<p>Does anyone have any good ideas how to make a birthday special for your son or daughter who is off at college? Special gifts delivered? Special care package? Pizzas delivered to his/her dorm as a surprise? </p>
<p>Any thoughts or experienced veterans here?</p>
<p>There’s a bakery near S’s school that delivers cakes to the student center. We do that every year and he invariably ends up celebrating with a group of friends, team-mates, dorm-mates…where there is free cake, there is a party…</p>
<p>My daughter loves these fancy, delicious, expensive petit fours (forgive me if I spelled it wrong) from a California company called Divine Delights. They are divine. There are many things you can order on-line.</p>
<p>When my son was doing a semester in New Zealand , we called the university and asked for a local bakery . We ordered a cake and the bakery left him a note saying to pick up something at the bakery . We ordered a small cake , and there were leftovers after 20 people had a piece !</p>
<p>My D goes to Syracuse and the food service has wonderful creative gifts that can be delivered to your student in class or their dorm. My D just celebrated her 18th away from home. :(</p>
<p>WHen my daughter celebrated her 19th birthday she was away from home ( in Tamil Nadu), I sent her some birthday candles & stickers to share with the children in the school where she was volunteering.</p>
<p>We send cash in advance of his birthday and encourage him to use it for a birthday pizza party. What the cash actually goes for, we don’t ask.</p>
<p>We have a local bakery that makes fabulous cakes and ships them with dry ice. When I say fabulous, I mean fabulous. We sent one to my D and she enjoyed it with her friends. She also went out to dinner with her friends so, in retrospect, it would have been nice to send her a restaurant gift certificate to use with friends. If you want the website for the bakery, pm me. I don’t want to give away my location to everybody on CC ;)</p>
<p>We have ordered birthday cakes (and pumpkin pies-her favorite) for my daughter through her college’s food service.</p>
<p>You can mail cakes undecorated and then let decorating the cake be part of the celebration.</p>
<p>I did the same thing - found a local baker who actually delivered it. I also sent a box of birthday plates, candles, napkins to his roommate - to get out when the cake was delivered.</p>
<p>DD is living in an apartment for the first time this year so she has a kitchen that she didn’t have in the dorm. She likes to cook. We sent her the “Not So Instant Birthday Cake Kit”. Had everything (actually most everything) she needed to make a cake; cake pans, cake mix, frosting, candles, sprinkles. We made up some fun instructions on how to use the “kit”.</p>
<p>It was D’s 18th birthday a few weeks ago and she was home the weekend before so I sent her back with a box full of party stuff. There was a game, some tarot cards, palm reading cards, hair coloring spray, neon braclets, necklaces, instant tatoos, plates, candles etc etc. I also sent her some money and when she opened the box I had put in a note telling her if she wanted a party she could buy some pizzas, soda and she went to Publix and bought a cake. They had a great time and I felt I had still given her a party for her birthday. Saw the pictures on FB so it was nice to see them enjoying everything.</p>
<p>My d also turned 18 while away at college. She had come home 10 days before her birthday for Labor Day weekend, and I was able to throw a small surprise birthday party for her at home with friends who were still around. Gave her a Target giftcard to “buy her own dang present” ;-). She thought she was done. On her actual birthday, I sent her a birthday care package that had a decorate-your-own brownie and frosting, balloons, little craptastic toys, treats, room decorations (party in a box sort of deal). I also secretly sent her college mailing address to many of her friends and asked them to mail her a card or letter (not just the easy FaceBook Happy Birthday!). She got quite a few pieces of mail that week.</p>
<p>I do it a bit differently. I bake a sheet cake (usually a fairly study cake that keeps well like a homemade applesauce cake) in a disposable aluminum pans that comes with a plastic lid. (They sell packs of 2 at the supermarket.)</p>
<p>After I frost the cake, I let the frosting dry, then cover the cake with plastic wrap and tape down the plastic wrap. Next I affix the disposable lid using packing tape, then slide the whole thing into a USPS priority mail box and pad all around the cake with crumpled plastic grocery store bags or brown craft paper.</p>
<p>I make sure it gets to the Post Office just before 5 pm (last Priority pick-up of the day)–and D picks it at her PO box at school less than 48 hours later. (Mail Monday pm, she gets it by Wednesday am.)</p>
<p>D’s school is 2000 miles from home–and both her school’s location and her hometown are mid-size cities. (Around 500,000 so not major urban areas…)</p>
<p>I’ve done this three or four times (sometimes I send her cake just because she sounds down…) and every time the cake has arrived intact and in good condition. </p>
<p>For her birthday, I usually tuck a package of birthday candles in the box.</p>
<p>Thanks to CC friends, I now use several bakeries near Boston to deliver cupcakes, cookies, or cakes to son. He is in a dorm, so someone signs for delivery. </p>
<p>I find cupcakes are easily shared.</p>
<p>I order online and choose something that is easily shared and does not require plates or eating utensils. First year I ordered a giant cookie decorated with Happy Birthday D’s name.
Second year it was a giant decorated brownie. I didn’t know how many of her friends would be around to share and with the above, everyone could just break off a piece and eat.
Don’t know if we can mention businesses here but I order from Cheryl’s and specify the delivery day.</p>