Zoom kids birthday party tips

October 14, 2020 1:21 PM

First time quarantine birthday for an 8 year old. What have you seen that resulted in an actual fun party instead of a zoom mess of kids talking over each other? I also need to know what options exist for keeping a medium size group going on zoom for 2-3 hours while not hitting the free time limits. Recommendations for entertainers that perform over zoom also appreciated.

We're planning on delivering / doing pickup of goodiebags so are free to put whatever we want in there to seed group activities. We will do cupcakes instead of cake and put those in the delivery bags. Ages of kids range from 4-10. Attendees will be geographically dispersed so scavenger hunts in the neighborhood won't work.

posted by benzenedream to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

Best answer: One of my daughter's friends made up cupcake decorating kits and delivered them to each kid who was attending the party. When it got to that point, all the kids decorated their cupcakes, showed them off, and then ate them. It worked out very well.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 1:26 PM on October 14, 2020 [8 favorites]

my kid attended a "movie watch party" which I think was just a google hangout (or zoom?) where the birthday girl shared her screen, on which she showed the movie, and they wrote comments to each other in the chat box. It was cute.
posted by fingersandtoes at 1:49 PM on October 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

For both my son's and his best friends' birthdays, their friend group got together and played an online game–Minecraft or Among Us, I think–with voice (over Discord). They had a blast. They're 13. YMMV.
posted by signal at 2:17 PM on October 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: A twist on the cupcake decorating is to do a version of "Nailed It" (difficult decorating challenge almost guaranteed to come out hilariously awful).
posted by xo at 2:41 PM on October 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I don't know if this will apply to your particular 8-year-old, but there are a lot of performers doing princess parties over Zoom right now! I follow a few of them on Instagram and it's so fun to see the clips they've posted in costume and singing.

We have a mobile petting zoo in town who is doing virtual party visits, too: Tiny Tails To You. I've heard good things about Sweet Farm as well.

Excuse me, I have to go cry now.
posted by fiercecupcake at 2:44 PM on October 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: @fiercecupcake -- We did a real petting zoo last year with an alpaca, it was a blast, but a virtual one seems like a letdown. Was also thinking of a parrot / bird show if anyone knows of one.
posted by benzenedream at 6:25 PM on October 14, 2020

Best answer: One month of Zoom is $15, paying that is easiest way to avoid the time limit
posted by Sophont at 12:46 AM on October 15, 2020 [4 favorites]

Best answer: YES virtual bird shows are a thing!

https://www.piedmontwildlifecenter.org/virtualbirthday

also these guys mention virtual parties although I don't see it on the price list, but call them, they're great: https://happybirds.com/birthday-parties
posted by fingersandtoes at 1:36 PM on October 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Called happy birds already, they were booked a ways out but look fantastic.

Interactive parrot shows!
posted by benzenedream at 2:12 PM on October 15, 2020

Response by poster: We're doing a virtual art party with painting with Key to my Art. Will see how it goes ...
posted by benzenedream at 7:10 PM on October 17, 2020 [1 favorite]