June 26, 2024

Why Do I Have to Choose Between My Grandmother’s Funeral and a Birthday Party?

A reader’s brother-in-law is insisting that she accompany her children to his 1-year-old’s birthday party, even though attending would require her to miss an important funeral. […]
April 14, 2023

It’s a Toddler’s Party. How About a $75,000 Budget?

In Los Angeles, children’s birthday celebrations have spiraled into mini-weddings. One hundred people RSVP’d for William’s sixth birthday party, which was held at a Los Angeles […]
April 13, 2023

It’s a Toddler’s Party. How About a $75,000 Budget?

In Los Angeles, children’s birthday celebrations have spiraled into mini-weddings. One hundred people RSVP’d for William’s sixth birthday party, which was held at a Los Angeles […]
December 30, 2022

December Birthdays: A Curse, or an Unexpected Blessing?

Those who were born in late December are often met with well-meaning pity when they tell people their birth date. Isn’t it hard, they’re asked, to […]
February 3, 2021

Birthdays in Quarantine

At Home Explore: A Cubist Collage Follow: Cooking Advice Visit: Famous Old Homes Learn: About the Vaccine Advertisement Continue reading the main story Supported by Continue […]
May 4, 2020

Smash a Coronavirus Piñata. You’ll Feel Better.

If you cannot join, beat. Such is the resolve of creative people bashing piñatas to defeat a pandemic (or at least, excise some of their feelings […]
May 2, 2020

How to Have a Zoom Birthday

In a strange twist, a pandemic birthday party might actually be the easiest party you ever throw. A birthday party under normal circumstances takes hours of […]
April 15, 2020

How to Have a Birthday Party in the Coronavirus Age

Celebrating your birthday this year isn’t selfish. It’s generous. Whether you’re turning 12, 42 or 92, inviting people to come together in a unique, specific way […]
February 29, 2020

It’s Your Birthday and You Can Do What You Want To

Throughout much of human history, people didn’t celebrate their birthdays. Many people didn’t even know when their birthday was. “Historically, only emperors and saints — you […]
October 28, 2019

The Joy of Kooky

In the early 1990s, Joost Elffers, a successful Dutch book packager, met an American expatriate living in Amsterdam named Gary Goldschneider. Mr. Goldschneider was a brilliant […]