Your twins will have to do a lot of things together as they grow up. Since they are the same age and maybe even the same gender, they will likely share the same clothes, room, toys, friends, classes, and more.
Your child’s birthday should be a celebration of him or her. However, this celebration gets a little complicated with twins.
You’ll be tempted to do a two-for-one birthday party for your twins.
It would be easier to just have one joint party, one cake, one birthday song, one shared present, and one of everything.
You’ll probably be able to keep your twins’ first birthday really simple, however, they will quickly start to have an opinion as they get older. You need to be ready for the subsequent years of birthdays.
You’ve got twins and each of them deserves attention, especially on their birthday.
Here’s some ideas on how to help your twins celebrate a birthday so they each feel special:
- Have two birthday cakes. Let each twin pick what type of cake they want.
- Sing “Happy Birthday” to each child individually.
- Get a thoughtful and unique gift for each twin.
- Pick or let each child select an activity that he wants or likes to do.
- Encourage any guests to bring cards or gifts for each twin.
- If you like to have a special birthday meal, let each child select what they’d like to eat. This may mean one picks for lunch and the other for dinner.
- Keep the celebration simple. This is mostly for your sanity but will also help keep things focused on your kids and not all the logistics around the celebration.
Take the extra effort to make your twins’ birthday a special one. You have other opportunities to group your twins together the rest of the year. However, on this special day do what it takes to show your kids you care about each one individually.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Joe this is a really helpful article. My boys are almost 8 months and my wife and I have already been discussing how to handle the 1st birthday. I’m not sure they’ll notice as much this year, but we still want to make it special for each of them from the start. Good ideas, I’ll make sure to share them!
@Matt – The first birthday is usually the easiest since, as you mentioned, they won’t remember much. Good luck in your preparations. Just think of this year as practice for the many birthdays to come.
Excellent post! It definitely helps that my twins are boy/girl, but I’m in the somewhat unique position that my twins were born ON MY WIFES BIRTHDAY. Sheesh. We now celebrate “birthday week.”
@John – Wow! 3 birthdays in one. That is a challenge. I like the idea of having a birthday week. You can never get enough celebrations, especially when you are a kid. Well, OK, even when you’re an adult.