I love birthdays. Including my own. I’m all for taking a special day every year to celebrate our lives.
I know a lot of people who feel differently, though. It’s not uncommon.

Hmm. Well. In my family, our birthdays have just been a big deal. It first started with big family get togethers, and then in second grade I was allowed to invite friends. From then on, it was bouncy house, dinner and a movie, a concert, Cirque du Soleil, etc. Unless we got in trouble.. it’s been pretty great. Except, for my sixteenth birthday I wanted it pretty low-key. They told me I could do whatever I wanted, where I wanted, but it had to be with the family. I chose my favorite breakfast area and then the zoo. Finally, we went out to Olive Garden with my best friend and they gave me an iPod touch. I think it just depends on the family, honestly. Because it’s always been a huge deal with tons of money, I prefer a small thing now. But, I gotta say what you do is entirely normal, and not old fashioned at all. And I’ll bet, in 4 years when I’m out on my own, it’ll be even less then what you do. (;

Same here. I want it to just be like any other day.

I grew up with a chip on my shoulder about my birthday. It was the day after the Christmas holidays ended and people went back to school and work. As a result, of that, it was often forgotten. People were tired of celebrating. I got a lot of combination Christmas and birthday gifts and/or birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas paper.

When I became an adult and did a lot of therapy, I started creating my own birthdays events the way I wanted them.

Now I am more relaxed about it all.

Nope, not even if they pay me to do so!

Well, I love to celebrate my birthday.
And if it falls in the middle of the week, I usually reschedule the celebration till the weekend. And why not?
They always celebrate MLK Jr. Washington and Lincoln on Monday. I figure the real day doesn’t matter anymore, just so everybody has a chance to party and sleep in (and in some cases, get paid for doing nothing!). Maybe someday I will get the MOH or something and have a Monday birthday. Until then, Friday or Saturday. I don’t take Mondays off since I need the money.

I don’t care. And it’s a good thing because my husband NEVER remembers mine. If he does, it’s always a last minute run to the store to get me a card.

I’ve never been invited to celebrate your birthday so no, I don’t give it a second thought.

My family goes crazy on birthdays. It started from my grandfather, who was raised in an orphanage. I’m not crazy about my birthday, but it lets the family get together and have a good time. There’s one other alternative to having another birthday, but that’s kind of a downer.

@Dutchess_III I am sure you love him. So none of my business. But privately, I think that is the mark of a loser. Just sayin.

@Marina said it best. So I will paraphrase just a bit and insert “New Year’s Eve” for “the day after the Christmas holidays ended.”

My father’s birthday was on Dec. 27th, which made everyone more exhausted and cranky. I am relieved now not to have to have lots of forced hoopla on Dec. 31st.

No big into it and one year I actually told all my friends and family I was skipping it since at that point my daughter was ill. The only reason we had a very small cake is that on my birthday morning my daughter woke up and said we needed to have a cake to sing happy birthday to me so I picked up one of those personal cakes and all 3 of us had a small piece after she sang happy birthday to me. It was my best birthday ever!!!

I really hate celebrating my birthday. I normally fail to actually tell anyone it’s my birthday, so that they don’t try to throw some kind of celebration anyway.

It seems that people either prefer to have public recognition on their birthday or they don’t. In order to make them happy, the key is to toss out The Golden Rule (Do unto others as you want done unto you) and apply The Platinum Rule (Do unto others as they want done unto them).

I think celebrating birthdays should be stopped after one reaches 10 years old.
After that, milestone birthdays would be acceptable, if the celebrant wants it. 16, 18, 21, 30, then every 10 years.
I only celebrate my birthday if my sisters are with me. I find this kind of thing self obsessive and narcissistic.

I don’t celebrate mine, haven’t for a while, and that’s fine. Nothing too special at this point, but a few happy birthdays here and there is always nice.

I love to celebrate my birthday and the birthdays of members of my family. We always make a point of going somewhere together to celebrate the person with the birthday and we usually do that at the weekend. On the day, they get to choose what they want for dinner and we have a cake and spend time together.

It’s nice to get presents off the kids & well, any excuse to act daft.

I used to enjoy my birthdays, probably because I used to enjoy the excuse to get smashed or receive gifts/money. Birthdays don’t matter much to me anymore, and havn’t too much since about my 25th year. I see them as just another day now, with nothing special to celebrate. I do wish others a happy birthday, and sometimes I’ll even buy them a gift or give them money.