There are five seasons in our household: summer, fall, winter, spring, and…birthday season. Birthday season is a ten week span sandwiched in between spring and summer where we have fourteen family birthdays. That’s right, FOURTEEN.
Besides spending a small fortune on gifts, birthday season is characterized by parties, cakes, and attempting to make each person feel special on their big day. So I apologize in advance for the onslaught of birthday posts coming your way!
My daughter’s fourth birthday is the first of our “busy season” so I thought we’d do something special and create a countdown to her big day. (She’s in preschool and loves numbers and counting, so it’s a win-win!)
Enter: the Birthday Cake Countdown chain!
How fun is that?!?! Besides being colorful and festive (my son calls it a “party-on-the-door”), it’s also functional. Each link on the chain has a number on it – counting down from 30 to my daughter’s birthday.
We love the way it turned out (just look at that smile!) so I made our template into a free download. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
What You'll Need
- { Free } Birthday Cake Countdown – download using the link below!
- Colored paper: red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, purple, pink
- Scissors
- Tape or Glue Dots (we used the regular and mini Glue Dots)
- Optional: Curling ribbon (we used yellow)
Note: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love my Glue Dots! If you have children they are a must-have!
Directions
- Download the free template (link below) and print onto colored paper. (I noted on the template which colors we used – but feel free to create your own color combinations!)
- Cut out the chains by cutting along the guides on the template. Line each slip of paper up by number from smallest to biggest.
- Link each slip of paper together to form a long chain. You can do a 10-day countdown, a 2-week countdown, a month-long countdown… The options are endless!
- Cut out and put together the birthday cake pieces. (Feel free to decorate with markers or colored pencils.) Then attach the links to the birthday cake and hang up!
How to Make a Paper Chain
I assume the majority of you have made a paper chain before, but just in case you haven’t – here are some simple steps!
- Make the first “link”. Take one strip of paper and curl around so the two ends meet. Apply a piece of tape so it stays together in a circular shape.
- Feed the next strip of paper through the middle of the first link. Curl the ends of together and tape as you did before.
- Repeat until you’ve used the last slip of paper.
- You’re done!
I love the look of paper chains – especially colorful ones! This project is so much fun and it’s easy for little ones to help along the way!
To make the birthday cake, I suggest cutting out each piece and lining them up the way you want to assemble them. Then use the Glue Dots to assemble each layer. Add as many – or as few – candles as you wish! Since my daughter is turning four, we attached four candles to the top.
Once you’re done just hang up with some tape! Here’s how our countdown looked when it was completed. It looked good – but I thought we could use something extra, so…
…we made some balloons out of construction paper and added some curling ribbon. We also cut out little spirals of paper to look like confetti string. (Definitely optional, but I included the template for them as well!)
This entire project took us less than one hour and we had so much fun putting it together. Look at how fun and colorful it is!
We’ve already started our countdown (only twenty-four days left – just ask my daughter!) and it’s the first thing we do each morning.
We’ve gotten several compliments on our birthday door and I can’t wait until we’re down to the final days! (This countdown is also a nice reminder for forgetful parents – such as myself – so I know how many days I have left to buy a gift.)
If you’d like to make your own countdown just download the free template by clicking the “Download Here” button below:
If you liked this post you’ll love our giant Birthday Card Candy Grams (they’ve been downloaded 35,000+ times!) or you can find all my other birthday posts here.
Does your family have any fun countdown ideas? Or quirky birthday traditions? We’re always looking for new ideas to try – just leave a comment below!
Where do you come up with this stuff?!?! I LOVE IT!!
I’m so glad Colleen 🙂 Enjoy!!
She looks so happy! What a fun idea!
Thank you Amelia!