If you or any of your loved ones have a birthday in April, you’re definitely looking at a quarantined birthday at home. And maybe into May and June as well—who knows at this point.
I know that sounds like a bummer at first, but there are plenty of ways you can make a quarantined birthday celebration special for your friends and family (or yourself!). So I’m putting together a bunch of fun quarantine birthday ideas for adults!
A couple of my girlfriends had birthdays last week, and we did a virtual birthday brunch complete with mimosas and breakfast tacos (made at each of our separate homes) for one of them, and a virtual happy hour for the other.
But it really got me thinking about how a birthday during quarantine could be a huge letdown, especially if you live alone.
Here are a bunch of quarantine birthday ideas for adults, so you can throw the best quarantine birthday ever!
Quarantine Birthday Ideas for Adults: How to Throw the Best Quarantine Birthday
1. Have a theme.
Tropical, ’90’s, Disney, Casino Night, Tiger King…The possibilities are endless here. Having a theme in mind that you can tie things like invites, games, food, drinks, outfits, etc. back to is always fun. Here are a few more adult birthday theme ideas:
- Mardi Gras
- Roaring 20’s
- Masquerade
- Parisian (or the birthday person’s favorite city! Mine happens to be Paris)
- Nautical
- Pirate
- Their favorite movie, book, TV show
- Tea party
2. Make a fun digital invite.
Clearly we gotta keep everyone healthy, so let’s take this party virtual and send an invite for a Zoom/Google Hangouts/FaceTime birthday party. Keep your theme in mind for your invite too!
You could design your own invite, or use a site like Paperless Post. Paperless Post prob wouldn’t love me saying this, but I like to make an invite on their site, take a screenshot, and then send it out via email or text. That way, it’s free. ?
3. Encourage people to get dressed up and in theme.
Time to get out of your sweatpants, people! Encourage everyone to get dressed up and in theme. Let me tell you, it felt great to put on some makeup and a fun outfit for my friend’s virtual birthday party last week.
4. Make a compilation happy birthday video or slideshow.
Have everyone send you a video of them wishing the birthday person a happy birthday. They can also share a favorite memory with them, favorite things about them, hopes and well wishes for the next year, etc.
You can also make a photo slideshow and have everyone send you fun photos including themselves and the birthday person over the years.
Whether you make a video or slideshow, you can present it via Zoom or Google Hangouts for everyone to watch during the bday party.
5. Play a virtual game.
Here’s a list of a few games you can play virtually. If you can tie it back to the theme (for example, Poker for Casino Night), even better!
6. Send them a Cameo celeb birthday wish.
Cameo is this fun platform where you can have your favorite celebs make a personalized video recording for you, starting at $15. It’s shocking, hilarious, and fun to receive a video from your fav celeb calling out your name and wishing you a happy birthday with a personal message—they’ll love it, promise.
Some of the most random people are on Cameo so have a good scroll—I just saw Stormy Daniels on there and I know several people whose day would be made by the absurdity of receiving a personalized bday wish from her.
7. Send the birthday person some special treats.
While you can’t really bake them a cake and bring it over, there are so many delivery options to make this really easy on you! Here are a few ideas on bday things to have shipped or delivered:
Sweet Treats:
Find a bakery that’s local to them and see if they’re delivering, or have Postmates help you out here.
I just made an order (for myself) for some Doughp, which is based in SF and makes edible cookie dough and it’s the bomb. I did their sampler box and I can’t freakin’ wait for it to arrive. Heads up if you’re shipping this to a friend for their birthday, they’re offering free shipping (WHOOP), but it takes 7 – 10 days before they ship it out by 2-day priority, so order ahead for your friend’s bday!
Ladurée now delivers. They’re only my absolute Parisian treat and would be perfect for your friend’s special day.
Flowers: Ideally it’d be great to support a local business, so if you’re able to find a flower shop near your bday friend that is delivering, place an order with them! The Bouqs is also a great delivery option—check out The Bouqs Co. birthday collection for some beautiful arrangements.
Booze: Drizly delivers beer, wine, and liquor. Send a birthday bottle of champagne, their favorite beer, or a bottle of their favorite scotch.
Savory treats: It’s easy to send someone a bday dinner through food delivery apps, but here’s another option to make it really special: lobster dinner, delivered. LobsterAnywhere delivers Maine lobster right to the bday boy or girl’s door, and right now they’re doing lobster roll kits that look amazing.
Birthday present: I wrote up a whole separate post on quarantine birthday gift ideas that you can read here, but for now here are a few!
A cozy robe: All about that robe life.
Cute loungewear set: Wearing a loungewear set makes me feel so much more put together than wearing sweatpants and whatever on top.
Weighted blanket: Insomnia from all the depressing news headlines? Weighted blankets help with anxiety and sleep.
Noise-canceling headphones: If your gift recipient is working at home with a significant other, they will really appreciate this gift. Trust me, I wear mine all workday while Omied is on calls. These ones have amazing reviews on Amazon, come in a cute white color, and the price is right compared to the $300 Bose ones.
Kindle Unlimited Subscription: It’s only $10 per month and they can blow through as many books as they want!
Essential Oil Diffuser: Fill their home with relaxing eucalyptus or lavender scents. We could all use a little extra relaxation right now!
Ok those are all my quarantine birthday ideas for adults! I also just want to say that if it’s your own birthday coming up, don’t be afraid to put together your own virtual bday party and invite your friends and fam!
People are pretty stressed out right now so if it slipped their mind that your birthday is coming up, don’t sweat it. Just invite them to your virtual party, order yourself your fav treats, and play some games and enjoy their company!
If you have children at home with birthdays, what are you doing for your kids’ bdays? I saw the cutest thing where a family had a “drive-by” birthday where their friends drove by their house and honked their horns and sang happy birthday to the birthday kiddo. It was so sweet. Gotta be creative during these unprecedented times!
Elise Armitage is an entrepreneur and founder of What The Fab, a travel + lifestyle blog based in California. At the beginning of 2019, Elise left her corporate job at Google to chase her dreams: being an entrepreneur and helping women find fabulous in the everyday. Since then, she’s launched her SEO course Six-Figure SEO, where she teaches bloggers how to create a passive revenue stream from their website using SEO. Featured in publications like Forbes, Elle, HerMoney, and Real Simple, Elise is a firm believer that you can be of both substance and style.
