As a caring parent you’re probably always looking for deals and trying to keep the family budget low and affordable, yet you want to give the best for your kids especially on their special day. You probably even got free baby stuff in Canada before your baby was born and you completed your financial checklist as a new parent in Canada. What better way to celebrate your child’s birthday than to celebrate with a birthday freebie? Here are some birthday freebies for kids in Canada on their birthday.
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Birthday Freebies for Kids in Canada
Well, there are other ways to celebrate too (like birthday parties of course), but if your child is up for a nice little treat on the day of, these kid’s freebies are a great way to celebrate this momentous occasion of your child turning another year older (and another year wiser).
If you’d like to learn to celebrate for your own birthday as well, for birthday freebies catering to adults (like free Starbucks drinks and free meals and yoga!) check out my other post on Birthday Freebies in Canada.
Here are some great birthday freebies for kids:
Thrifty Foods 1st Birthday Cake
This is probably the best and most ‘high value’ freebie of the bunch of birthday freebies for kids in Canada, and you can only claim it once, on your child’s first birthday. It’s a huge occasion to celebrate surviving the first year as new parents, too!
I rarely go into a Thrifty Foods and actually the first time I ever went into one (because none of the Thrifty’s Foods are located in the City of Vancouver), I went to get something for free!
Thrifty Foods offers a free 8×12″ pink or blue sheet birthday cake for your child’s first birthday. They just require at least 24 hours notice (you can call them and reserve the cake) and you need to show your child’s birth certificate or ID confirming their birthday when you pick up the cake.
It was nicely decorated and tasted great, the frosting was delicious. It was just a simple vanilla cake from what I remember. We went camping near Maple Ridge around my son’s birthday and I drove into town and picked up the cake. It was perfect and fed a lot of kids and adults (I think there were over 15 of us in total). Here’s what the cake looked like- so fantastic, right?
I ordered a pink cake for my daughter’s first birthday a few years later, and it tasted equally as delicious. Thank you Thrifty Foods!
- Value: $26.99
You can fight back against the Motherhood Penalty but not having to spend hours making a sugar free cake or cupcakes from Pinterest inspirations and just get a free Thrifty cake instead.
White Spot
Our son got to have his first Pirate Pak on his first birthday, what a lucky guy! For those of you who have never had a Pirate Pak, it’s basically a cardboard pirate ship with a kid’s entree, dessert, a chocolate coin, and a side.
I never even got to have a Pirate Pak as a kid (it was the true vision of wealth for me growing up, only the really cool and wealthy kids got to eat at White Spot) because going to White Spot was too expensive.
For the birthday freebie, White Spot gives the birthday girl or boy a free dessert, this is dessert is an upgrade from what’s included in the White Spot Pirate Pak (which is a scoop of ice cream)
It is worth $4.49 and is a mini brownie with vanilla ice cream dessert.
- Value: Around $4.49
IHOP
Unfortunately as of 2022, IHOP no longer offers free pancakes for you or your child’s birthday in Canada. However, if you join the IHOP loyalty program in the United States, you can still get a free stack of pancakes for your birthday.
At IHOP (International House of Pancakes) you can get a FREE full stack of Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity Pancakes or World Famous Pancakes when you join their MyHOP club for your child. Taxes and gratuity are extra. IHOP is such a kid friendly place (the food is not stellar though in my opinion), they let you use their crayons and they have a nice colouring sheet for your kids.
- Value: $10.49
DENNY’S
If you go to Denny’s on your kid’s birthday and show a government-issued ID that shows your child’s birthday you get a free original Grand Slam breakfast (kid’s size).
It includes one piece of bacon and one piece of sausage, three dollar sized pancakes (smaller than an adult size pancake), and scrambled eggs.
Taxes and gratuities are extra.
- Value: $5.29
Kids’ Red Robin Birthday Burger
If your child is 17 or under, you can sign them up by adding their birthday to your Red Robin Royalty account.
This is a dine-in only reward because your child must be present to redeem the free Kids’ Birthday Reward.
- Value: Up to $18
- When to redeem: During your child’s birthday month
SWISS CHALET
Your kid gets a free kids meal up to the age of 10 with Swiss Chalet.
This is worth at least $6.99, it comes with at least one side or dessert.
- Value: $6.99
DAIRY QUEEN
If you join the DQ Blizzard Fan Club you can get a BOGO Free Blizzard Treat for your child. Once you join you get an email coupon to print out for $3 off a DQ Cake or a BOGO Free Medium Blizzard Treat (of equal or lesser value).
- Value: $5
Baskin Robbins
Baskin Robbins (if you sign up for their email) will give you $5 off any $30 minimum cake purchase, or a more enticing one for kids is a BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) Kids scoop for any ice cream flavour.
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY
Join Marble Mail and get a BOGO coupon, buy one get one free ice-cream for your child’s birthday. You have to sign up at least 48 hours before your kid’s birthday in order to get the email coupon. It’s not technically a freebie, but it’s still nice and ice cream is always or usually preferred for a kid’s birthday, especially if it is Buy One Get One Free.
- Value: around $5
Old Navy
If you sign up for the Birthday Club with Old Navy, and provide an email address and the day of your child’s birthday, you will get a free gift for your child on their birthday. Also if you are a new subscriber to their emails, you can get 20% off your first purchase (and this doesn’t seem to be limited to regular price items too).
The birthday freebie for your child is a mystery gift, but it’s still a nice gift for your kid’s birthday! I’m going to give it try for this year.
- Value: Unknown!
Mastermind Toys Birthday Freebie
If you join Mastermind Toys Perks, you can get a free birthday perk for your child. For Mastermind Toys 2023, your child can have a choice of a:
- Pack of cards
- Costume Plush
- Neon Rainbow Playground Ball
- Rainbow Star Popper
Redeemable for 30 days after your child’s birthday. To get this freebie, you have to wait for an email on your child’s birthday month. Just show them the email when you are at Mastermind Toys.
It is free to sign up for Mastermind Toys Perks.
This is a “high value” birthday freebie and worth the trek to a Mastermind Toys if you have one close to you, but don’t say I didn’t warn you, it’s hard to get out of a toy store with your kids without buying something more! 🙂
Here are what some of them look like:
Here’s a neon 5″ ball it’s worth $5.99 (this is the one my child chose of the three):
Here’s a Mastermind Toys mesh ball that is another option for a birthday freebie it is $3.99:
Finally, the last option available at our local Mastermind Toys is the deck of playing cards.
Build a Bear Birthday Freebie
Build a Bear has a great birthday freebie if you join the Build-A-Bear Bonus Club. It is free to join the Bonus Club.
You register yourself as the parent and you can add up to 7 relationships (e.g. children) with their birthday month and year. Then the month of your child’s birthday you will get an email with an offer to for $10 off a $30 spend. In previous years it was pay your child’s age but they changed that for 2023.
There is a location for Build-A-Bear at Metropolis, in Burnaby.
It is valid in store only.
Toys R Us “R Club” Kids Birthday Freebie
If you are an R Club member (and have it linked with an email address with the birth month of your child or children shared with R Club), you can get a free gift for your child’s birthday at Toys R Us. I believe the value is up to $5.
You will get an email notifying you of the birthday freebie for your child.
Make sure you sign up online to add your children’s birthdays:
$1200 towards your child’s RESP
One of the most high value birthday freebies for kids in Canada is worth $1200, lol.
If you live in British Columbia, when your child turns 6, they are eligible for $1200 cash deposited in their RESP. This money is towards post secondary education. You do not have to match the contribution, but it is a no strings attached deposit of $1200 into an RESP that is eligible.
It does not factor into the RESP contribution limit.
This is called the BC Training and Education Savings Grant.
There we go, hopefully these little birthday treats bring your little one a nice smile on your child’s face (and yours, because they were free!).
Enjoy and happy birthday to your child!
You may also be interested in:
Do you have any other freebies that your child regularly redeems on their birthday that you’d like to share?
Have you tried any of these kids birthday freebies in Canada?
GYM is a 30 something millennial interested in achieving financial freedom through disciplined saving, dividend and ETF investing, and living a minimalist lifestyle. Before you go, check out my recommendations page of financial tools I use to save and invest money. Don’t forget to subscribe for blog updates, a free dividend yield spreadsheet, and the free Young Money Bootcamp eCourse.
We signed up for free scoops from Baskin Robins a few years ago since you don’t have to be a kid. Not having kids, I can’t offer any other suggestions. I guess I will have to pay for that grand slam myself. 2 eggs over easy, please. Tom
@Tom- Hah, Denny’s still has a free breakfast for adults too (well in Canada anyway), but you have to go on your birthday and bring your driver’s license. I’ll have to check out Baskin Robbins, they don’t have that many shops in Vancouver area.
Ben and Jerry will email you a coupon for a free scoop. That’s pretty good. We used to live near one, but not anymore. 🙁
@Joe- Ooh, we don’t even have Ben and Jerry standalones here in Canada (or Vancouver that I know of), just the buckets in the supermarket.
Like Tom and Joe mentioned above, Ben and Jerry’s and Baskin Robbins provides a free scoop of ice cream at their establishments during your birthday month. Plus it’s for kids and adults so anyone can sign up on their email list.
Also Red Robin provides a free kids meal during their birthday month. If the parent as a Red Robin Royality card, just add their kids name to the Kids Club, enter their birthday on there and you’ll be set for that free kids meal.
@Kris- Thanks for the tip about Red Robin! We like going there for our free birthday burger.
We got cakes from Thrifty Foods for both kids. Totally awesome and good saving for sure. I had no idea about White Spot’s free dessert, will have to try that one of these days.
@Tawcan- It was so good right! Perfect for a little birthday party. I love White Spot too 🙂
This was such a great list GYM! I’d never heard of the free Thrifty’s cake—but I don’t think Thrifty’s was in the Vancouver area when my kids were 1 anyway. I’ll try to remember to get the Old Navy surprise gift next time one of my kids has a birthday. Thanks for sharing this list!
@Chrissy- I warn you about the Old Navy emails, though, there are a TON of them and they all seem very ‘click baity’ haha.