Baby’s First Birthday Party Ideas

There are a lot of themes to choose from for your baby's first birthday. It took my wife and I a long time to come up with the theme we wanted. There are actually online stores devoted now to first birthdays; I guess they caught wind that we had a child about to turn one, because we've been receiving little catalogs for a month now.

Some ideas we've run across:

• Your cute and cuddly birthday themes: teddy bears, Winnie-the-Pooh, Care Bears, etc. These are extremely popular from what I can tell, and it's one of the ideas that crosses gender lines. Boys and girls love teddy bears, all the characters from Winnie-the-Pooh (my daughter has a favorite stuffed bear full of fluff that she loves to hug and kiss). What's great about themes like this is the abundance of material you can find in stores. When we were checking out birthday balloons, it seemed like every other one had a Care Bear or a Winnie-the-Pooh character on it.
• Your girly themes: Princesses are still all the rage. And pink, pink, pink! This is classic and easy to implement. You'll never have trouble finding pink paper plates, napkins and forks. Pink ribbon and pink streamers are abundant. Princess balloons are everywhere. It's also a cute theme. What father doesn't think of his daughter as a princess?
• Sesame Street: Your baby has probably had some introduction to Sesame Street already. Baby J. absolutely loves the Sesame Street songs. We purchased her a DVD of their most popular songs, and she loves it. There's something about watching "Monster in the Mirror" or "I'd Like to Visit the Moon" that completely captivates her. For the only time in her day, she becomes immobile, totally fixed on the music and the lyrics. Aside from that, Baby J. loves the Sesame Street books; my wife still had a few from when she was a kid that we read to Baby J. each evening. So if you're like us, your kid probably recognizes Sesame Street, and so it might be a fun theme for him or her.
• Animal Themes: There are your basic animal-related themes, like the rubber ducky themes. Get some rubber ducks and put them around the house, use yellow streamer, have a bubble blowing machine, the possibilities seem limitless. Or there's your farm animal theme. Your kid probably has a play barn. Baby J. obsesses over the cow and the lamb. She knew what a cow was before she could recognize the word "dog". All those farm animals are second nature to your child.
• Your Classic Boy Themes: Cars and trucks. Sports. This is another one of those themes where you won't have any trouble whatsoever finding any of the supplies you need. From birthday balloons with baseballs and footballs on them to toy cars and trucks, you won't have any trouble decorating your house. There are so many cake pans in the shapes of cars or sports equipment as well. I don't know how much your one year old will be into sports, but you have to keep in mind, the first birthday is probably more about you and your friends and family than your little one. He/she is there to enjoy the ride, not to be an active part of the planning.

I'll describe in greater detail what we chose as our theme in an additional post.

D.