5 Cheap, Easy, and Meaningful Birthday Ideas for Kids

Let’s dive in and take a look at some simple and inexpensive ways to make a birthday special for your kids!

The Best Meaningful Birthday Ideas for Kids

#1: Look at your kid’s baby pictures as a birthday tradition every year

Photo albums

On my kids’ birthdays, I love to pull out the old photo albums of when they were babies.

Everyone gathers around on the couch, and we all laugh and coo over how cute, chubby, funny, and adorable that child was as a baby.

As a non-crafty mom, I have put very little effort into making an art project of my kids’ baby pictures! Instead, I printed them up and stuck them in these pretty photo albums that look both refined and beautiful on our bookshelf.

If you haven’t printed photos in YEARS – that’s okay, mama. Just choose some of your favorites on your phone and send them online to your nearest drugstore or photo lab and get them printed.

It is WORTH IT! (And don’t even think about taking on the printing and organization of several photo albums of your entire family life history, okay? JUST do the baby pictures to start with!)

And if you really don’t want to spend any money or are practicing legit minimalism, you could view the photos on your smart TV instead of printing pictures!

Baby books

Now, it’s time for an honest mom confession: my oldest has a bomb baby book. I even added extra homemade coordinating paper pockets to the pages to store additional photos of his first five years of life.

On the other hand, my fifth baby does HAVE a baby book – but it’s about 95% empty. Ah well.

That’s a project to complete sometime in the next fourteen years before she leaves the house (but right now, she’s planning to live with us forever, of course!).

If you don’t have a baby book and your child is still young, I love this baby book that is affordable and so easy  to fill out.

It really is the perfect solution for any mom who wants to create a beautiful keepsake of her baby’s first years, but also doesn’t want to invest a ton of time or money in scrapbooking. (Hint: these make an amazing baby shower gift too!)

My point is – if you have kept baby books of your kids’ early years, good on ya! Get them out on your child’s birthday every year and browse through them together.

Just like with the photo albums, they will LOVE seeing themselves as a baby!

#2. Tell the story of your child’s birth to make her birthday special

This is something I’ve just recently started doing on my kids’ birthdays, and it is now one of my favorite ways to make a birthday special.

It takes ZERO preparation and it’s FREE.

How great is that?

Even though my kids have all heard their own birth stories before, they have absolutely LOVED hearing their special story over again on their birthday. It has been fun to hear and answer their questions about their birth stories over the past couple of years too. 

You could cover different angles or tell different parts of their special birthday story, such as:

• how you felt when you found out you were pregnant (if it was happy, of course)
• how any siblings reacted to learning they’d be getting a new brother or sister
• details about the gender reveal – or why you didn’t want to find out the gender in advance
• preparations you made before your baby was born
• how you knew you were in labor
• any details about labor and delivery you want to share
• the first thing you said or thought when you saw your baby for the first time
• details about your hospital stay
• what the first few days or weeks at home were like for you and your baby

You can get as creative or as detailed with this story as you find appropriate.

I highly recommend telling the story either during dinner time or at bedtime so you’re sure to have a captive audience!

Honestly though, it’s not likely you’ll need to vie for your child’s attention because this story is so uniquely theirs and will be highly interesting to them.

#3. Write a birthday letter to your child 

This is my very favorite birthday idea for kids to help make their birthdays feel special. I’m not even sure where I got it from, but if you are a somewhat sentimental mom like me, I think you’ll love it too!

Since our oldest child was small, my husband and I each write a one-page handwritten letter to our child on his or her birthday.

We keep these letters and the idea is that when that kid is ready to move out of the house as an adult, we will then give him his birthday letters as a sweet reminder of his years at home and our love for him.

The birthday binder

Right now, I keep all of our birthday letters to our kids in plastic sleeve protectors in one simple binder.

But the goal someday is to create one birthday binder per kid. I’ll fill it with their birthday letters from my husband and me, as well as some of our favorite photos of him or her over the years.

What to write in the birthday letters

Writing the birthday letters takes us about 10-15 minutes per letter, which is really not a huge time investment at all!

We do keep a reminder in our phones so we don’t forget to write them though (like we did in 2014! Oops.)!

In each letter, we share things like:

• what our child was really excited about in the past year – events or characters or movies, etc.
• his biggest and best accomplishments
• specific happy memories
• obstacles and trials he overcame
• funny events or experiences
• details about his favorite things – colors, foods, toys, books, movies, games, etc.
• our wishes and hopes for his or her future

There really isn’t a magic formula to follow for writing a special birthday letter to your kids – just diving in and doing it is what matters!

And then keeping them and preserving them for years to come. To help us with that, we purchased an external hard drive and make a point of scanning our letters and saving them every year.

#4. Let him choose all the meals to make his birthday special

This is a common birthday idea for kids – and for good reason! Kids love the opportunity to make choices – and allowing them to choose what they get to eat on their birthday is no exception. 

To make the birthday meals extra special, you might consider purchasing a special birthday dinner plate for your child to use for meals throughout his special day!

When it comes to birthday meals, I am often surprised by what my kids choose. Here’s what they’ve all picked most recently:

• waffles for breakfast and homemade pizza for dinner, Megan, age 4
• french toast for breakfast and egg roll in a bowl for dinner, Aaron, age 7
• crepes for breakfast and pizza casserole for dinner, Sarah, age 9
• pancakes for breakfast and homemade pizza for dinner, Jacob, age 12

#5. Begin the “thankful circle” birthday tradition

Every night before bedtime, we go around the room and each person shares one thing they are thankful for that happened during the day. 

But when we have a birthday in the house, we each take a turn sharing a few things that we love about the birthday person or talk about why we are thankful for him or her.

After everyone has shared something, we all pile on top of the birthday person and give him or her a giant group hug.

All of our kids really enjoy hearing positive things about themselves from their parents and siblings – and we always are sure to end their birthday celebration on a positive note.

Final thoughts on meaningful birthday ideas for kids

I hope you are feeling inspired and empowered with ideas about how to make a birthday special for your kids!

Remember, you don’t need a giant budget or to hire a party planner to help your child feel celebrated on his or her birthday.

Small and simple things – like these five birthday ideas for kids – can make a huge impact and satisfy the deepest needs your child has for unconditional love, connection, and affirmation.

Related articles about kids and family

–How to Create Opportunities for Family Bonding Activities

-How to Create an Awesome Family Summer Bingo Board

–Indoor Activities to Stop Boredom for Kids of All Ages

–How to Teach Gratitude to Your Kids

Which of these birthday ideas for kids are you going to use in your home?