Dear LPG,

It was my grandson’s fifth birthday recently and his mum, my daughter, wanted to make it special in spite of the lockdown we have all been living through.  Like so many girls do, she had a chat with her mum and the subject came up.  We got talking about parties online.  it is surprising just how much we have all learned about doing things virtually since we have been locked down and though I have mastered the video call I had no idea where to start with this.

I took a look and firstly found some information that suggested sending out electronic invitations and even sending out an online birthday present list.  I have to say I thought that to be a little over the top; a wedding present list, OK, but a present list for a five-year-old’s birthday? 

The big problem was how to make it last for a while and we set about finding some of these virtual games that we have all heard about and there are many that look quite interesting but, we were having trouble trying to understand some of them and thought that trying to explain them to others would make the party a bit of an uphill struggle.  It was then that I found the YouTube video that I have asked LPG to share at the bottom of my message.

Even though it is perfectly obvious, I had not realised that many of our childhood games translate to video quite well.  ‘I spy’, ‘Charades’ and ‘Simon Says’ are perfect examples. 

We each bought our own cake and candle (mine was a cheapie from Tesco’s) and after our rendition of the birthday song and a countdown we helped the birthday boy as we all blew out our candle simultaneously and compared cakes.  I have to report that a good time was had by all and it was surprising just how long it all took. 

A few days later it was my birthday and it was just as much fun the second time around, although my cake was a cream doughnut impaled with one candle. I think that the secret is not to have too many attendees; four squares of locked down family members was sufficient to cause just enough excitement while everyone could be heard. 

Now that video calling is a skill that so many of us older people have been forced to learn about.  There is something rather special about celebrating in this way.  We will need to maintain the skills we have learned during lock down by continuing to use them once we are all set free again, and there is something very special about being able to invite family members who live abroad to your party, because on-line geography really doesn’t matter.

AN, Selhurst.

AN shares the website mentioned in her message…

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