Children’s Birthday Party Clothes

By The Pug Father

Do children dress up for birthday parties anymore?

When I look at old family birthday party pictures from the sixties and seventies,  I see girls dressed in patent leather shoes and pretty dresses and boys wearing perfectly pressed pants, starched shirts, and dress shoes.  There’s one photo of me at my 7^th birthday party in a white sleeveless dress with green and white plaid trim.  As other children, dressed in their summer dressy attire, watch me, I’m squinting my eyes as I try to tie a balloon.  When I peruse my recent family birthday party photographs, the children’s attire is far from dressy.  The boys and girls are wearing gym shoes, t-shirts, and jeans or other casual outfits.

Recently, at my 5-year-old daughter’s Rock-n-Roll Ladybug Princess Garden Party, one of her friends came dressed up.  She wore white patent leather shoes and a fluffy pink dress with a matching bow in her hair. Her mother had dressed her like mothers of previous decades dressed their daughters when going to a party.  As she slid down the sliding board and ran around our backyard, she stood out from my daughter’s other guests.  She didn’t seem any less comfortable playing in her patent leather shoes than those children in sandals and gym shoes.  Her mother didn’t run behind her to make sure that her dress didn’t get dirty, either.

Children’s birthday party attire has evolved with the times.  Children do much more than play Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Musical Chairs at today’s parties.  Wearing casual clothes is practical for jumping in bouncy houses, roller skating, climbing play equipment, and riding horses.   Yet, seeing children dressed up for a birthday party still makes me smile.

July 7th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Birthday Parties, Customs, Party Stories | (0)