How do you celebrate your Birthday?

pigpen

I get up super early... tidy the house, vacuum it, scrub bathrooms.. spend 3 hours in the kitchen making food.. my whole family come round, we all swap gifts.. they go home about 8pm. I clean the entire house and collapse in bed about 2am.

I have NEVER been out on my birthday.. not once!! Noone ever helps, no one ever takes me anywhere.. usually I choose or buy my presents myself.

Of all the days of the year I absolutely hate my birthday with a total passion.

girlsmum

pigpen wrote: »

I get up super early... tidy the house, vacuum it, scrub bathrooms.. spend 3 hours in the kitchen making food.. my whole family come round, we all swap gifts.. they go home about 8pm. I clean the entire house and collapse in bed about 2am.

I have NEVER been out on my birthday.. not once!! Noone ever helps, no one ever takes me anywhere.. usually I choose or buy my presents myself.

Of all the days of the year I absolutely hate my birthday with a total passion.

same here .........you are not alone

MallyGirl

Caterina wrote: »

Once in a while I have hosted a party at home with friends and acquaintances and ask them to bring a dish and a bottle. We always ended up with lots of food and drink and so I hosted an after party party to finish the stuff. Lovely fun.

Once I splashed out on a "catered" party, I negotiated a really good price with my local curry house and had them bring cooked pilau rice, veg curry and dal for all of us. It was more expensive than the usual bring a dish thing, but a lot less work and everybody loved it. One couple loved it so much that they booked the same curry house to cater for the husband's birthday party, especially when they realised how cheaply I got it for!

This year I haven't decided yet what to do.

We often spend new year's eve at a friends house - they have the biggest house for people to gather at and we all come from all over the UK for a couple of days - and they get the local Indian to deliver a fine feast. And we make curry/naan 'pizzas' with the leftovers for brunch the next day to wake everyone up

MallyGirl

We would usually go for a meal somewhere around birthday time - OH's birthday is 2 weeks after mine and our wedding anniversary is 2 days before my birthday so we bundle the lot together and splurge. It involves a dog/babysitter or grandparents coming many miles so we don't eat out often. There will be presents but not cake as it doesn't really interest me

Nonnadiluca

Melanzana, I'm with you on the not wanting presents, I don't see the point of having yet more stuff just for the sake of it. I haven't had a birthday since 2012 cos I want to be able to say that I was 59 last birthday!!

sweetilemon

I love birthdays. My OH usually takes me away for the night with a nice lunch and dinner. I get a cake and presents :-D I don't like wasting money on 'things' for the sake of it, if I was taken for a shopping trip I'd probably get a nice candle and some pamper things like Molton Brown. If I didn't want anything I'd rather save the money for when I did rather than spend for the sake of spending.

melanzana

Nonnadiluca wrote: »

Melanzana, I'm with you on the not wanting presents, I don't see the point of having yet more stuff just for the sake of it. I haven't had a birthday since 2012 cos I want to be able to say that I was 59 last birthday!![/QUOTE]

LOL, I love that kind of thinking!

I'm catching up with you fast though! But love every day I wake up and realise I am still here, and still OK!

I hope I didn't come across as being bah humbug or anything. It's just at this stage of my life I have everything I want or need now, and do not want those who are struggling to spend money on silly things for me!

The message has got through by now though, people know I DO NOT WANT any PRESSIES for my birthday, thank you so much.

I think the former present givers are quite relieved TBH. And of course by mutual agreement there is no reciprocation when it is theirs either!

Anyway, like I said, a nice meal out with my precious OP is all I want. And that happens.

I get many a wattsapp and texts and cards on the day, that's lovely, but gifts, NO THANK YOU!!

MMF007

Girlsmum, similar experiences re mum having a strop on my birthday years ago, no idea why (i was about 10, think dad prob upset her). Looking back it was hilarious, I remember her storming into the room, carrying a tray of sundae dishes with Angel Delight in (nectar!), and chucking it in the air with some exclaimation or other.
More recently we were travelling,to parents house on my birthday, not due to arrive til the day after my birthday though. All day my DH was fretting about us having a mobile signal for when people rang me with good wishes. His parents rang me and sang happy birthday!. Mine? Nope. DH still mentions it in disgust. I eventually did ask mum why she didn't ring and she said she didn't get chance because she was busy!

Anyway, DH and in laws always make a fuss. My 50th was celebrated at least 5 times with different groups of friends.

preferences, as others have said, visit a lovely place with a picnic or other treat food experience, ideally on a sunny day!

i find that material gifts rarely meet your hopes or needs and I MUCH prefer just being with friends for a good natter and having a laugh. :beer:

SavingPennies_2

pigpen wrote: »

I get up super early... tidy the house, vacuum it, scrub bathrooms.. spend 3 hours in the kitchen making food.. my whole family come round, we all swap gifts.. they go home about 8pm. I clean the entire house and collapse in bed about 2am.

I have NEVER been out on my birthday.. not once!! Noone ever helps, no one ever takes me anywhere.. usually I choose or buy my presents myself.

Of all the days of the year I absolutely hate my birthday with a total passion.

Then next year start a new habit. When it's getting close to your birthday, don't invite them round and when they mention coming round tell them you fancy a change this year and you want to go out for lunch/ afternoon tea/ drinks. You could tell them (if they are not polite enough to offer) that instead of a gift they could pay your share for the meal. They may think you enjoy having them visit you on your birthday and have no idea that you spend hours scrubbing the house before they arrive. Also when they leave at 8 - go to bed, take a bath, eat chocolate cake. You don't need to clean the entire house for 6 hours - it's your birthday, you can do whatever you want!