Birthday Surprise Ideas
1. Day of Awesomeness
Turn someone’s birthday into a day full of awesomeness. Think of all the things they love (their favorite places to eat, things they like to do, or places you know they love to shop), and fill their day with it. Each stop could be a surprise, with the birthday-person being whisked from one thing to the next – or at the start of the day, you could hand them a full itinerary using our free printable birthday schedule. This could last for a day, a weekend, or a week!
Download our free printable birthday schedule (comes with two options, so you can plan a lot or a little) to help you plan your next unexpected birthday surprise!
2. Round-the-clock Gifting
Everyone loves getting gifts, so why not keep that feeling going all throughout the day? You could give a birthday present once every hour (or every few hours), saving the biggest/best gift for last. If you’ve decided to combine this with the ‘day of awesomeness’ idea from #1, you could give a present related to each event you have throughout the day! Make each gift look unique with our gift wrap ideas!
3. 12 Days of Birthday Fun
It’s just like the Christmas song, but with a birthday present leading up to someone’s birthday. We originally saw the idea on Moms Who Think, but thought that it would be really cool to do with a theme. For example, if your big birthday gift for someone was a weekend getaway to the beach, each smaller gift for the first eleven days could be a clue leading up to the big gift — a pair of flip-flops, sunglasses, or a bottle of suntan lotion. Check out our wrapping paper to pair with each of these gifts!
4. Balloon Avalanche!
Nothing says birthday like balloons! Surprise your kids, your significant other, or roommate with an avalanche of balloons as soon as they open the door. This is usually done while the birthday person is sleeping, but it would be pretty great for a surprise party, too! Or you could put a birthday present in a closet, and then fill the closet with balloons like Oh Happy Day, so all the birthday balloons falls out when they open it! Shop our balloons!
5. Flower Bomb
If you like the balloon avalanche, but you’re looking for something much prettier (that also smells nice), check out this flower bomb idea from designlovefest.
6. Care Package
Remember when getting mail was still fun (before all those annoying bills started showing up)? If you can’t be with someone on their birthday, bring back some of that postal joy by sending a birthday care package. Just think of all the things you’d bring along to celebrate if you could be there, add in a few nods to inside jokes, and ship them in a box! Oh Happy Day’s Birthday in a Can is a fun twist that’s great for kids.
7. Cards, cards and more cards
What’s better than a birthday card? How about a whole week’s worth of birthday cards? If you buy your cards online, you can have them all scheduled to go out on different days, so your birthday-boy or girl will get one every day leading up to their birthday. Oh, and we may know of a birthday card website that can help.
Hope these ideas get those birthday juices flowing, and as always, if you’ve got other ideas for us on how to celebrate birthdays in a unique way, we’d love to hear them!
Image credits
(4) Balloon surprise via Oh Happy Day | (5) Flower Bomb via Designlovefest | (6) Birthday in a Can via Oh Happy Day | (6) Birthday Care Package via What Matters Most to Me
