7 Birthday Traditions You Should Start Right Now
If you feel like you're celebrating the same old birthday year after year, it may be time to start a new tradition to get out of your funk.
Use your birthday weekend to make the most out of your big day and try one of the new traditions below.
Eat Your Favorite Food for Breakfast
It's your birthday, so you should be free to do things your way. Start the day off right by indulging in your favorite food in the whole world—if you can get it that early. If not, start with your favorite breakfast and make sure that eating your fave is part of your schedule for the day.
Snack on Fairy Bread
If your extra-delicious meal isn't on the menu until later in the day, borrow an Australian birthday tradition and make deliciously adorable fairy bread. Just pour sprinkles on a plate, butter a couple of slices of bread, and press them, buttered-side down into the sprinkles. It's a simple recipe, but the result is quite impressive-looking.
Open Presents Throughout the Day
Why save present-opening for the end of the celebration when it can be a day-long affair? If your friends and family are up for it, coordinate a staggered gift-getting throughout the day. It's so much more exciting than lumping them all together.
Get Free Stuff!
You can get a lot of free stuff on your birthday (and in the surrounding weeks) if you know where to look. If any of your favorite restaurants, fast food joints and coffee and dessert shops have newsletters or rewards programs, sign up, and chances are they'll give you some kind of discount or free item for your birthday. Click HERE for our list of all the best freebies you can get on your birthday.
Bury a Time Capsule
Grab your friends and put together a time capsule to hide away and retrieve on your next birthday. All you need is a shoe box or other container to fill with items that reflect the now. Write a letter to your future self and print out a birthday selfie, and include knick-knacks that will make you think back on the day. But don't overthink it—you'll want to be surprised when you open it up in a year. Don't worry about burying it. A safe place in your closet will do the trick until next year.
Have a Birthday Wish Jar
Start a new tradition for your actual birthday party with a wish jar. Just decorate a cute mason jar and have your friends pass around colorful sticky notes, writing their own lovely birthday wishes for you before folding them and putting them in the jar. You can read them at the end of the night to feel the warmth of all of your sweet birthday sentiments, and hold on to the jar forever as a birthday memento.
Relax
As much as your birthday should be for living it up in celebration, it should also be about energizing yourself for the rest of the year. Start a tradition of pampering yourself. A mani-pedi is just the thing to start your new year off right.
If you're not always a fan of celebrating your birthday, click HERE for all of the cringe-worthy birthday moments that happen on your special day.