{"id":4235,"date":"2017-08-11T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=4235"},"modified":"2017-11-27T11:49:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T16:49:31","slug":"why-do-people-like-birthdays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=4235","title":{"rendered":"Why Do People Like Birthdays?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been counting down the time to my birthday as if I were a five-year-old, and happily making plans for it for weeks. Picnics! Dressing up! Mango cream buns! I like\u00a0growing older<\/a>, and I like celebrations and presents and cake and introspection, so I think birthdays are swell. In celebration of mine coming next week (!!!), I did a little poll among my friends, asking, “What do you like about birthdays?” So without further ado, here are some of the results.<\/em>\u00a0(Have fun trying to figure out who said what, you little Sherlocks. \ud83d\ude00 )<\/em><\/p>\n

A: “I like birthdays because it’s one day of the year that I can do whatever I want and not feel selfish or like I’m wasting time. And I like birthdays because it’s a bit like New Year’s in the way you can reflect and create goals but it’s your own personal New Year. I like birthdays because to me they represent growth and of course because of confetti and celebration.”<\/p>\n

L: “Parties. Cake. Gifts. Celebration with friends, mostly, even if I have to be the one celebrated.”<\/p>\n

D: “Ultimate frisbee and campfires.”<\/p>\n

M: “Favorite things about birthdays: you feel celebrated and as if you’re special. Sometimes random little gifts that people give. Not necessarily for the gift itself, although they are nice too. More for the thought. People saw it and thought of me.”<\/p>\n

J: “When it’s over. And cake. And gifts, I like gifts a lot.”<\/p>\n

M: “I like feeling special. I don’t like a lot of random attention and drama, but it feels nice to be celebrated by family and friends. This year I felt like it gave me an excuse to be a little crazy and stupid too.\u00a0”<\/p>\n

E: “Not much.”<\/p>\n

R: “Chocolate cake. And being remembered.”<\/p>\n

P: “Taking off work. Eating out with the peeps. People need more reasons to celebrate and do fun stuff and take off work and I think birthdays are underrated and it’s lame when people try to ignore them. So there.”<\/p>\n

C: “Only the getting older part, the rest sucks. I don’t need the attention.”<\/p>\n

M: “I like birthdays! I like cake and people parties and gifts and being a year older.”<\/p>\n

A: “My favorite part is probably the games. [My sister] always came up with the best games for our birthday parties. One year we tried to guess all our personality types, then took the test to see how close we got. Another time we drove around the neighborhood and spell-checked all the city signs. And there would always be a few pun duels at the dinner table, catching up as a family, and eating our traditional Mexican sheet cake.”<\/p>\n

K: “I get attention! and gifts! A<\/span>nd those things make me warm and fuzzy. And generally I get to pick the food. Just all around feeling special for a day, I guess?\u00a0”<\/p>\n

R: “I like that it gives me an excuse to get together with my friends and do something fun.”<\/p>\n

F: “I get to pick something to do like swimming or horseback riding.”<\/p>\n

G: “I think what I like best about birthdays is quality time. With people, doing things I most enjoy. ”<\/p>\n

A: “They really aren’t very special anymore, at least in my family, but I still think they’re worth celebrating a little. Not that you really accomplished anything besides staying alive, but it’s still an accomplishment.”<\/p>\n

R: “Mostly I like to feel noticed and special, but on a small scale. Some years I like just the reset of celebrating all that God accomplished in me the past year.”<\/p>\n

M: “Taking the day off to do something fun. Those are the best birthdays.”<\/p>\n

How would you answer the question? Let me know in the comments below what your favorite thing is about birthdays.<\/p>\n

P.S. You can find the post from\u00a0my last birthday here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been counting down the time to my birthday as if I were a five-year-old, and happily making plans for it for weeks. Picnics! Dressing up! Mango cream buns! I like\u00a0growing older, and I like celebrations and presents and cake and introspection, so I think birthdays are swell. In celebration of mine coming next week (!!!), I did a little poll among my friends, asking, “What do you like about birthdays?” So without further ado, here are some of the…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[91],"tags":[240,242,241],"class_list":["post-4235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musings","tag-birthday","tag-cake","tag-celebrations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/pexels-photo-226718.jpg?fit=1125%2C750","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8A8kG-16j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7425,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=7425","url_meta":{"origin":4235,"position":0},"title":"A New York City Birthday","author":"Rachel","date":"August 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I have made no secret of the fact that I love birthdays. 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