We’ve all celebrated a few birthdays from home now. If you have friends or family living elsewhere, there are whole new ways now to celebrate your birthday beyond a quick phone call. Celebrating a birthday at home doesn’t have to be a drag. Introverts across Canada would agree that staying in on your birthday is peak life.

So, we pulled together 5 birthday ideas to help you celebrate.

How to celebrate a birthday remotely:

Celebrating a birthday from home doesn’t mean you can’t connect with friends and family. After all this social distancing, you might feel a whole lot of zoom fatigue. Celebrating your birthday remotely can be fun with a bit of planning – and you don’t need to make an excuse to leave when you’re feeling tired.

You can still make your day special and memorable when you’re celebrating your birthday at home. Here are 5 birthday ideas to make your day extra special at home.

1. Birthday ideas – Order a Meal

You may not be able to go to your favorite restaurant, but you can still enjoy a nice meal from the comfort of your own home.

Celebrate your birthday by ordering in from a local restaurant. You’ll give yourself a break from cooking (and cleaning) for the night while treating yourself to a delicious meal.

The best part — you don’t need reservations, you don’t have to find parking (and pay for parking), and you don’t have to get dressed up. In fact, you can eat it on the couch in your pajamas. Or if you want to dress up and have a candle-lit dinner with the people you live with, you can do that too. Either way, its totally up to you!

And of course, you can’t forget dessert. Here are some of the best birthday cakes you can order online for pick up or delivery:

• Sweet Somethings (Vancouver, BC): This Vancouver bakery offers cakes in 3 different sizes available for pick up or delivery. Order 48 hours in advance and choose between a vanilla or chocolate base with vanilla, chocolate, salted caramel, rose, lavender, coconut, or lemon buttercream. There are even vegan and gluten-free treat options as well!
• The Rolling Pin (Toronto, ON): If you’d really like to go all out, order a bakery cake from The Rolling Pin. With flavors like Jacked Up Smores, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and The Great Canadian, you’ll have plenty to celebrate with one of their cakes.
• Crave Cupcakes (Calgary, AB): Give yourself the gift of variety with a dozen cupcakes from Crave. Or do something a bit more adventurous and order a decorating kit, complete with cake mix, buttercream, sprinkles, and icing bags. It’ll make for a delicious DIY birthday adventure.

Stay healthy and enjoy your birthday meal from home this year. Buy an eGift card with Moola and enjoy stretching your money further (Moola users save up to $500 every year by changing how they pay!). You can download the app here to see all of the restaurants we offer. We even have Uber Eats!

2. Set up a video call with your friends

From Zoom to Facetime, video calls are all the rage right now. They’re more personal than phone calls, making them a great way to stay connected no matter how far apart you and your friends maybe.

They’re also a great way to have a birthday party while keeping your distance from one another. You can even get pretty creative with the way you choose to celebrate online. Here are just a few ideas for your birthday:

• Have an “open house” Zoom party: Let’s face it, video calls can get tiring after a while. Keep them short, say an hour or an hour and a half, or give your guests a 2-hour window where they can drop by and join the meeting, like an open happy hour. This is a good idea if you’re trying to keep your birthday more casual, without putting too much pressure on your guests.
• Give it a theme: Having a themed birthday party is a way to make the video call seem a little more festive. You can ask everyone to dress up using things they find around the house, or you can have everyone make a special kind of cocktail and share what they made over the call.
• Send something to your guests: Plan ahead and send a little something in the mail to your birthday party guests. It can be something as simple as a card with a funny note, or as elaborate as a Kiki Kit, which come packed with balloons, edible treats, candles, and more. Then, have all your guests open their surprise on the call and see their reactions!

A video call is a nice way to spend your day with your friends and family, without having to worry about anyone getting sick.

3. Do some online shopping

Some may say that the best gifts are the ones you get for yourself because you always know just what you want.

Here’s an idea for your birthday: celebrate the day at home with a little online shopping. You may not be able to try anything on, but your options are limitless. Whether you want a new pair of shoes, a set of dumbbells, or an essential oil diffuser, you can definitely find it online.

You can also find some great deals from retailers across the country. Have a look at some of the great deals we found –

• Foot Locker: Score some new sneakers. Even if you plan on wearing them only around the house.
• Reitman’s: Update your wardrobe with a selection of shirts, dresses, pants, and more all at a fraction of the cost.
• Crate & Barrel: Find beautiful new and high-quality furniture to revitalize your space
• Wayfair: Since you’re spending more time at home, why not make your space enjoyable? Wayfair offers fantastic discounts on quality items – and their return policy can’t be beaten.

Grab a gift card from Moola before you buy to save more.

4. Plan a trip for your next birthday

Whatever your view is of traveling during a pandemic, it doesn’t mean you can’t dream about where you can jet off to one day.

Give yourself something to look forward to by spending some time on your birthday coming up with ideas for your next adventure. What could this look like for you?

• Make a travel bucket list: Are you losing count of all the places you want to go? Write them down and start building your travel bucket list. Research destinations and think about exactly what you would do there, from excursions to cultural experiences to what restaurants you’ll eat at. We’ve made a list of tips on how to travel on a budget that might help inspire you.
• Look up deals: Now may not be the time to travel, but it may be the time to score some deals. You can get some great prices on flights and hotels right now if you do your research. Even if deals are not advertised, you can always call hotels directly and see what they can offer you. Look for things like discounts on hotel gift cards or gift vouchers that can be used in the future, without having to lock yourself into anything.

You can still plan your perfect getaway, even if you are stuck at home for the time being. It will give you something to look forward to while filling your head with dreamy travel options while you celebrate your birthday at home. Don’t forget you can make your money go further by changing the way you pay with Moola!

5. Do something special for yourself

Sometimes the best idea for celebrating your birthday is by doing, well, nothing. Make your day at home extra special with a dedicated day to yourself. That means doing whatever it is you want to do without feeling guilty.

Your chores can wait until tomorrow.

You can read a book, play video games, or finally bake yourself that banana bread. Or you can take your me-day a step further by treating yourself to your own at-home spa day. That could mean painting your nails in the tub, or making your own DIY face mask while watching a new movie. Or, you could also do nothing! The point of giving yourself a day is to take the pressure off any expectations or obligations to celebrate in a specific way.

Sometimes allowing yourself the time to enjoy a day of rest without guilt is sometimes the best gift of all.

Use these birthday ideas to plan your best birthday ever

Whether the idea of spending your birthday at home sounds lovely or downright boring, make the day yours. Order in a meal, get your friends on a video call and plan your perfect weekend getaway for the future.

Or, feel free to do absolutely nothing.

Either way, remember to be kind to yourself no matter what you may be feeling under these extenuating circumstances. And maybe, have a slice of cake or two. That’s a birthday idea we can all get behind!