Topic of the Day: Birthdays

Huskerfanz

What is the norm for celebrating birthdays in your family and circle of friends?

ie Does the birthday person organize?  For families, does the whole family get together (also how far apart is everyone). Has it changed since you got married? etc

 

Huskerfanz

For birthdays in my family, we all get together (my sister is the furthest at 45 min).  Birthday person picks a favorite meal (usually homemade) and we play games.  Two siblings are still at home which might explain how consistent our plans are.

Haven't figured out ILs which is part of why I ask.  The family tries to get together but not much effort is put into scheduling.  Not really consistent on who organizes it.  We've always organized for DH's birthday (mine isn't really celebrated with them).   Same distance with his family (two sisters are 45 min away.)

Circle of friends, things are changing as some are still in college and some are recent grads.  We try to at least send a card and usually go out to eat.  (I'm curious what others do which is part of why I asked).

 

Chrissy3321

We are all over the place with birthdays. 

I'm the planner in the family, so whenever someone has a birthday I usually organize a dinner at our house or take the person to dinner depending on who it is.

I send a card out to friends when I know their b-day is coming up (thank god for facebook reminders).  I send cards in the mail to family as well.  I like sending cards and letters though.

LauraBeth1401

Birthdays for both sides usually consist of dinner at someone's house.  I've been trying to offer our place up recently now that we have a nice house that we can entertain in.  Plus, my mother started working full-time recently (she's never worked more than an easy part-time job and actually stayed home for the last 30 years for the most part) and my grandfather passed away about 16 months ago so my grandmother hasn't really done much entertaining recently.  DH's family has celebrated my birthday and my family has had a celebration for DH in the past which is nice.  This year for DH's birthday I think I'm just going to have one party at our house.  As far as friends go, I usually send a card at least.  A few close friends and I will exchange small gifts but they aren't usually anything big.

jquirke9881

MH's family is small and they usually plan a small get together at someone's house (usually the birthday person's) and we have lunch and cake.  I plan for MH and the parents usually wait until either MH or his sister plan something for them.  SIL plans her own.  We also do not celebrate my birthday with them. We all live an hour or so apart.

My family does cake together.  My family is awful at planning.  They call the day before or day of for some birthdays.  We all plan our own.  My family all lives with 15 minutes of each other, except MH and I, we live an hour away (and my Mom, who lives in Georgia).

We don't celebrate birthdays with friends, usually, unless we have plans to see them for something else.  One of MH's friends birthday is around 4th of July, so we have done cake for him.  We also live an hour from ost of our friends.

 

PallieDS

We don't really do much for birthdays. Our families are fairly close but not close enough to just do dinner one night, ya know.

Birthday cards are sent and telephone calls are made but that's about it. Sometimes we will make it back to our homes for dinners but that's about it.

emmypants

We generally go to my parents' and have a birthday dinner and cake and presents.  Brett's family isn't big on celebrating anything, so my family makes up for it, haha.

I don't know my MIL's birthday [perhaps I should find out, heh] and for Brett's birthday he got a card.  I didn't get anything, but thats fine.

I try to send at least a card if I know the date though.  With my family, they get a gift.

Sarah05102009

We are so far away from our families (at least a day's drive for the in-laws and two days for my family) that it is just going to be us for awhile. I miss them, but I like the set-up for now

acp927

Family: I honestly don't remember what we did before we got married, but I'm pretty sure it's more low-key than what we've been doing since we got married. Like last August, my dad's birthday and H's birthday are just a few days apart, so we went to my parents' and did a joint celebration. Then on H's actual birthday we went out to eat with his parents. Then just a month later, it was time to celebrate my mom and mine's birthdays (just two days apart), so we did a joint celebration with that. We also had some friends over to eat cake around that time. H's mom's birthday is tomorrow, and we actually don't have plans yet. We were going to lunch with them after church, but church was canceled due to the snow we've had (when it snows a lot here we have a hard time functioning, ha ha), so we're not sure what we're doing now. Anyhow, we make a point to celebrate, but it's different each time. 

With our friends, usually whoever's birthday it is may try to organize something at their house or we might go out to eat. For one friend last summer though we actually threw her a surprise party because she had never really had a real birthday party before. 

RockThisB!tch

Our "celebrations" together are usually just dinner out.  The birthday person gets to pick the place and who they'd like invited.  For us, it's usually DH & I, my parents, SIL and her FI, our friends and sometimes my brother and SIL, when they're in town.  Same with DH's birthday.

shexmix

Birthdays aren't a big deal in my family or H's -- probably because we're all past 30, and it's mostly just another day.  Also, we're scattered across several states plus Ontario, so getting together is entirely impractical.

My parents send us real cards.  We all (my brothers and SILs) send my parents real cards and each other e-cards.  Phone calls are made without fail by each of us in both my family and H's.

Otherwise, H and I find a way to celebrate either by ourselves or with friends.  He got off easy for my 30th, since we were already on our honeymoon Med cruise though!