A Daniel Tiger Birthday Party For Holden

Little life update for you: Holden is THREE and we can’t figure out how the heck that happened. Three is tons of fun because for the first time, he understands the whole birthday thing and is very into it. Holden’s been talking about his birthday since Jesus’s birthday back in December and so when it came time to talk about a birthday party for him, we left it up to the birthday boy. His request? “A red Daniel Tiger party.”

Now, stinkin’ COVID tried to cramp our style in the birthday party department this year… we didn’t get to do a “friend” party, which he is just now the right age for, and we nixed our usual big, all-the-families-together party in exchange for three separate, smaller family get togethers. BUT, we were still determined to make it special for Holden and I was excited to stretch my creative muscles a bit to do so. COVID is getting boring, guys.

Growing up, my parents threw us the best birthday parties and my mom made them pretty magical with decorations that took over the house, wild scavenger hunts that had us hunting for “treasure”, and activities that I still remember now, decades later.

One year, I had a Cinderella party and she unfolded a refrigerator box to its full length, and painted a full castle on one side, with a door that opened so we could go in and out. My birthday is in January, so of course we had a big snowstorm leading up to the party. My parents used this as an opportunity to stick wooden posts with flags tied to the tops in all of the snow drifts leading up the driveway. All of my friends dressed up in their princess costumes and my dad stood ready at the door in a suit, as the butler waiting to welcome our guests in. I couldn’t have been more than six and I still remember how magical that day felt.

I have always been drawn to creating things that feel larger than life… that make you feel like you’re in another world (I think I would have loved designing sets for theater and movies in another life) and now I know where I get that from. So when Holden said he wanted a Daniel Tiger party, we started thinking about how we could pull it off.

The game plan started pretty simple… I found some tiger striped balloons on Amazon and pulled out the leftover red and yellow decorations from the Mickey Mouse themed party we did last year. Actually, come to think of it, I’m not sure we’ve ever shared any of the pictures from that one, so here’s how we Mickey-ified our house to celebrate our two-year-old Holden!

We used photo booth props to help “dress” each table like a different character…

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and snuck them into other spots around the house too, just for fun…

And, of course, you can’t have a two-year-old birthday party without the two year old. 🙂 Fun fact… I was nine weeks pregnant with Calihan in this picture:

ANWAY, as I was thinking about how else we could bring Daniel Tiger to life for this year’s party, I had the thought, “Maybe we could set up the desserts in the kitchen and call it the bakery from the show”. And then that turned into, “Wait a minute… if we do that, the office/music room could be Music Man Stan’s Music Shop!” And with that, we were off and running.

So, the game plan: turn each of our main rooms into a part of the Neighborhood. (Side note, for those of you not familiar with the show, Daniel Tiger is an extension of Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood. Remember the trolley from Mr. Rogers? And the tiger? That’s Daniel Tiger! It’s the cutest show and a fan favorite around here.)

For the decorations, I did a lot (A LOT) of painting over several days to bring the characters to life. If you’re interested in seeing the process from start to finish (but in warp speed), go check out the party Highlight bubbles on our Instagram… I have them all saved there.

Our goal was to use as much of what we already had on hand to really make the decorations as life-sized as possible, so that you feel like you’re IN the story as you walk through the rooms. This meant lots of carboard boxes, lots of painted “accessories”, and a few plastic tablecloths.

Sooooo, let’s get to it! For Holden’s birthday party this year, we turned the foyer into the Trolley, complete with Daniel’s family (and blue stuffed animal)…

…with Daniel at the helm of all of the party excitement.

The family room became the Post Office (joined by Katerina Kitty Cat)…

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the kitchen became Baker Aker’s Bakery (with Prince Wednesday welcoming guests to the feast)…

the office and music room became Music Man Stan’s Music Shop (cutie pie Miss Elaina is his daughter)…

and the dining room transformed into O the Owl’s Treehouse (joined of course, by O the Owl himself and looooots of books).

Oh, and we made sure to include the most important room of any party…

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We had so much fun creating this for Holden and even though he helped along the way and saw some of the pieces together, we got to surprise him the day of his party. When he woke up that morning, we covered his eyes, took him out to the car, and he and Mitch went on a few errands so I could finish up the last few pieces. When they got home, Holden got to come in the front door and see it all set up for the first time. We did take a video of him seeing it, which we’ll put over in our Instagram stories. But for now, we thought it would be fun to show you, as “in person” as possible, what he saw that morning. Here’s your grand tour… and as Holden practiced saying to guests as they came inside, “Welcome to the Neighborhood!”