How to have an unbirthday party

Planning how to have an unbirthday party can be very useful if your birthday falls on a day that’s ‘taken’. Hooray for Lewis Carroll who first coined the term! But planning your first unbirthday party if you’ve never had one before can feel like a big first step…

What is an Unbirthday?

An unbirthday party is a celebration of your birthday. Oh yes, indeed. It’s just held on a different day. Originating as a term in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, an unbirthday  is perfect if your true-birth day falls on ‘taken’ days like Christmas or even on 29th February in a leap year. It’s an official reason to gather people you really like to be silly, merry and whatever you require from birthday shenanigans – just on a day that works more easily for everyone.

Having an unbirthday party can be wonderful, but it does help to train people to expect it every year. A little discipline with that spontanaeity can help others to look forward to your unbirthday with regularity – and it helps you train yourself to welcome all that celebration into your life, too. Yes, you may not have been actually born on the day of your unbirthday, but you still deserve a full celebration if you want one! Lots of people whose birthday falls during the week have their celebrations at the weekend for convenience, so you’re just taking it that little step further. Planning your very first unbirthday party may feel like a bold step to take, but I promise you that every year it gets easier.

Unbirthday gifts – are they needed?

You may find it easier to plan an unbirthday if you imagine it as a way to celebrate with people you love. No more and no less than that. It doesn’t have to be about gifts and it can be easier if it isn’t. You can make it clear in your unbirthday invitations that, because this is an unbirthday party, gifts are not expected. Just fun and cake and whatever else you have up your sleeve. This approach will also help those of your buddies who may not be able to afford the present they would love to give you if this was, in fact, your birthday party. Because your being born is pretty awesome.

Unbirthday party ideas: Alice in Wonderland tea party

The classic unbirthday party is, of course, to hold an Alice in Wonderland tea party. You probably already have an idea on how to have a tea party – so all you have to do is add extra Alice.

How to throw an unbirthday party with an Alice in Wonderland theme:

Unusual decorations can include flowers in rainbow hues, oddly-shaped tea pots and tea cups. A unusually lovely tablecloth is a must (emphasis on ‘unusual’).

Every tea party needs tea. What do you mean, you don’t know how to make a cup of tea?

Strangely-coloured ice cubes can be dropped into the strangely coloured lemonade/punch that you provide. After all, there may be unbirthday guests who are not, for some reason, partial to a cup of tea.

Fun sandwiches can be cut into delightfully awesome shapes. The obvious options are squares and triangles. Fun and creative finger sandwich ideas include dinosaurs, stars, hearts and trees. Unusual shapes can be achieved by using cookie-cutters or specially-made sandwich cutters.)

Go for brightly-coloured sweets in bowls, teacups or threaded onto necklaces. Or you can try sweets with a bit of heritage – rhubarb and custard, chocolate and lime, candy shrimps, blackjacks and pineapple cubes.

Three words: Black light party.

Dress up like a Victorian, if you like, and take it all the way! For added fun, make it a costume/theme party with the right clothes and the right lingo.

Play Disney’s Alice in Wonderland soundtrack loud and proud and pretend to be nine years old again. Unless, of course, you are currently nine.

You may also decide to go the way of the 1920s speakeasy and supply alcohol in your tea cups. Any tea party is bound to get wild after a few of these.

Unbirthday party ideas: Pick a season, any season

If your birthday is in a completely different season to the one in which you decide to hold your unbirthday party, take advantage of the change in scenery. Plan something you never could do on your birthday.

• Instead of a swimming excursion opt for having a winter picnic, or the other way around.
• Instead of playing Twister (the stocking-feet game) out in lovely spring weather, try raking leaves into large piles and leaping into them. Invite your friends to play hide-and-go-seek in a beautiful woodsy setting at a park; the leaves changing colour all around you will make for great photos of your very merry unbirthday.

The possibilities are endless! Just be happy on the day you choose. You do, you know, have 364 chances (365 on a Leap Year) to have the perfect unbirthday party every year, so celebrate away and have fun…