Remember how we used to celebrate birthdays as children? We’d start planning which sweets to distribute in class two weeks before the day. We’d dress up and make wish lists for gifts and come home to “surprise” birthday parties in rooms filled with everyone we loved. And we’d pass around handmade cards for everyone to squeeze their signatures into the smallest place possible, because how can you not wish someone a happy birthday? Fast forward a few years, and everyone we love is busy with their lives in different places. Your best friend is off holidaying in Switzerland and has no cell coverage, your brother is off planning Kid #2 and sends you a happy birthday text, and the only time you see your parents is on a family video call. Gone are the days when birthdays were celebrated together, with chocolate cake from the roadside store and more laughter than your heart could contain… But it doesn’t have to be like that - not everything about birthdays has to change. Birthdays can still be a time of togetherness and love and laughter. We saw a glimpse of this in COVID, when we were inundated with requests from friends and family members to send birthday video messages for everyone we knew and their aunt’s cousin’s son’s dog.

Collecting these birthday messages and compiling them isn’t easy - trust me, I tried this once for someone I cared about and it took me 6 months to chase everyone down for messages and compile them in a half-decent video. I kept thinking about how there had to be an easier way to collect and compile birthday messages from around the world, and that’s how we came up with Lumhaa’s birthday memory jars. All you have to do is create a birthday memory jar for the birthday person, and share the private jar link with all their loved ones to collect birthday wishes. Everyone you share the link with gets automatic messages requesting their wishes, in which they can post unlimited photos, videos, audio, text, and documents. All messages start collecting automatically on the birthday jar link, which you can save as a video and also customize with many different colors and templates. On the actual birthday, you can share the birthday jar link with the birthday person and they can add comments to all posts, which will go as thank you emails to the people who posted them. You can also turn the digital birthday jar and its wishes into personalized physical jars, frames, tshirts, books, and more at the Lumhaa Shop. Let’s make birthdays special again!