Waldorf Birthday Rings

My kids' birthdays are more than five months away (and trust me, I am going to need that time to improve upon the dreadful birthday cakes I made for them last year). But I came across a great item that I hope to incorporate into our family birthday celebrations.

These are called Waldorf Birthday Rings, a tradition from the Waldorf theory.

Here is how they work (courtesy of My Three Sisters Toys site):

Traditionally, on your child's first birthday, you place one candle on the
ring and fill the rest of the holes with figures. On each consecutive
birthday, you replace one figure with a candle. Place the unused figures in
the center of the ring to signify the child's previous years. Finally, on
the twelfth or sixteenth year (depending on the ring you choose), the ring
will be fully illuminated. . . . You may choose to create your own
variations on this tradition, perhaps placing figures that represent events your child experienced during the year since the last birthday or using just one number decoration to represent the child's age along with the corresponding number of candles.

I love the idea of taking time on each birthday to acknowledge your child's growth and accomplishments that year. FYI . . . I found the above-pictured rings at The Wooden Wagon, Three Sisters Toys, and Magic Cabin.