As a child, my birthday was my favorite holiday. Other holidays were fun, but birthdays are when everything centers on you. It’s hard to sleep the night before, and when the morning rolls around I was out of bed before the sun was up! As a kid, your birthday means you can get out of chores (sometimes even school, depending on the parents) and responsibilities for one day. It’s a day custom made for you.
That’s why a lot of time, effort, and money go into decorating for the day -- making sure everything fits the same theme. You can buy packages of premade, one-shot banners and napkins. There’s always a custom option for theming the items at your party. Simply start by picking your theme and picking up the standard fare from a party store. From pirates to ponies, you can find what you need for party favors, table cloths, napkins, cake toppers, and hats. These are all the cheap disposables that are saved for a few weeks and then thrown away (except for that one napkin you keep clean and scrapbook away with all the pictures). 
And then there are the more personalized decorations -- the yard signs you put out with his name or the birthday banners with hers. Even better than that, there are plenty of online sign companies that outdo the traditional magazine personalized sign makers. You can match the specific theme with more than just a general named birthday banner. From the signs outside, to the backdrop banner behind the cake table, everything can have the same style and theme. For once, all the colors will match and everything will have the right names and characters on them.Of course, while you can find offset printers that do more exotic custom decorations, simple items like streamers and table flags just need to match the color scheme for the event. There are plenty of online color scheme guides online. To mesh everything together, pick your theme and a standard party favors pack. Then go online and find a few images you’d like to use for a banner. Take the color and run it through a scheme program like Kuler and pick a major color or two for the smaller decorations. It’s easy and almost all of it can be done without even leaving the house! Aside from actually putting the decorations up and cleaning afterwards, that is…
