Everyone deserves to feel special on their birthday, but trying to make one day extra special for two little people can be a challenge, particularly as they get older and have different requests and demands.
We’ve scoured the internet and asked some fellow multiples mums what helps to make birthdays fun, simpler and special for each individual child.
Here are a range of ideas:
1. Simplify the cakes
- Find a way to link two separate cakes into one theme e.g. each child’s favourite animal linked to a ‘jungle safari’.
- If doing one cake, a number cake is often long enough to decorate half/half.
- Go to the supermarket bakery and ask for a large square/s of sponge cake that you can then cut to whatever design. Then, just spend your time on the decorating.
- Bake the cakes in advance, wrap well and freeze them – they’re often easier to decorate from frozen and will help to avoid last minute madness
- Edible cake images from buildabirthday.co.nz are amazing for quick and easy decorating
2. Sing Happy Birthday Twice!
- Tell your guests who you’ll be singing to first so there’s no confusion, and each child gets their own song.
3. Consider split activities
- If twins can’t agree on the same activity for the day, one twin chooses a morning activity and one the afternoon
- Spend the morning together and then afternoon separately
- Each twin chooses a meal dish for the day
- Date day or a “yes day” for each twin the week of their birthday
- Birthday posters – use a picture from each year of their life and list things that make them special
- Celebrate the birthday together, but each twin gets their own celebration the weekend before/after
4. Parties – one or two?
- Celebrate both children in one party with complementary themes such as mermaids and pirates.
- Create a special place setting for each child, maybe with the initial of their name.
- Consider double sided party invites
- Set a cap for each child’s guest list
- If doing separate parties, they could be back to back Saturday/Sunday so you can reuse a lot of decorations and food
- Two parties as they get older, or have one party each year and alternate who gets to pick the theme
- Celebrate a week, or even months apart
Authored in May 2024 by Natasha Bull