While we are on the topic of birthday parties, one of the best thrifty investments we have ever made for our family was purchased for the birth of our first child.
The family birthday flag
Unbeknownst to me, my husband (who already knew that I was really into celebrating holidays) ordered a large hand-made heavy canvas Birthday flag. It had brass grommets at the top, featured a bunch of balloons, and spelled out Happy Birthday in large dark blue letters. He doesn’t remember what he paid for it, but he knows he didn’t pay a lot.
He hung it on the front door and it was there to greet our newest family member when we brought him home from the hospital.
At the time, we had no idea this flag would play such a big role in our family’s celebrations.
Since then we have used it on every single birthday and for every birthday party. When the flag goes up, you know its party time for someone. We’ve even put it to double use to let our neighbors know when another baby was added to our household.
With 6 kids in the family, you can imagine how many birthday celebrations we have had. Over the years that sturdy flag has seen an awful lot of service.
Because the flag hangs in a full length window in the front of the house, everyone sees it when they drive by. If you want to feel special, try having an entire busload of school kids see the flag and then start singing Happy Birthday to you.
I’m sure that when Marc purchased the flag, he didn’t have any idea about how important it would be to our family. But to us, it wouldn’t be a real birthday celebration without the flag announcing to all “Hooray, we’re happy that someone’s here with us!”
This general idea of course, could easily be transferred to any holiday or celebration. You don’t need to hang streamers from every corner or put decorations on every table. You just don’t need to have to have a Christmas tree in every room or porcelain Easter eggs in the bathroom. Often when you have too much, the really important things get lost in the crowd.
My point is that you don’t need to go out and spend a ton on decorations. Sometimes simplicity and knowing that when it is your birthday the flag will be up are all that really matter.
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Lessons Learned from the Flock 