Celebrating a friend’s birthdays at Kenyon can be a lot of fun. Who doesn’t want cake, a celebration, and quality time with your friend? But planning a birthday celebration can also be a bit stressful. I’ve got some tips for how to plan a spectacular birthday celebration for your friend—with minimal stress.
1. Ask Your Friend What They Want
I cannot stress this point enough. When it comes to planning a birthday celebration for your friend, you want to consult them. If they’re not the type to go to big parties, don’t plan them a huge bash. And if they don’t like being the center of attention, don’t make an entire restaurant sing to them. These things might be fun for you, but remember, it’s your friend’s day. You want to do something that will make them happy.
2. Plan a Surprise Party With Caution
Along with my first point, I would advise you to plan a surprise party for your friend with caution. Surprise parties can be awesome and a great experience for you and your friend. However, make sure that you’re planning something your friend would actually enjoy. If your friend would rather just go to dinner with a few friends, don’t invite your entire class to a huge party for them. A good way to compromise between planning a surprise party and asking your friend what they want to do is to have a little surprise before the planned event. For example, if you are meeting your friend to go bowling for their birthday, it could be fun to have all of your other friends show up a little early with cake and balloons as a surprise. That way, your friend has a nice surprise, but they still get to do what they want on their birthday.
3. You Don’t Have to Spend a Ton on a Gift
As broke college students, it can be hard to pick out a suitable gift for your friend that’s in your price range. Their dream gift might be concert tickets to their favorite band, and while that would be awesome to get your friend, it is not necessary if you don’t have the funds. You can give a lovely and meaningful gift to your friend without breaking the bank. If you’re crafty, a homemade gift will mean a lot to a friend. If not, food is almost always a good, inexpensive way to go. You can put together a little basket of your friend’s favorite snacks and desserts that they will be sure to love.
4. Enjoy the Quality Time With Your Friend
No matter what you end up doing to celebrate your friend’s birthday, remember to enjoy the quality time you get to spend with them. They’re your friend for a reason, after all! Birthdays shouldn’t be full of too much stress—at the end of the day, even if you don’t think you have a great gift or didn’t plan some elaborate event, your friend is still going to appreciate getting to spend time with the people who matter most to them. On that note, the most important advice I can give you on celebrating a friend’s birthday is to make time to be with them. At Kenyon, it’s so easy to get bogged down in all of the work we have to do and feel like we don’t have time to have some fun, especially during the week. If you plan ahead, there’s no reason why you can’t take a small break out of your day to spend some time with your friend. Even something as small as grabbing lunch with them in Peirce can help them feel loved and celebrated on their birthday. Your friend is there for you when you need them—make sure you’re there for them on their special day.
Celebrating a friend’s birthday should be more fun than stressful. Try not to worry too much about planning the details of a friend’s birthday and just enjoy being around a person who is special to you. Happy celebrating!