Quarantine Birthday Ideas: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Natal Day Celebrations

Birthdays happen once a year, so everyone cherishes it as it’s truly dear!

It’s that day you feel extra special, extra good-looking and extra loved. Birthday is one of the biggest life occasions that every person has. Not one man is here on Earth without it! It’s a blissful celebration of the life that the Creator has given His most precious creation. 

You probably know how birthdays are often like a day off for the celebrators. It’s when you are granted many favors, given freebies and discounts in theme parks and restaurants, visited by guests and set with multiple surprise parties in many places because it’s your day! These are just some of the typical birthday scenarios, but of course, it depends on how you annually remember your natal day. The point is that birthday celebrations are very much valued, given effort to and made merry! 

This 2020 though, birthday celebrations have become quite different and unusual. In the new normal, not only business operations, jobs, transportation means, travel and other weighty factors have been altered but most especially, the simple lives that people are just used to.

This COVID-19 pandemic has really affected a huge portion of how the world works. Actually, it invaded everything that even people’s birthday celebrations have been reshaped. People are not allowed to leave the house as it’s dangerous, so the thing called “quarantine birthday” was made, and it’s been used across the globe. Now, take a closer look at how the COVID-19 pandemic changed natal day celebrations around the world! Let's see more about quarantine birthday ideas at home.

Quarantine Birthday Ideas: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Natal Day Celebrations

[1] Celebrations Only With The Family

The love that flows in the family makes memories to treasure forever. 

Some people usually spend their birthdays with an overtime at work, with a long hour of being stuck in heavy traffic, or with tons of schoolwork and exams to study for the next day. Some people traditionally use the time to reunite with best friends and school chums, arriving home late from a birthday party.

Now, it’s not like that anymore. All you have is your family with you on this significant day. All celebrations are made perfect and happy with the family by your side. Days are much more meaningful with them, and you will realize how they will be the ones to remain with you forever no matter how seasons change. 

Quarantine birthdays are a great chance to catch up with family while enjoying the time. You cannot invite visitors because that’s one of the rules to pay attention to during the COVID-19 pandemic; that is to prevent the spread of the virus, thus, taking care of yourselves. Yet, it’s the perfect time to have a private and exclusive celebration only with your dearest family!

[2] Nowhere Else But Home

The home is the shelter that keeps you secure from all kinds of storms. It’s not just a mere place but the safe hook where you hang your heart. 

Some birthdays spent in grand ways are set in lavish hotels, decorated events places, wide private pools and other charming party venues. Lots of money are spent to reserve and exclusively utilize function rooms and halls for your fancy blowout! Guests will be astonished and excited for the location itself is already fabulous!

In quarantine birthdays, those are not possible. Social gatherings are not at all allowed. If in some countries, they are permitted, still, there is a restricted number of participants to maintain social distancing. Hotels are temporarily closed and unoperational. The same thing is for various types and businesses of events venues. You can celebrate nowhere else but at home. 

You can be in your most comfortable abode as you celebrate your remarkable day! You won’t need stylish dresses, cool neckties, high heels or shiny leather shoes. Slip into your printed pair of pajamas, plain shirts, house clothes and go barefoot! You can still have your lovely quarantine birthday at home. 

[3] Homemade Party Dishes

Maybe you were too busy and too exhausted. Much of your time was occurring outdoors. You eat the same fast food meals and expensive restaurant foods around your office or school. You arrive home late just to rest for the next day of the same routine. And even for special occasions, you often choose to dine in restaurants, hotels, buffets and fast food.

Now, it’s time you stay at home, where you belong, and savor your mom’s specialty dishes which were the all-time favorites that you would request from her whatever day it is. Though there are opened restaurants offering deliveries, homemade birthday party dishes are incomparable! 

Want a throwback to peerless childhood memories? Food can do that, with every bite and flavor that will relive good old times when you were younger and not busy at all.

This pandemic probably made you realize that you have been missing a lot from and of your home. With a quarantine birthday spent nowhere else but indoors with your family, you get to reunite with the tastiest meals that made you scream “my mom’s cooking is the best!” when you were a little kid.

[4] Choice of A Tasty Birthday Cake

Have you noticed? Many cake and pastry businesses have opened and boomed during the pandemic. It’s because people have more time staying at home; they can bake and make cakes as much as they want with the tools and ingredients they need! Moreover, online businesses really have a tremendous advantage since most people cannot leave the house, so online shopping is very prevalent. 

Now, you can choose your own birthday cake without hassle. With just a couple of clicks and taps, you can have it delivered to your home address. Not only standard cake brands are your options because many homemade cake businesses are rising too! You might even have neighbors and friends who have begun their own baking business, so you can order your personalized cake from them as well! 

Speaking of personalization, this time, more people are going for customized cakes rather than just the regular, ready-made designs! Reasons for that include them having more time to decide on desired designs and communicating with sellers online. Also, since birthday celebrations are just at home, people are thoroughly thinking of unique ways to have an exceptional party even in this trying time, and personalization is one of them!

[5] Birthday Deliveries From Loved Ones

Your aunts and uncles attend your party in a buffet restaurant and reach out a wrapped present. Your squads prepare a box of messages and a cheesecake during their surprise in the classroom. Your workmates and bosses buy you a cake at the company dinner. These were before the COVID-19 pandemic. The conventional way relatives, friends and colleagues give you gifts on your birthday is through directly handing them themselves on your birthday celebration. 

Now, it’s modified too. Birthday deliveries are here! Your loved ones might call you to pick up a surprise present at your gate. Your kind clients might contact you a day before, asking if you’re awake early on your birthday because they will be sending trays of pastas! Your cousins might send you a bag of your favorite chocolates to give you the sweetest quarantine birthday gift! 

Though you are not together physically, there’s still a way to relay birthday gifts! And you will realize that it’s not really sad at all to be just at home for now. Even with miles in between, people who want to render you some material gifts and food presents still can! And of course, do not forget that it won’t be possible without those industrious delivery men! 

[6] Flood of Virtual Greetings

People have more time to edit videos, dig old photos, compose long messages to send you adorable greetings. Through social media or text messaging, you can receive their warmest wishes! 

You might also receive more birthday posts on your timeline because people are on their phones all day, so even if they are not really aware that it’s your birthday, they would know the news that it is! Thanks to Facebook. Hah that’s sort of funny, but it’s true. 

Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, you don’t feel as far as you literally are from them. Though you can’t see your loved ones face to face, birthday greetings are still expressed as touching and as valuable as they have always been. What’s more,  you can convey your thanksgiving to them even more for their special part of remembering you on your special day!

Quarantine Birthdays

This goes to show that even if the world’’s situation now is a lot unfamiliar compared to the normal, peculiar life celebrations cannot be hampered. The smiles which were turned into frowns because of the threatening pandemic can always be turned back to smiles. Though the way birthdays are celebrated and given thanks for is revamped, there’s something good and extraordinary in it. 

We get to spend more time with our family on our own joyous day. We get to taste and try our parents’ home-cooked meals which we missed during our hustling days outdoors. We get to put as many candles as we like on our desired birthday cakes. We get to keep in touch with our loved ones, greeting us despite we’re apart. 

Quarantine birthdays are not as boring and “ordinary” as most people thought. In fact, they are so beautiful in many ways we have not experienced from our typical birthday parties. Even amidst a crisis, do not forget that life is still to be celebrated and rejoiced for. Tall walls and closed doors are just our house’s boundaries, but gleeful celebrations cannot be shackled. You’re alive, celebrating another year. Make the most out of your quarantine birthday while praying for the world to heal.

Author bio: Nicole Ann Pore who is a writer, editor, an events host & a voice over artist. Health,Travel, business, lifestyle, and shopping are among the many subjects she writes about. Through high quality and well-researched writing, Nicole Ann Pore informs and even entertains readers about things that matter. She is also interested in film critiquing and filmmaking. Giving all the glory to God, Nicole graduated Cum Laude from De La Salle University Manila, Philippines with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Arts.