One of the Duggar girls just celebrated her golden birthday and it was a pretty special one at that. Jinger Duggar turned 21 on December 21 but her party wasn't like the bash most legal drinkers attend. So, how do the Duggars celebrate birthdays? It depends on their age, but you can bet there is no dancing and definitely no drinking.
With such strict rules about having fun, I was curious whether the Duggars celebrated birthdays at all. Especially since with 19 kids they'd probably have a birthday every other week. As it stands, December and January are the birth months for eight of the kids. (Jim Bob and Michelle apparently like to get busy in March and April.) Because of the overlap, the Duggars don't have individual birthday parties for the kids, but they do mark the special occasion with some celebration.
Especially when the day is such a special one like Jinger's 21st on Dec. 21. The Duggars didn't let that go by without sharing their love for Jinger and of course their love for Jesus. In fact, Jesus gets a fancy birthday party of his own. The Duggars take Christmas very seriously and Michelle revealed how the family celebrates. "We make it a really big deal. We decorate. It's a big birthday party for Jesus. We make banners and put them all around the house and put out our nativity scene."
So Jesus has it good in the Duggar home, but how do the kids' birthdays get celebrated?
With Social Media Tributes
The Duggars are big on social media and so it was no surprise that they shared several pictures for Jinger's birthday. On Facebook, Michelle posted about being "so thankful for [Jinger's] love for Jesus and her sweet personality. She is precious to us in every way!" Over on Instagram she shared a throwback picture of Jinger as a tiny tot.
Even Jinger's sister Jessa took to her account to post a photo of her sister and say happy birthday.
A Special Birthday Lunch
In an effort to make the celebration more personal, instead of a giant party Michelle and Jim Bob take the birthday child out for lunch at the restaurant of their choice. If it's a younger kid celebrating, their older buddy comes along too and they tend to choose somewhere like Chuck E. Cheese where they can play games. "For the older ones, it might be just dad and me so they get a chance to just spend quality time talking and having a nice lunch," Michelle revealed in a blog for TLC. "The older ones like to go to a really nice place, sit down and just have a quiet visit."
An Ice Cream Social
Michelle revealed that the Duggars "have a tradition that if we’re not traveling on their birthdate, we always have an ice cream social at 7:00 PM in our house." It's just a family celebration though, not a full-scale party. Although with 19 siblings, "just family" probably still feels like a pretty decent-sized celebration.
They Celebrate the Whole Week
Surprisingly the Duggars don't just limit the fun to one day. Michelle writes that the family tries to extend the celebration for the whole week of their birth.
That week of their birthday is a fun time where they’re just hanging out doing things that are out of the normal, running around with dad or mom and getting to have some special time during that week. We really enjoy that special time with them, celebrating each one on their own.
So, yes, Jinger may not have had a boozy bar crawl for her 21st, but her family tried to make it fun in their own special way.
Images: TLC (4); Duggar Family Official/Facebook
