With lockdown restrictions being gradually lifted, most of us in the UK can’t wait to go out once pubs and restaurants are allowed to reopen in a few weeks’ time, catch up with our friends again and have a good time. But if you have an event like a birthday coming up before the 4th of July or are shielding and need to stay inside for a little longer than everybody else, you might be wondering what you can do to celebrate a family birthday, anniversary, or another big event at home.
Most of the UK has gotten fairly used to at-home celebrations over the last few months with more family house parties, barbecues, Zoom parties, and creative ideas like pop-up home bars than ever before.
If you’re planning a birthday surprise for somebody or planning your own celebrations during the lockdown period, here are some fab ideas that you might want to try.
Escape Room at Home:
Since they were first introduced in the UK, escape rooms have been a firm favourite, and there are certainly plenty of different options to choose from. You might work together with your team to escape zombies, detonate a bomb, or solve a murder mystery. While escape rooms are closed to the public for the foreseeable future, you might be missing them if it’s usually a favourite activity for your family to do when there’s an event coming up.
This escape room in a box from Epic Escapes is a great alternative, allowing you to set up your escape room from home and enjoy the fun experience safely. Get the starter pack, which will provide you with three fun escape rooms to play at home, including saving a plane from a hijack, getting out of a mafia boss’s panic room, and saving a ship from a pirate attack.
Pop-up Bar:
If your usual birthday celebrations end up with drinking at a bar, then why not replicate the experience at home? If your birthday is coming up before pubs and bars reopen or you are shieling and don’t want to risk going outside, a home bar can be the perfect alternative. You could even ask a family member if they want to act as a bartender for the night and set up signs and seats to recreate a bar experience right in your kitchen or dining room. Invest in a good speaker like an Amazon Echo, so that you can make sure your favourite tunes are playing all night long.
Garden Party:
Garden parties aren’t just for the Queen! If the weather is nice and you have a big enough garden, having an outdoor party is a great way to celebrate your birthday, and the best part is that you can even invite people over to join in the celebrations with you, as long as there’s enough space for everybody to stay 2 metres apart. While it might not be the exact same experience as you’re used to, having a garden party is going to be as close to reality as you can get during these uncertain times and When spending time with others for your big day is important to you, especially if you haven’t seen some friends or relatives for a while, this is the best way to do it. Get the barbecue going and make sure that you’ve got enough garden furniture for everyone.
Virtual Cocktail Class:
If you were planning to go and do a fun cocktail making class for your birthday this year, chances are that those plans are no longer on the cards. But what you can do is set up a cocktail class at home and even invite some of your friends to join in virtually. Make sure that you’ve got a cocktail shaker and plenty of suitable glasses for the different cocktails that you want to make, and get the ingredients in. You can search sites online like thebar.com or Cocktail Builder to find recipes for all your favourites or different cocktails that you might want to make and try for the first time. Select a few that you like and make sure that you’ve got everything that you need to make them – then start drinking!
Comedy Night:
Does your family love to joke and laugh? If so, then who needs to go and see a famous stand-up comedian for your birthday? You can have plenty of fun by recreating a comedy club in your home, and everybody takes turns at having a go at stand-up comedy. Improv comedy can be a huge amount of fun and complete the experience by making sure that you’ve got plenty of drinks in and order a takeaway pizza. You could even set up a stage in your living room and get a cheap mic from Amazon – you can use it later for some karaoke.
Celebrating a milestone or a birthday in the lockdown can be tough, but with these fun ideas, you’ll forget that you can’t go out of the house.
