What is the best way to celebrate twin birthdays?

What is the best way to celebrate twin birthdays? How can you help each twin feel special?

Your goal should be to celebrate the uniqueness of each of your twins on their birthdays.

A birthday is the day when you should celebrate that you’re happy someone is alive and a member of your family. With twins, you have an extra challenge of being able to uniquely celebrate each of their unique places in your family on their birthday.

Remember that a child’s birthday should be a celebration for him or her. This gets a little complicated with twins. You may be tempted to do a two-for-one birthday party for your twins because, of course, they were born on the same day. You should be able to have the same birthday party for them.

Even though it would be easier to have just one joint party, one cake, one birthday song, one shared present, one of everything, it’s not the ideal situation for your twins who will already be sharing most things in life. Their birthday should be a special opportunity where you are able to provide for each of them individually.

While I feel that the twins’ first birthday can be handled differently, here are a few ideas to help your twins celebrate a birthday so that each of them feels special:

Twin Birthday Cakes

First of all, I would recommend that you have two separate birthday cakes. You should let each twin pick the type of cake they want, how they want it decorated, colors, style, etc.

When it comes time to blow out the candles, each of them then has their own cake with their own candles that they can call their own.

Singing Happy Birthday

You may also want to consider singing “Happy Birthday” to each child individually so they can feel the joy of receiving the song and then blowing out the candles on their cake.

Birthday Gifts for Twins

You should definitely get a thoughtful and unique gift for each twin rather than buy two of the same thing and just give one to each of your children.

Consider how their personalities differ, their likes or dislikes, and their hobbies so you can purchase a special gift for each of your twins.

Birthday Activities with Twins

When it is your birthday you should be able to choose what you want to do that day, right? Let each child select an activity that he or she would like to do on that day.

Maybe one twin has an activity in the morning and the other in the evening. You can think up another rotation that may work for your situation.

If your twins are going to have a birthday party, invite friends or family over. Encourage those guests to bring cards or gifts for each twin.

If you have a special birthday meal on the birthday let each child select what they’d like for dinner or for lunch. This may mean, just like activities, that a twin can choose the meal for breakfast, and the other twin can choose it for lunch or for dinner, or vice versa. But let each twin be able to select something special that they’d like to have for a meal on their birthday.

One thing to keep in mind: Even though you have twins, and you would think you need double of everything for a birthday party, it’s OK to keep your twins’ birthday celebrations simple.

This, of course, is mostly for your sanity, but will also help keep things focused on your kids and celebrating them, and not necessarily on all the logistics around the celebration.

I know if you take the extra effort to make your twins’ birthday a special one, it will be something that they remember for a long time.

The rest of the year you will have plenty of opportunities to group your twins and activities together, but on their birthday they should get a special event and a special day for them. This will show them how much you care and love each of them individually.

This question was originally addressed on the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast episode 19: Twin Birthdays, Bonding Time, Twin Dad Groups.

Picture by Jennifer and MMChicago.