Virtual Birthday Party for Kids

It is your little one’s birthday! Time flies so fast. There is so much to do. Whether your child’s guests live far away or there are other circumstances causing this party to be virtual, let’s make this virtual birthday party the best and one for the memory books.

Table of Contents

How do you host a virtual birthday party for kids?

The first way to begin to plan a virtual birthday party is to choose the platform that everyone is going to join together. We love thee platforms.

How Long Is A Virtual Birthday Party?

For babies it’s simple. A half an hour is a great time for everyone to send well wishes to your one year old and see a cute cake smash or opening gifts that were pre-sent to your house.

For children 2-5, anything from a half an hour to an hour and a half is a perfect party. Movie parties may be longer while some simple games may be okay for about 45 minutes.

For children 5 and over, you can have up to a three hour party, quite aligned with a traditional birthday party.

Weigh the party time based on family (do you have elderly family members there or a lot of little babies) and the abilities of your children’s friends. Some children have shorter attention spans. For longer parties, pick games that are fun, interactive and keep children’s attention. We have a list of Virtual birthday party games for kids below for every type of personality and party size.

Facebook

Use Facebook to connect with your family members! Simply create a Room and add your desired guests. Your guests would have to have a Facebook account to participate. Film from a Desktop or even with your phone! Whatever is easier for you!

Zoom

This platform is used to having dozens of people on at the same time. Zoom can be a great way to host a virtual birthday party. However, if you are not paying a monthly fee, your zoom meeting will end after 40 minutes. Keep this is mind whether you want a three hour birthday party or something short and sweet.

This platform is a popular one with families. As long as everyone has WhatsApp, you can plan and execute a perfect virtual baby shower.

Do you send invitations For a Virtual Birthday Party?

Absolutely! You can go the traditional route by sending invitations via mail or you can send an Evite. Sending a traditional invitation by mail means you have to put the sign up information and state not only times and dates but also instructions on how to log in on Zoom or that you would add them to a Room on Facebook once they accept.

Though many people are tech savvy, it is good to have instructions just in case to minimize as many “birthday party hiccups” as possible.

If you choose to do an Evite, you can do this one of a few ways. You can get everyone’s email and send an invitation. One can also set up a Facebook Event and invite your guests. This is great if you will be creating a Facebook Room for everyone to celebrate. Again, your guests would have to be on Facebook to be able to join and accept. Review your guest list and make sure that everyone is on this social media platform.

How Much Time Do you Give For the Party?

Make sure to give people time. At least three weeks to set time aside for the virtual birthday party. Even though people do not have to travel anywhere, they do need time to set aside. They might also want to order your child a gift and have it sent to your house so it is on time for the party. Giving people the time to plan will be appreciated by your guests.

Virtual Birthday Party Tips

Plan your games ahead of time

Keep a loose schedule

Budget 15 minutes at the beginning for people to sign in

Budget 15 minutes at the end for people to say their well wishes and sign off or take extra time finishing up games.

Embrace hiccups. Internet connection may be slow, possible lagging. – Send a note on the games ahead of time to keep things moving along.

Have Fun! Embrace the different. It will not be like a traditional birthday party because it is not a traditional birthday party.

How do you make a virtual birthday party fun?

Kids today are very resilient. They are now used to school being online or have experienced some sort of remote teaching. They can sit and pay attention. Secondly, children love their friends and everyone likes to party! Since this is not your traditional birthday party, games are not going to be your everyday birthday party games. You can get creative and have fun with what you choose.

How to Decorate For a Virtual Birthday Party

You may not have people at your house, but you can certainly decorate for the virtual birthday party! Pick a space in your place with good lighting. Your dining room, kitchen or living room are ideal. If you are using a laptop, pick a fun backdrop that matches your theme for the party. Use balloons to spruce up the wall. Put a Happy Birthday Sign and some fun decorations. This can be fun! Just because it is a virtual birthday party for kids doesn’t mean you should not have a theme!

Here are some virtual party decoration ideas:

Happy Birthday Sign

A Backdrop that pertains to the colors of the party or the party theme

Balloons or a Balloon display

Streamers

Pictures of the theme (animals, super heroes, princesses)

A party hat, crown, bowtie or headband for your birthday child!

Virtual Birthday Party Ideas

Dress Up Theme

Pick a fun theme for the party. Whether it is Star Wars or Minecraft have your guests dress up as favorite characters. Bonus marks for creativity! This is a great way to break the ice virtually and your kids will love planning their costumes and seeing the costumes of your friends. Here are some virtual birthday party dress up ideas:

Pajama Party

Silly Hat Party

Halloween Party

Super Hero Party

Princess Party

Animal Party

Favorite First Responders Dress Up

Superhero Cape Party

Face painting Party

Favorite Cartoon Character Party

Send a Birthday Party Kit To Your Guests

Send each guest a small bag of popcorn kernels, a birthday hat, a balloon to blow up and any other little trinkets that you would want to have at a birthday party. Make sure each kit arrives before the special day!

Video Compellation

Organize short clips, Shootouts, Tik Tok videos or YouTube videos of the people you love wishing your child a happy birthday. Let the creativity go wild with skits, songs or sweet memories. Organize this into a big video to play for everyone during the virtual birthday party.

The Marco Polo App is getting very popular in sending video messages for people on their birthdays!

Get a virtual Entertainer to Host the Party!

There are many people who are virtual entertainers that can host a virtual birthday party. From princesses to gaming experts, they can make an age appropriate fun time with your children. Different entertainers can work with different time scheduling needs. Choose what your child loves and look at: Facebook parenting groups and online. Virtual birthday parties are also hosted at Sky Zone who can host the entire party. The possibilities are endless. Here are some ideas for virtual entertainers:

Clowns

Magicians

Princesses

Super Heroes

Video Game Experts

Chefs Teaching a Basic Meal

Virtual Birthday Party Games

Games can be fun online too! We have some unique and fun ways for your child and their friends to have a great time and celebrate their virtual birthday party! We have created a key to help you decide what games are good for your child based on the type of party you are having:

Big Parties (parties with more than 5 children)

Small Parties (parties with 5 children or less)

Short Parties (parties under an hour)

Longer Parties (Parties over an hour)

For The Board Game Lover

Your child and their friends can meet on Tabletopia and play. With over 1500 games for free, your kids can play games and board games with each other. Have fun and relax, the game and the children will entertain each other!

Good For: Short parties, long parties, small parties, big parties (depending on the game) Ages 5+

Tip- Have a game and a couple of backup games in mind. Just in case the first game is played quickly or the children become bored, you can recommend another backup game.

Escape Room

Have your child and their guests play an escape room game, in their own home! Blimey Box has STEM based Escape Room games that are so fun! Just have each kit sent to your guest’s house and open up when it is ready. You will need your guest’s parent or guardians help ahead of time for some light set up (under 5 minutes). This is such a unique birthday party idea and is guaranteed to be fun. We even snuck in an educational element for good measure! Check out our review of Blimey Box.

Good For: Short Parties, Long Parties, Small Parties

For The Movie Buff- Host a Movie Party Through Netflix

If your little one just loves movies and it is on Netflix, you can host a virtual movie night with Netflix Party. This service is included with your Netflix package. There is no audio chat so you would need to keep your zoom or Facebook group on. You can invite people via Netflix. You need to have Google Chrome to make this happen. Additionally, you will also need to ensure that each of your guests has Netflix.

Pick your child’s favorite movie and sit back with popcorn and relax, our Virtual Hosting can take care of itself once the movie has started. An hour and a half later you can sing happy birthday and continue on with your very special virtual birthday.

Good For: Long birthday parties, big birthday parties, small birthday parties. ALL AGES

For The Decorator- Decorate Your Space

Have each child choose 5-10 items to decorate where they are sitting for the virtual party. What items did they choose? Extra points are given for unique items that just work.

Good For: Short Birthday Parties, Big Birthday Parties, Small Birthday Parties 5+

For The Singer- Karaoke Birthday Party!

Everyone loves music and you can be the DJ while your child and their friends enjoy a Karaoke night! Pick music that your child loves and allow duets and bands to sing to the music too! This will bring a lot of laughs, be a great opportunity for photo opps and so much more. Make sure everyone is included and if people are not singing songs, they are singing along. This is a great way to have fun and enjoy the music.

GREAT FOR: Long birthday parties, big birthday parties

For the Dancer- Dance Party

This is great for your outgoing kids that love to dance. Put on some great music and get the kids dancing! Play FREEZE where you turn on the music and everyone dances. When the music stops, everyone has to stay in that position. The first to move is out! Who will be the winner?

Great For: Big Birthday Parties, Long Birthday Parties

For The Foodie

Have your children decorate a delicious cupcake for the party! If your guests are close but you cannot see them, drop off two or three cupcakes and some toppings to decorate with. If they are far away, ask them to bake a half a dozen cupcakes and use five fun toppings of their choosing. Who has the most unique design? Did anyone choose some very interesting toppings?

Great For: Small Birthday Parties, Short Birthday Parties

For The Crafter

Plan a craft for all of the children to do! Whether you mail each child their craft beforehand or it is a simple craft that they can make with common items in their home, a craft is a great quiet thing for the children to do and they leave the party with something special that they can keep!

You can pick something with a theme, or if the virtual birthday party falls on a holiday, you can make a holiday themed craft.

Great For: Small Birthday Parties, Short Birthday Parties

For The Artist

If your child loves art and enjoys painting, you can organize a virtual painting party!

Make a choice if you want to hire a professional to teach a virtual course. It could be like a painting night for children or it can be a painting idea that you have.

You can create art kits to send to each child’s house before Th party begins. You would need to buy a small canvas, primary colors with black and white and an artist smock. The children can then watch a painting tutorial, learn something from a virtual painting night or have you teach something great if you have that creative flair. 3+

Your children would then have something to keep from the party.

Great For: Small Birthday Parties, Long Birthday Parties, Short Birthday Parties

Virtual Bingo Party

Bingo is an easy game that everyone loves! You can send each Bingo Card via email to each child. Play 5-10 Bingo Games and you can send a prize to the winner if you are including prizes in your birthday party. 5+

Bingo is a fun game for children and it gets them to listen and celebrate when someone wins. There is a lot of opportunity for multiple winners.

Great For: Long birthday Parties, Big birthday parties

For The Actor – Charades or Pictionary

If your child and their friends and family are outgoing, then charades or Pictionary is for you! Use Zoom, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger to message each person three words that they have to act out or draw. Divide the party in to groups of two. Give one minute for each team to guess what the actor is acting out or drawing. Which team is going to win?

This can be a great way to not only break the ice of a party, but also to encourage people to come out of their shell and have fun. If this is people’s first virtual birthday party, this is a fun way to really break the ice.

Virtual Birthday Party for a Baby

We have to celebrate our smallest family members! Many babies have naps, eating and other things going on throughout the day. It is normal to have a short and sweet virtual baby shower for baby. Getting a video compilation of family and friends sending well wishes to the baby is a perfect keepsake for any little one.

Make sure to schedule the shower around an awake time for your baby. Don’t schedule it during a nap if your child has a sleeping regime.

After playing the video for your guests, bring on the cake! It is time to blow out the candles. If you are doing a cake smash, this is a great time to introduce that as well. After your child enjoys that sweet taste of cake, it is time to open the gifts!

If your guests sent gifts, you can open them with your child. From beginning to end, this short and sweet virtual party will be wonderful for your baby, a relaxing time for your guests and a memorable time for you as the parent. NEWBORN to 2 YEARS OLD

LEGO building Party

Buy some LEGO pieces and get your guests to design something with the limited amount of pieces you have. You can do anything from a Star Wars theme to the best mini castle for a princess. The choices are endless. Mail the pieces ahead of time in a loot bag for your guests. It not only makes a great party favor bag but also a little keepsake for the party. Everyone loves LEGO! AGES 5+

Virtual Birthday Party Loot Bags

In traditional loot bags you would get toys, stickers, games and little snacks. What do you do if your guests are not physically going to your house? It’s easy!

Ahead of time you can mail or drop off a loot bag. This can contain party supplies that are necessary for the party and a small nonperishable snack. Some ideas include:

Bingo Card (for Virtual bingo card games)

Popcorn kernels for a snack

Party Hat

Decorations for a craft

Cupcake decorations

Party Schedule

Stickers

Little Toys

Lego for a LEGO building party