How to move navlinks down the page - css

Question

Every time I try to move the navlinks/navbar down by about 25px, the clickable link stays at the top however the text appears where I move it to therefore the navlinks are no longer clickable.
How can I move the navbar down and ensure that the actual text is clickable?
Note: I've tried using margin and padding so many times. The links aren't clickable at all when I use margin.
UPDATE:The issue is related to the animated background because when I removed the background, the navbar worked fine. I've updated my post with the code for the background.
.navbar {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
align-items: center;
position: relative;
background-color: black;
color: white;
font-size: 20px;
}
.navbar-links ul {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
display: flex;
}
.navbar-links li {
list-style: none;
}
.navbar-links li a {
text-decoration: none;
color: white;
padding-left: 1rem;
padding-right: 1em;
padding-top: 1em;
display: block;
}
.navbar-links li:hover {
background: #555;
}
.animation-area {
background: rgb(22,168,194);
background: linear-gradient(0deg, rgba(22,168,194,1) 0%, rgba(27,28,28,1)
100%);
width: 100%;
height: 100vh;
}
.box-area{
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 97%;
overflow: hidden;
}
.box-area .box-item{
position: absolute;
display: block;
list-style: none;
width: 25px;
height: 25px;
background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2);
animation: animatedSquares 20s linear infinite;
bottom: -150px;
}
.box-area .box-item:nth-child(1){
left: 86%;
width: 80px;
height: 80px;
animation-delay: 0s
}
.box-area .box-item:nth-child(2){
left: 12%;
width: 30px;
height: 30px;
animation-delay: 1.5s;
animation-duration: 10s;
}
.box-area .box-item:nth-child(3){
left: 70%;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
animation-duration: 5.5s;
}
#keyframes animatedSquares{
0%{
transform: translateY(0) rotate(0deg);
opacity: 1;
}
100%{
transform: translateY(-800px) rotate(360deg);
opacity: 0;
}
}
<div class="banner-text">
<nav class="navbar">
<a href="#" class="toggle-button">
<span class="bar"></span>
<span class="bar"></span>
<span class="bar"></span>
</a>
<div class="navbar-links">
<ul>
<li><a class="navlink" href="#">Page 1</a></li>
<li><a class="navlink" href="#">Page 2</a></li>
<li><a class="navlink" href="#">Page 3</a></li>
<li><a class="navlink" href="#">Page 4</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</nav>
</div>
<div class="animation-area">
<ul class="box-area">
<li class="box-item"></li>
<li class="box-item"></li>
<li class="box-item"></li>
<li class="box-item"></li>
<li class="box-item"></li>
<li class="box-item"></li>
</ul>
</div>

Answer 1

Try this
.navbar-links li {
list-style: none;
margin-top: 1rem;
}
.navbar-links li a {
text-decoration: none;
color: white;
padding: .363rem;
display: block;
}

Answer 2

I've solved the issue! I have an animated background on the home screen and the background had position:absolute; which conflicted with the navbar. I just removed position: absolute; from the background and styled it differently.