Mix CD – A unique souvenir for children’s birthday parties

A Mix CD is a simple, fun and lasting idea for a children’s birthday party. A CD medley of your child’s favorite songs from the last 12 months easily beats dollar store quality toys, balloons, stickers and party favors that get forgotten or broken soon after you receive it. A mixed CD is durable, enjoyable, interactive, and a perfect document of your child’s past year through music. When compiled annually, it becomes a chronicle of your child’s interest in music (both in the kid’s and adult variety) and, as far as memorabilia goes, a collection of combo CDs, one for each year of Your life will be as precious as any crayon. masterpiece or notches on a growth chart.

Mixed CDs can be put together relatively easily assuming you have access to a PC with a CD-RW drive, Internet/iTunes, and a printer.

Here’s what you’ll need and how much it will cost (for a party of 25 kids):

1) Music of course! See below for some suggestions. Assuming you don’t own any of the songs on this CD (which would be weird, since presumably your child has already been enjoying their favorite songs), expect to pay 0.99 cents each on iTunes (but you only have to buy each song). ounce!)

2) CD-R.

3) Jewelers. We recommend the slim cases for this project. You could get even more creative by making paper sleeves and stamping and/or stenciling the album details on the cover.

4) Labels. Most packages include easy-to-use software to design and print your own labels for the CD, front, back, and spine of the sleeve.

costs

1) The Music – 12 songs (a decent length for a mixed CD): $12

2) CD-R: $15 (for a pack of 50, so you’ll have enough for next year’s party!)

3) Slim Jewel Cases: $18 (for a pack of 25)

4) Labels and software: $15 (for 40 complete sets of CD labels)

Total: $60. Or just over $2 each for a group of 25 children.

Here are some “grown-up” music suggestions that you can download from iTunes (or most other digital download services) and share with your kids of any age, organized as “Louder” and “Softer” selections. Don’t worry, loud noise won’t break your ears and soft noise won’t make you sleep.

Louder: Bright Eyes “True Blue” from “Motion Sickness – Live Recordings” (A studio version of “True Blue” is available on their “Lua” EP. “Motion Sickness”, a more recent release, was only available through from independent record shops. Both versions are pretty good, but our daughter prefers the more raucous live version)

Josh Ritter “Snow is Gone” from “Hello Starling” (an excellent song about the magical period between the end of winter and the dawn of spring)

Wilco/Billy Bragg ” Hoodoo Voodoo” from “Mermaid Avenue” (a song by Woody Guthrie written for his children. It’s a lot of fun to listen to as Woody uses several funny made-up words and phrases in his lyrics. Wilco and Bragg’s performance is an explosion)

Dr. Dog “The World May Never Know” from “Easy Beat” (our daughter’s favorite song at one point. It has such an infectious beat that it’s almost impossible not to start dancing, or at least sway back and forth, with the first note)

The Band “Ain’t Got No Home” from “Moondog Matinee” (The band covered Clarence “Frogman” Henry’s classic 1956 song and made it their own. Your kids will love Levon Helm singing like a frog in one of the first verses. See also the original version by Clarence Henry)

“Surfin’ USA” by The Beach Boys (a summer classic. What kid or parent can resist singing along to this super catchy tune? If your kid is anything like mine, they’ll soon be surfing with their knees bent and arms outstretched move into their own new dance, creating an instant classic moment. Have your video camera charged and ready!)

Softer:

M. Ward “Here Comes the Sun Again” from “Transistor Radio” (a lovely homage to that big ball of heat in the sky from this fantastic “old soul” singer/songwriter)

Red House Painters “Wop-A-Din-Din” by “Old Ramon” (a touching song about a cat. If you and your family have a cat in the house, this song will become your favorite and if you can’t want to go outside run and get one!)

Archer Prewitt “I’ll Be Waiting” from “White Sky” (Lyrically it could easily be a parent-child love song. Archer has one of the best singing voices of the last decade)

The Gilroys “Martin Candy” from their self-titled CD (Kids will love the instrumentation and parents who love old comedy movies will love the fun movie reference in the lyrics of the chorus and song title. Full disclosure : my old record label released this song.)

Nick Drake “Northern Sky” from “Bryter Layter” (simply one of the most beautiful love songs ever written)

Be sure to include a good mix of the “grown-up” songs your child enjoys, as well as your favorite children’s songs. This suggested playlist has been compiled as an iMix on iTunes, titled “OWTK Volume 1”, for quick and easy downloading.

Enjoy the music and your child’s birthday party!

Copyright 2006 www.outwiththekids.com