What is a Golden Birthday & 18 Ideas to make it EPIC

What is a Golden Birthday and how do you celebrate it? This post will cover all your golden birthday questions plus provide you with LOADS of ideas to make the milestone birthday absolutely perfect! You’ll be seeing gold all over by the end of this post!

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My oldest just celebrated his one and only golden birthday at the fabulous age of eleven. Since such a birthday only comes around once in a lifetime, I wanted to make sure that it was one to remember! Thankfully all my gold themed efforts were not wasted on him and he absolutely loved his golden birthday.

What are Golden Birthdays?

A golden birthday is when you turn the age of the day you were born. For example, if you were born on the 5th of the month, your golden birthday would be the birthday when you turn 5. Born on the 20th? Your golden birthday would be when you turn 20. So everyone gets a golden birthday (wahoo!), falling anywhere between 1 to 31 years of age.

Golden birthdays are also known as champagne birthdays, a term believed to have come from France. They are also referred to as lucky birthdays because hey, its a once in a lifetime event!

I personally don’t remember how I even heard about it, but the rumor on the web is that the author Joan Bramsch of Missouri introduced the concept of golden birthdays. She began celebrating each of her five children’s golden birthdays starting in the mid 1950’s and the idea caught on.

What if I missed my Golden Birthday?!

If your golden birthday happened when you were too young to remember or you had no idea such a lucky birthday ever existed, never fear! There is more than just one type of golden birthday for you to celebrate and sport some gold!

Double Golden Birthday – or “Golden Golden Birthday” is exactly what it says, when you turn double the age of the day you were born on.

Triple Golden Birthday – When you are triple the age of your golden birthday. So if you were born on the 25th, your triple golden birthday would be when you turn 75!

If your birthday was on the 1st of the month, which leaves you at an age too young to remember any of those golden birthdays, nothing says you can’t keep multiplying up and there is always your 50th birthday!

Golden 50th Birthday – Turning 50 is considered entering the golden age of life, so here again is another chance to sport the gold with a touch of black!

Platinum Birthday – When you turn the age of the last two digits of your birth year. So if you were born in the year 1999, your platinum birthday would be when you turn 99 years old. Not a golden birthday, but a cool birthday nonetheless!

How to Celebrate a Golden Birthday?

So now that we are clear on what a golden birthday is, how does one celebrate such a pivotal event?

By making it memorable, making it golden, and making it extra special!

My son said his golden birthday was his absolute favorite birthday EVER! Making a golden birthday stand out above the rest can seem a bit daunting and overwhelming but it needn’t be! I put together a list of golden birthday ideas (big and small) that will help make the day truly memorable no matter the age of the golden boy or girl! So don’t go stressing about the golden year, you’ve got this!

Read on for fabulous golden birthday ideas that will make the day EPIC!

18 GOLDEN BIRTHDAY IDEAS

1. Make it extraordinary

What do you do on a golden birthday? Above all else, you make it extra special. This is the key. Go above and beyond your typical birthday traditions and decorations or maybe bag all the birthday festivities and travel somewhere instead!

Whatever it may be to help make the day truly memorable, be sure to get an idea of what the golden girl/boy wants. Try not to let any of your preconceived ideas of what a golden birthday should be overshadow what they would enjoy the most.

I had all intentions of making a gold dripped cake for my son’s golden birthday. I had watched tutorials, bought the needed materials, I was ready and it was going to look Pinterest perfect! Then I found out that my son wanted to help decorate the cake and he wanted it to look like a soccer ball. Well there went my perfectly golden birthday cake idea! But it was alright, that’s not what he wanted and it was his day. Besides, it freed me up a lot of time and encouraged some quality time between us as we decorated his soccer cake together.

So my biggest bit of advice of planning a perfect golden birthday is to try to view it through their eyes. What would be special for them? If you don’t focus on this one, you might as well throw all the other golden birthday ideas out the window!

GOLDEN BIRTHDAY DECORATIONS

2. Decorate with gold everything

Make it golden! This goes without saying, but unless the golden boy or girl hates the color, make it a GOLD birthday in decor, food, activities, and even gift ideas. This really installs the golden theme and will no doubt make it stand out from past and future birthdays!

Search the stores, scan the web, raid your home for anything and everything gold. Balloons are an essential item at any party so at this one, make them gold! Use a gold glittery tablecloth or runner, gold streamers, gold pompoms, gold birthday banners, gold tinsel streamers, you get the gist!

We used gold foil balloons to spell out “Happy Golden Birthday” and I rummaged the house to find some gold bottles that I had made for our White Elephant Bingo party.

Recreate the look:

3. Overflow with balloons

Nothing says birthday or celebration quite like balloons. Go overboard with them! Surprise the birthday girl or boy by filling up their room, cubicle at work, locker at school, or car with balloons, lots and lots of gold balloons! You could have them low to the ground or floating to the ceiling either way, the more the better!

4. Spotlight the golden birthday number

The age and date of the birthday have everything to do with a golden birthday, so highlight the special number! Blowup oversized mylar golden balloons, use golden candles, have gold piñatas, display light up marques all in the golden birthday digit(s)!

Since my son turned 11 on the 11th, we displayed eleven in different sizes and shapes all over the place! We also used the number for different activities which I’ll touch on more in this post.

Recreate the look:

5. Branch off from the gold party theme

Gold is the theme of the day when it comes to golden birthdays, but you can definitely think outside of the gold colored box to pick a related theme that may fit you or whoever’s golden birthday you are celebrating even better.

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Give everyone a golden ticket invite and make sure you serve lots of sweets!
• California Gold Rush – Are you a wild, wild west fan? Why not throw a western themed party and pan for gold nuggets.
• Art Decor Era – A 1920’s themed party is always a classy affair that would be the perfect way to highlight the golden girl or boy.
• Disco Dancing – Hang a gold disco ball and have a dance party! This is great for any age and can be customized more by asking everyone to dress in hippie fashion or dress in gold to better celebrate the birthday!
• Midas Touch – Go Greek by theming the party after the greek myth of King Midas and his golden touch. Have guests dress in togas and have delectable gold dipped foods and decor statements.
• Olympic Games – Have several fun Minute to Win It Games or if the weather permits, host yard games for a chance of winning a gold medal!
• Gold Record Party – Everyone come dressed as their favorite recording artist.
• Shining Star – Make it a celestial event and decorate with gold stars, star shaped plates and gold star garland!
• 24k Gold – Keep with the gold theme but incorporate the number 24!

Or scratch all of these ideas and put together your own theme (remember tip #1), with a few golden touches of course. Whatever theme you choose, just make sure it fits what the birthday girl or boy would enjoy!

6. Surprise set up

Setting up all the golden birthday decorations the night before, so it’s the first thing the birthday boy or girl sees the morning of, will really get them excited and will set the tone for the rest of their birthday.

If this time isn’t feasible, decorate when they are at school or at work. Somehow or other, send them away for a bit so that they will return to a home or location that is ready to party!

We blew up all the gold balloons, decorated the gold table, set out all the golden treats, and hid all the gifts the night before, after my son had gone to bed. My second eldest was pretty excited about getting the privilege of sneaking out of the bedroom to help us decorate. Entering our gold decked out room really had the wow affect on my golden birthday boy the next morning. He was surprised and thrilled for the day ahead!

Recreate the look:

GOLDEN BIRTHDAY EATS

7. Pick their favorite meal or restaurant

Let the golden girl/boy choose what will be on the menu for dinner or if ya’ll are planning to go out to eat, let them pick!

My boys love the tradition that they get to pick what we are having for dinner on their birthday. It’s something so simple, but it makes them even more excited for the day. It also helps them feel pretty important that they got to choose the meal for everyone.

8. Golden birthday goodies

What do you eat on a golden birthday? Golden colored foods of course! I’m not insinuating that you need to dip all your food in editable gold (that could be cool though!) but maybe find food items that are naturally gold/yellowish in color.

Some great breakfast ideas are egg casseroles, pineapple, waffles, mango coconut smoothie, maple bar donuts, glazed donut holes, golden delicious apples, and oatmeal with golden raisins. And don’t forget about all the golden goodies and snacks you can find: Lindt chocolates, Golden Oreos, Rold Gold Pretzels all coincide with the theme.

>> Check out my long list of gold themed treats

9. Cake for golden birthday

A gold metallic drip cake would be perfect for a golden birthday!

I had every intention of making one and was planning to use this chocolate cake recipe (his favorite).

I found a very helpful tutorial (below) on how to make the drip cake effect and even purchased the gold food coloring. But then my son, who loves soccer, asked me a day or two before his birthday if I could help him decorate the cake to look like a soccer ball.

That just threw the gold cake idea out the window! But that was completely okay, because it is much better to cater to the likes of the birthday boy than fit the theme of gold just for the sake of it!

GOLDEN BIRTHDAY GIFT IDEAS

10. Match the number of gifts

Remember that idea about highlighting the birthday number? Well this goes right along with that! Give the birthday girl or boy the same number of gifts as the age they are turning!

At first the task of coming up with eleven gifts for my son’s birthday seemed quite daunting and expensive! But then I realized that not all the gifts needed to be on equal monetary levels. Giving golden themed treats are great fillers if you have a lot of gifts you need to get! A pack of golden gummy bears was one of his gifts and a few Lindor chocolates was another.

11. Scavenger hunt

Send them on a scavenger hunt to find all of their gifts! This can be done in several different ways. You could have clever riddles that give them clues to each individual gift’s location or clues that lead from one clue to the next until they find all their presents at once.

Or you could be like me and just hide the presents throughout the house without any clues! We hid all of my son’s gifts the night before and put out a sign, where we normally put birthday presents that read “Today you are golden, eleven hidden gifts say it’s so”. This was a complete change from our normal birthday traditions, so he was super excited for the challenge!

12. Wrap it in gold

Another fun way to promote the gold color scheme is to wrap all the presents in gold wrapping paper. This is especially great for the scavenger hunt because it really feels like you found gold! 🙂

13. Golden Tickets

Since it’s a golden birthday, what could be more fitting than giving them golden tickets! These tickets, or rather coupons, would have special privileges and activities to do during the course of their birthday. Or you could extend out the fun by making the tickets good for their entire golden birthday year.

This gift option is a great way to build memories and not have the entire focus of presents be on material things. These are also awesome fillers if you are trying to match as many gifts as the age they are turning.

Some great golden ticket ideas for kids (old and young!):

• Visit a new park
• Extra bedtime story
• Bake a favorite treat
• Stay up an hour past bedtime
• Outing with Mom/Dad
• Chore free day
• Family game night pick
• Meal of choice
• Ice-cream outing
• Trip to the aquarium/zoo/science center
• Activity of choice
• Lunch date with Mom/Dad

14. Gold dress code

Dressing up in the theme of a party always takes it to the next level, so why not dress up the golden boy/girl in a golden shirt on their special day! Invite everyone coming to the party to sport gold apparel and have gold party hats and gold necklaces for everyone. A birthday sash and/or crown is a fabulous addition.

One of the eleven presents I hid had a printable tag on it that read “Open me now! It’s time to shine!” My son was elated to find a golden birthday shirt in the package which he immediately put on.

15. Golden birthday wishes

This isn’t just any ol’ wish you a “Happy Birthday” type of birthday, this is their GOLDEN birthday! Make it extra special for your friend or loved one, with a golden birthday themed well wish or two. Make a sign with one of these golden birthday quotes or write them on a birthday card or include them in a fun text.

• All that glitters is gold
• Glorious & Golden
• You are gold baby, solid gold
• Good as gold
• Stay Golden
• She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes.
• Shine like gold, sparkle like glitter.
• Congrats on becoming a golden girl!
• Here’s hoping today will be golden!
• Happy Golden Birthday!
• May all you touch turn to gold
• You are now the gold standard

16. Memories from family & friends

Shower the birthday girl/boy with memories and well wishes from family and friends. Try to gather as many as the age they are turning to highlight once again their golden year! Ask them well in advance so you can ensure they send their cards in time.

17. Golden birthday gifts

So what do you buy for a golden birthday? Go with the gold color theme if you can! Even if it’s something small like a gold scrunchy grouped with something else. There are a lot of golden items out there, you are bound to find something that they will love.

Aside from the golden shirt we also showered him with golden themed goodies and my favorite gold find was a gold colored mini drone that he absolutely loves!

More fun gold gift options:

18. Golden birthday printables

Printables are such an easy and cost effective way to decorate and spread some party fun!

I designed the large “Happy Golden Birthday” sign as well as several golden birthday tags for my son’s birthday that I will be sharing with ya’ll soon! So stay tuned for those! I also created two free printable golden birthday cards that I shared in a previous post that you can grab by clicking on the link.

Hope you enjoyed learning all about golden birthdays and ways to make them epic!

Are there any awesome golden birthday ideas that you would add to the list? Let me know in the comments below!

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