How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

I don’t. It’s just another day.

I like to have the day off of work and do whatever I want. Usually by myself as I don't need a party, though if any of my siblings want to take me to lunch, I'm good with that.

There’s this special glory hole

Alone.

[quote] Alone

Same here R4, it's just another day to me. Birthdays seemed more fun in childhood.

I don't but next time I'm going to treat myself to a luxury item. Haven't decided what yet.

I had a party for my 50th (this year) with my extended family and friends.

Other than that, I just like to go to a really nice place for dinner and have someone else pick up the check.

Low-key, I don't care if I work or not on that day.

Dinner with two or three friends, usually Italian. One of the friends likes to make a big deal of it with a birthday cake, but I end up scraping the buttercream off. I prefer plain yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

What if 2-3 Italian friends aren’t available, R9?

Do you accept substitutions?

I go to Vegas with friends and family every year. It’s fun. I also turned 50 this year, r7.

As a present to myself, I'll buy a coffee table book full of gorgeous naked men two weeks beforehand, and I don't open it until my day arrives. Then I'm naked all day looking through it, eventually seeing a model that sends me over the edge. Then I edge myself until I can't stop a flood of splooge from flowing out of me. Happy Birthday to me! I know Jesus would approve.

I’m a middle aged man, why do I care?

Too many people I cared about have died. Those still standing aren’t really close, so I observe the occasion alone if I observe it at all, and more and more wonder how it happened that there’d be so many dead and yet I’m still here. I never expected to live fast, die young, and leave a pretty corpse but I didn’t expect to survive so many people, either.

My favorite uncle chose medical aid in dying this week, so I’m reeling again with a thought I’m getting well and truly sick of: “I thought we’d have more time.”

I stopped having birthdays 35 years ago. At 71 my birthday is just another day to me. Now, if i could just get a few of my closest friends to stop celebrating it I'd be fine with it.

I If I'm around my sibs we'll celebrate with dinner out. If I'm just with my spouse, we keep it lowkey. One present, a movie perhaps, a dinner out. And a cupcake. I'm way too sclerotic for a full-fledged birthday cake.

Happy Birthday, DLers, whether you celebrate it or not.

Just cake. And staying home. Any gifts are a bonus.

I’ll do something special next summer for my 60th, maybe a nice vacation. But not on the day itself, my mother would kill me!

I don't know why, but I didn't do anything for my 50th last year, so I really want to take a solo vacation this year for 51.

If a few close friends acknowledge it, that's fine. However, I would prefer not to make much of it.

I buy myself an expensive power tool and a new tree.

I’ve never understood adults who take off work on their birthdays with no special plans.

It's become a tradition to have Peking duck for my birthday. It's my favorite meal. I know where to find the best duck in DC, New York City, and Chicago. Unfortunately I don't live in those cities anymore.

[quote] It's become a tradition to have Peking duck for my birthday.

I've always wanted to try that R23. What does Peking duck taste like? I've heard it's just like chicken.

I grew up poor and got clothes for my birthday until I was 10. I only had one birthday party with friends growing up. When I got to my late teens and up until I had children, it was going out to bars. My ex-wife knew how to do birthdays and we always had parties for everyone. She helped me not want to avoid my birthday; it was never about age, it was about the painful memories. After divorcing, it was back to the bars for a few years until I met my partner and we got a group of friends. Then it was going out to a nice dinner with them and we'd go out for all six of us. The last few years, I really tired of that and we started traveling when it was my birthday and having a nice dinner with my partner. A few years ago it was Greece, this year NYC, next year Fiji.

Bottle service at the club with sparklers. Twerking on the dance floor.

R23. Is it now called Beijing duck?

I like crispy duck skin with a bit of the breat meat in a soft white bao bun with scallions and plum/hoisin sauce.

R28 described my favorite part of the meal, r24. They slow roast the duck, which is why some restaurants ask you to order the dish when you make your reservation. That makes the skin crispy and the dark meat very tender. Nice places carve the duck at the table and then take the rest of the duck and prepare a whole new course. Most places just do a soup, or duck fried rice. My favorite place of all time, however, is Dan Dan in Milwaukee. They serve a duck and foie gras wonton soup, then the duck breast with the bao, and then a duck chow fun as the third course. It's amazing. There's a theatrical element to the tableside service that adds to the experience for me.

Every year, me and my friends go on double dates to Toys R Us to see the latest in boys, errr I mean toys.

Usually dinner out with my partner, maybe a restaurant of his suggestion that's unfamiliar, or a return to a favorite after some time.

I like to go to The Mortimer Club because Murray Gutman isn’t allowed there.

As quietly as possible.

Depends on my mood - Usually just dinner with family and friends. But some years I'll organise a big shebang, doing something fun. Last year it was axe throwing and a Portuguese club, another time I booked some lawn bowls greens and a bunch of food platters/drinks. It's a good chance for people to socialise that might not have seen each other for years and bond over some silliness.

[quote] I’ve never understood adults who take off work on their birthdays with no special plans.

Why the hell not? I do. I'm still working (not retired) and I don't want to spend my birthday with a bunch of fucking coworkers, some of whom are cunts. I deserve at least that on my birthday.

Day off, dinner with a friend or two.

In high dudgeon.

By checking the obituaries to see how many of my enemies I have outlived.

At my age, I don’t do anything out of the ordinary. I go to the movies every week, so I hope there’s something especially good when my birthday comes around.

Just being remembered by someone via text or phone is the best I can expect. It’s always a welcome surprise.

It has become really private for me the last several years. My family never made a big deal out of birthdays. I have friends older than me who throw themselves ridiculous parties. SMH.

A close female friend of my partner died about a week before my 50th birthday of cancer, and she was younger than me. Spent weeks with her in the hospital and there in the moment she died when they brought her to the house. Ever since then I have been traumatized. I dread the birthday coming because I remember that. And for a years after that her family always invited me to celebrate her life on my birthday which I just could not bring myself to do anymore. Feel guilty about it.

My partner and I take each other out somewhere special for dinner on birthdays. This year, he took me to Atomix. His bday is in November and I’m taking him to LeCoucou (we live in nyc).

I mean, why not? We’re gainfully employed old farts with a rent stabilized apartment.

I’m a birthday minimizer, married to a birthday maximizer. It’s a little bit exhausting each year.

Nothing is more obnoxious than a friend over 40 who every year has a "Birthday Month". And expects presents.

About five or six years ago the “Birthday Fundraiser” thing on Facebook was truly getting out of hand. Every third goddamn acquaintance invited you to donate money to their charity of choice just because it’s their birthday. So tedious.

I used to invite all the neighborhood children to a sleep over, but then some frau bitches called the cops on me.

I'm so low key I sometimes even forget what day it is. I dont take the day off work, dont expect presents or anything. But like R43, my partner is a bit of a birthday maximiser, so we usually end up going out for dinner to some fancy joint or another.

Nothing lowkey about you, fairy

[quote] How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

Gratefully.

Fully nude

Every four years is one birthday.

Sober as a judge

A transatlantic crossing with my partner of 48 years; then two weeks in Europe.

I know this is a "Mary!"; but to be candid: My emotionally barren parental family left me with unpleasant birthday memories, so something within me always feels a kind of dread as my birthday approaches, and I'm outwardly Stoic to try to squelch that dread; but meantime another something within is that little child still hungry to be remembered and saying, "But what about my special day?" So how do I like to celebrate it? --With some quiet and low-key dinner, either at home or out.

I was like that for years, R54. I would get into a dark, depressive mood and typically afterwards have a flash of insight - that it was due to the approach of my birthday, which had crept up on me unawares, 'tho I must have subconsciously realized it. When the day would come, I was often a pill to have to deal with - ill-tempered, sometimes with crying jags.

All of that is gone now, probably ten years past. It no longer bothers me emotionally, although I am somewhat taken aback by how many years have gone by (I'm currently sixty). I have a very low-key celebration, sharing a cake with my brother, and my best friend, who always makes an effort to be present.

I don’t think we’ve used the term low-key enough.

I try to get the day off because my present to myself is to not have to deal with clients and coworkers for a day. I do sweet fuck all for the whole day and order in. It’s glorious… when I can get the day off.

at a cafe

Thanks r55 Not everyone would understand.

I go to Chuck E Cheese with my friends and play hide the cheese log!