Skip to Content

The Birthday Journal

Skip expensive greeting cards and buy a blank journal to start a birthday journal for someone special in your life.

Have you noticed how expensive greeting cards have become lately? 

I mean seriously…you can’t find one for under $5 and most are even more than that. 

Unless you look in the “cheap” section and then well…they just aren’t nearly as pretty or written as well now are they?  

My husband, Chris, celebrated his birthday in August. 

As I was looking for the perfect birthday card and then flipping them over to discover the outrageous prices of each card I came up with a great idea!

Or at least I think it’s pretty ingenious!

Do you remember my blog post about my the journals I keep for each of my children?

No?

Well, that’s okay here’s the link if you want to check it out real quickI’ll wait.

Pretty cool idea, right?!

Okay now, let’s get back to this post and me trying to buy a card for Chris.

As I was standing there annoyed about the prices of greeting cards I thought I could do a similar journal idea for him.

And since Home Goods was in the same shopping center I headed over there to buy a plain journal.

That journal is now dubbed “The Birthday Journal”.

What is a Birthday Journal?

When I got home I wrote a note on the first page of the plain notebook explaining my idea behind the birthday journal. 

Then on the next page, I wrote a letter to him. 

I won’t share all that mushy stuff with you guys. haha! 

But he did love his journal. ♥ 

Don’t you think writing a personal letter is more meaningful than the message written on any store-bought greeting card? 

We’ve occasionally written each other letters or lists of reasons we love each other for anniversaries or Valentine’s day. 

So this birthday journal idea is perfect!

Why Should You Start Writing in a Journal?

Our kids have been making their own birthday cards for years for each other and us. 

I love the idea that even as teens they take the time to create a homemade card on construction paper.

 Sometimes they are super simple but they always come from the heart. 

And we treasure those creations. 

I’ve saved all those homemade cards and even some special store-bought cards too. 

So you can imagine after 23 years of marriage we have a big bin full of cards in our storage closet and a few more shoved in nightstand drawers. 

Are we really going to ever go back and look at them? 

Maybe…but let’s be honest…probably not. 

However, I can’t bring myself to toss those homemade cards from the kids. 

The store-bought cards usually get thrown away after a while.  

The birthday journal is small and easy to keep in our nightstand drawer to write in each year. 

Chris and I will share this same journal and both use it each year to write a note to each other on our birthday rather than buy an overpriced card.

I figured we could also use this journal for our anniversary and valentine’s day too. 

I like the idea that someday our kids and maybe even grandchildren will have these to read. 

It’s a bit of us that we are leaving for future generations. 

As I’m writing this post I’m thinking I should start birthday journals for every member of our family. 

That certainly would contain the number of homemade cards we are storing around here. 

And save money on greeting cards!

Each family member could have their own birthday journal and everyone can write a letter/message to that person every year on their special day. 

Yup!  I think this may be another family birthday tradition that I start this year.

If you have any questions or suggestions, contact us or leave a comment below.

Don’t miss any of our tips, tricks, or stories! We’d love for you to follow us on social media. You can find us on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Here are a few other posts on journal-keeping and birthday traditions…

Pin it to remember it:

Pinterest graphic