ideas to celebrate a house-a-versary

July 9, 2024 3:25 PM

I just realized we're a few days from the anniversary of when we moved into our current home, and I think it would be fun to celebrate it! But I am also super burned out and not feeling very creative. Do you have cute ideas for theme-appropriate things to do? Food, games, decorations, all ideas welcome. The family is 2 adults and 2 young kids.
posted by brilliantine to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

Pin the tail on the donkey but substitute door and house
posted by noloveforned at 3:58 PM on July 9 [1 favorite]

Take a picture of your whole family in front of the house. Do it again every x years
posted by noloveforned at 3:59 PM on July 9 [16 favorites]

"Everything Including the Kitchen Sink" milkshakes. Get some chocolate chips, marshmallows, strawberries, other tasty things and let everyone make a customized milkshake.
posted by MadMadam at 4:20 PM on July 9

Make a time capsule . Everyone write or record the concerns they had moving in, how that resolved, their favorite room in the house, their favorite first-year memory, etc. Secure in a waterproof container and bury outside.
posted by Silvery Fish at 4:28 PM on July 9 [2 favorites]

Obvious: a house-shaped cake. This should be super easy if you interpret “house-shaped” liberally rather than “an architectural model of our house.” In my experience, little kids like cake, and any celebration involving cake.

Also, you could do the “mark the kid’s heights on the wall” thing that used to happen in the long-ago times. That makes it an event and gives you a further tie to the house,
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:55 PM on July 9 [4 favorites]

A scavenger hunt that takes the kids all over the house.
posted by Scout405 at 6:05 PM on July 9 [1 favorite]

We call this holiday “Housemas” and we buy the house something nice (artwork or furniture or the like- home goods) and make a donation to a charity that supports homeless people!
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 6:24 PM on July 9 [15 favorites]

My realtor hired a watercolour artist to make a little painting of the house. She sends them as a gift for all of her clients on the one-year anniversary of the purchase. I think the artist does them using Google Maps references. DM me if you'd like the artist's info - her work is sweet, accurate, and handmade-looking, and she does custom house paintings starting at $110 USD.

You could also make a time capsule and keep it handy to tuck into the house's secret spaces the next time a wall or ceiling or crawlspace gets opened!
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:45 PM on July 9 [2 favorites]

Buy and install a fairy door! Now that you know it's a good house, you can invite them to move in, too.
posted by Ausamor at 8:15 PM on July 9 [2 favorites]

Plant a plant. If you have space, plant a tree!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:18 PM on July 9 [1 favorite]

Look up wedding anniversary gifts and do the thing it says.

First year anniversary is paper. I would leave a paper trail of encouraging phrases and I.O.U.s in odd places to be discovered over time and exchanged with friends and family.
Some notes can be puzzles or foreign languages or scavenger hunts. Some can lead to boobie traps -- opening a closet bursting with balloons, walking under a pail of confetti, discovering an inflated octopus in the bathtub, etc.
Different family members can make their own notes with their own colors and designs.
A note can be "accidentally" found months later -- "When will this madness end?" 😉
posted by TrishaU at 9:23 PM on July 9

I like to go into every room in my house and tell it thank you and remember something good or important that happened in that room.
posted by congen at 6:37 AM on July 10