What did you like to do for your birthday as a child?

[reecejackox]

I would say go bowling or fun playgrounds

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We always had house parties. This was the 70s. Neighborhood kids and my cousins would come over and we'd play games and then go into the kitchen and sit at the table, which had paper plates with pretzels and chips and M&Ms and Dixie Cups ice cream. We were rarely allowed soda when I was a kid, so it was a treat to get root beer, and *especially* when we were allowed to pour some into the Dixie Cups to make floats and then sprinkle M&Ms on top. None of us had ever thought of having a party anywhere else but home.

 

[C&Jx2]

I grew up in the Tampa area so I had many weekends at Disney with my best friend or my dad would bring me and my friends to Busch Gardens for the day. I honestly only had small family parties, the big birthday scene was never my thing.

 

[Magical2017]

House parties were my favorite as a kid, and then later slumber parties. We had a pool growing up so it was great for my summer birthdays.

 

[ronandannette]

We always had house parties. This was the 70s. Neighborhood kids and my cousins would come over and we'd play games and then go into the kitchen and sit at the table, which had paper plates with pretzels and chips and M&Ms and Dixie Cups ice cream. We were rarely allowed soda when I was a kid, so it was a treat to get root beer, and *especially* when we were allowed to pour some into the Dixie Cups to make floats and then sprinkle M&Ms on top. None of us had ever thought of having a party anywhere else but home.

Yep - pretty much this, except the guests would be all the kids my age from school (small rural school and it would have been very rude to exclude anybody). When we got a little older the boys would go home after supper and the girls stayed for a sleep-over followed the next morning by a big pancake binge.

 

[amcnj]

Birthdays were all home parties when I was young. Having been born in a good weather month, mine were all outside. Neighborhood friends, friends from school and relatives all came for a cookout, and of course cake and ice cream. We played party games as well as our regular childhood games and activities. It was nice having everyone around all together.

 

[E&Cmom]

I had and went to a few McDonalds birthday party in late 70s and early 80s. The rest were in house.

 

[mmbrad02]

I'm another house party kid. At 8 I remember begging my mom for a "kid" party because up until then it was just grandparents and an occasional aunt and uncle that came. Once I got to my tween/teens, and being a July baby, I always had a pool party with 5-6 friends in our 4 foot above ground pool in the backyard You got homemade cake or cupcake made by mom (just basic, she was no fancy decorator). Then friends went home and family came that evening where you got a fancy cake from the grocery store bakery

Birthdays were much simpler it seemed and we were happy and I never felt unspecial on my birthday. I have a 10 year old now and I can say the expectations have felt so much greater than what I remember as a kid. I'm not saying I always give in to the expectations, but her parties have been a lot different.

 

[loves to dive]

We never had birthday parties, I do have pictures of one for me when I was about 3, in the picture I'm at the table in front of the cake and crying. The party was myself, my 5 older brothers and my parents. Evidently right before the picture was taken one of my brothers either said something to me or stole something from me. That is the only party I can remember I ever had and I don't remember my brothers having any. Basically, we got a cake, we were pretty poor. I do remember for my birthday the year Sound of Music came out (I was probably around 8) my parents and I went to the movie without those mean boys, Mama had made us matching dresses and I actually was able to go to the beauty shop and get my hair cut like Julie Andrews. Best birthday ever.

 

[fla4fun]

Have store bought cake. Any other time, we had homemade cakes, but for our birthday we could have a store bought one, and they were so good! We never had parties though, just the immediate family.

 

[Disneylover99]

House parties/slumber parties with pizza or McDonald’s
Good times in the 70’s.

 

[MIGrandma]

Birthday cake and presents

 

[Kittyblue]

I think my best birthdays as a kid were slumber parties.

 

[Mysterian]

Usually typical birthday parties with friends. I remember the earliest cakes were homemade, but at one point for every year, and I mean AGES, my mom got the same white coconut Pepperidge Farm cake. It wasn't even my favorite, though I didn't mind.

 

[disneychrista]

I lived in Orange County California until I was 12. From about age 5 - 12 I got to go to Disneyland for my birthday. After we moved to Northern California it was just a family dinner & cake. I went to Disneyland again for my 44th birthday and am hoping to go for my 50th in 2022.

 

[maxaroni]

For the most part, it was home parties with games, cupcakes & ice cream. One year, I was able to bring one friend and we went to the NY Worlds Fair.

 

[Yoshi]

My favorite place was Challenges Arcade in the Willow Grove Mall (PA). For birthday parties, you and your guests had private access to the arcade for an hour before the mall opened and all games were on free play (except ticket and prize games). It was so cool as a kid to be in the arcade with just your friends and family with no one else there. Other friends also did the same thing for their birthdays.

 

[AuntieMe3]

I have a summer birthday and we had a pool so we always had pool parties. I have a large extended family so we would have monthly family parties when we would celebrate everyone who had a birthday that month. In my birthday month, we have 9 birthdays.

 

[slo]

My parents never made a big deal out of birthdays - my grandparents would come over for cake and ice cream and that’s it (this is not a complaint). I enjoyed this, but I always wished (when I was a kid) we did more like my friends parents would do for their birthdays. So, when I had my kids we would do a lot of memorable things on their birthdays, along with having family over for dinner and birthday cake. We‘d ask them what they wanted to do and we’d do it (within reason) - the zoo, downtown Chicago, fun centers, museums and etc. My girls always tell me how much they loved their birthdays and they still do. Hopefully, once things go back to normal, we can start doing things for birthdays again - we’ve really missed our family fun days.

 

[jo-jo]

This is a bit of a twist..But for my DH birthday, every year the kids and I would throw him a "surprise" party. Each year, we'd decorate a room. One year we did a party two days in a row. But the best real surprise was when my DD left to go to college (about 2 hours away) and DH thought that was the end of the "surprise parties and felt a little sad. On cue, she came out of the the other room with a bunch of balloons.

For me as a kid, we had a couple of friends over in the living room after school. Mom while ironing clothes or something, would do games like I spy....the winner would get 2 pennies. (this was the era of true penny candy, so it WAS worth something and the candy store was across the street) Cake, ice cream, go home.

For our kids, we did mostly home parties, summer kids. water balloon fights, peanut hunt, races with egg on spoon, running around games. We did do a few bowling alley parties when the kids got 12 or so.