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Most people have forgotten a friend, family member, or co-worker’s birthday party. The belated birthday gift can be tricky, especially if you have a close relationship with the celebrant. Since there is a dearth of belated birthday sayings guiding your etiquette, you can use the following tips to help you deal with these awkward situations.
Time Limit For Belated Birthday Gifts
The typical time limit for giving belated birthday presents is a week following the birth date. While this belated birthday saying may seem restrictive to some, the one-week rule is reasonable for modern birthday celebrations. Busy professionals, parents, and students may not celebrate their birthdays on the official date because of prior commitments. The advent of the “birthday week” means that belated birthday eCards, greetings, and presents have become more acceptable. If you send a birthday present by mail, you should have packages postmarked seven days after the birthday to fulfill the one-week limit. You can also ease problems with loved ones by hand delivering the package during the “birthday week” to show your concern about a breach in etiquette.
Gauging Reactions To Belated Birthdays
Your reaction to a forgotten birthday should be measured on the intimacy of your relationship. If you forgot a colleague’s birthday while away from the office, you can make up easily with that person by offering a nicely wrapped present. Parents and close relatives require greater attention in the case of a forgotten birthday. The most egregious lapse in etiquette comes when a husband or boyfriend forgets his significant other’s birthday. As the seriousness of the forgotten birthday increases, the offending party will need to work harder to gain forgiveness.
Send A Belated Birthday eCard
While a handwritten note is great for making up for forgotten birthdays, a belated birthday eCard can be just as effective. An eCard is a free electronic greeting that allows the gift giver to leave a note and ask for forgiveness in a creative way. American Greetings (http://www.americangreetings.com) offers belated birthday eCards ranging from serious to funny without any charge. This greeting card company is renowned for its traditional cards, lending credibility to your late birthday eCard.
If you are looking for a more irreverent eCard, you may want to find an online company like SuperLaugh (http://www.superlaugh.com). The website’s main page touts a wide variety of belated birthday eCards to make your loved ones laugh. Even if your friends or loved ones have not heard of Super Laugh, they will enjoy animation and songs after their birthdays are done.
Act In Moderation With Belated Birthday Gifts
Your temptation to overspend on belated birthday presents should be avoided if you want to make amends. An electronic item, gift certificate, or clothing item that is more expensive than past gifts will look desperate to the recipient. You should stick to the same price range as past years to avoid escalating gift giving into a contest to see who can spend more.
In the same way that an overpriced gift can embarrass the recipient, your search for forgiveness can be equally off-putting. You can risk losing a friend or colleague by repeatedly apologizing, bringing up the forgotten birthday, and referencing past gifts. If the gift recipient accepts your apology and seems fine with the belated gift, there is little reason to bring up the offense again.
Celebrating Belated Birthdays
You can bypass traditional gifts in favor of time spent with the birthday boy or girl to make up for a forgotten birthday. You can show that you care about the other person while making up for poor etiquette by heading out for lunch and shopping. A responsible gift giver will call for reservations at the recipient’s favorite restaurant and head out for some shopping. This personal touch allows your friend or family member to spend birthday money and feel that you are genuinely concerned about their feelings.
Another belated birthday idea is throwing a surprise party to make a joke out of your mistake. As the host, you can make custom T-shirts on CafePress (http://www.cafepress.com/) with your face and a funny phrase below. You can hand out these T-shirts to attendees, find birthday party favors, and get a cake with “Happy Belated Birthday” for the recipient. The best part of a belated surprise party is that you will truly catch the celebrant by surprise.
Giving Handmade Belated Birthday Gifts
If you do not have a lot of money or time for parties and lunches, you can create some with your own hands as a belated birthday present. You can use photo books and supplies from MisterArt (http://www.misterart.com) to create a scrapbook documenting your friendship with the recipient. A good way to make this gift special is finding birthday photos from parents and other friends to document the recipient’s life. Another option is buying ingredients for your friend’s favorite meal and inviting the birthday celebrant for a birthday meal. This gift is relatively inexpensive, delicious, and requires hard work on your part to make something special.
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