t.  If you have heard of it or played before then I wonder if you know that each mallet has a different colour and that matches the colour of the ball so again you could have four children at the party and give each one a different colour and then let them play as there is no need to get close when you play this game. 

This may not sound like a huge amount of fun, but once the kids discover that you can whack your opponents ball away to hinder their progress I think they will start to love it. I know as kids we really liked playing.  This might not be enough to occupy the kids for a full birthday party, but it could be combined with another activity or another traditional game like perhaps a ring toss game or a bowling game both of which can be done when social distancing.

Football Skills and Tricks

If your little one loves football, but you don’t want the kids all tackling one another then you could teach them some football skills or tricks.  This does really rely on one of the parents being really good at football tricks or being able to learn quickly and well from you tube videos….  If that is you then this could be a real winner.  I know my son would love to learn some of the cool tricks that footballers do on you tube and would love a party where he came away with a new skill or trick to show off.

You can make this type of party even more of a social distancing kids birthday party by asking each child to bring their own ball.

Laser Tag Wars

Recently we bought laser tag guns for the family to have fun with during lockdown and they will also make a great social distancing kids birthday idea as there is no contact during laser tag. These are not as .expensive as you would think as Nerf Gun now make an at home version and it doesn’t need to be dark to use them.  The initial outlay on these might be as much as a normal kids birthday party, but we have used ours as a family loads of times already so they have been more than worth it. 

There are 6 of us so we bought 6 guns and my plan would be to invite 5 of my son’s friends to the park or the local woods where they can create bases and have trees to use as shelter whilst they run around trying to laser tag one another.  You can play as individuals or as teams depending on how rigorous you want to be with social distancing.  You might also be able to do a similar thing with Nerf Guns, but the nerf gun bullets do have to be touched as they are loaded..

Cupcake Decorating

A cupcake decorating party is a really great way of keeping kids socially distanced almost without them noticing…  This works well as the kids are stationary and occupied. This works better than pizza making as well as there is no cooking involved so you can hold your cupcake decorating party at a local park giving even more space.  You would need to bring tables and perhaps camping chairs for the kids to sit on.  You could ask those attending if they have a chair that they can easily bring along.

All you need to do then is bake some cupcakes, space out the kids chairs and organise individual bags of icing and toppings  so that you don’t have lots of hands touching the same thing.  If you are doing this in a park you will also need to bring hand sanitiser so that the children can make sure their hands are clean whilst they are doing the activity. 

I suggest that you lead the kids through a cupcake decoration so that they can do what you do in real time.  Perhaps you could try talking them through making these Pirate Face cupcake toppers

You could then also give them their own set of toppings and icing bags so that they can go wild and create their own masterpieces.

This wouldn’t be a very long party, but in these times I think that is ok.  I  would also recommend this for slightly older children who perhaps are less inclined to run about like crazy people and would enjoy learning to do something new.   I think most social distancing kids birthday ideas come with some compromise and with this one it might be the length of the party, but some time with friends is surely better than none and you could combine this with some of our lockdown or online birthday ideas as well to really make their birthday special.

Social Distancing Dance Party

This one again needs some parental involvement, but how about teaching littler kids to do a dance routine.  You could learn a routine from you tube or tik tok and then ask some of your little ones friends to come to the park where you could teach them the dance routine. This one is probably best for younger kids as I know, for example, my 9 year old would be mortified if I suggested teaching his friends to do a dance.  You know because mummy is so very uncool!!  My 5 year old girls would love this idea though.

I am no Darcey Busell so I am not suggesting anything really complex just a fun routine that is for children to learn and do. This might be my favourite idea for a social distancing kids birthday party well at least for my little girls as I know I could easily spread the children out and keep it distanced whilst keeping them all engaged and occupied.  Pick fun music and a silly fun dance and I think this is a winner.

During these socially distanced times I think it is wise to abandon party bags etc… I would still do a cake and have the whole happy birthday sing song, but to make it easier and limit the amount of touching the cakes you have to do I would make cupcakes in the shape of the kids birthday age and then you just need to hand out a cupcake to each party guest. 

Whatever you decide to do for your kids birthday this year take hand sanitiser and be safe!  My kids all had their birthdays during full on lockdown and each one of them said it was their best birthday ever so don’t worry you can make their birthday special and there doesn’t need to be a huge party with an entertainer and a bouncy castle.  A few friends a park and an activity will make them happy.