Birthday Surprises 101

Best thing about birthdays? There's always one day every year that your friends and family celebrate in honour of you even if you're nobody special. Worst thing about birthdays? You're probably stuck with gifts you aren't particularly fond of AND you have to treat the givers of those unfortunate gifts to food AND you have to clean up after the party, because, let's face it, once the party's over, you're nobody special again.

The Facebook collages where everyone poses with letters to spell "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN" is so 2000-nobody cares anymore, and no, I'm not just saying that because nobody ever did it for me. Okay maybe it does feel nice to have people who'd take ugly selfies holding pieces of paper for you, but I wouldn't know. Also, nobody wants to watch the Facebook videos where friends drone on endlessly about how amazing you are just because it's your birthday. Then why make them public?

There are, of course, better ways we could try to make our friends' birthdays a bit more special, only because we love them so much (read: so that they do the same for us on our birthdays.)

Midnight Madness
If your friend lives with their parents or with a roommate, call them up and let them know that you want to barge into their house at midnight. Bring cake, gifts, balloons and throw the birthday person a mini party right then and there. You could also visit the friend really early in the morning, bring a balloon filled with confetti, chocolates, small notes with cute messages, and wake them up by popping it over their face. Caution: You might be punched in the face for this.

BirthWEEK
Instead of celebrating just one day, why not celebrate the week leading to the birthday as well? Make a schedule with fun things planned all week long, like going out to eat one day, watching a movie the other, and having a sleepover the next. You could also get themed gifts for each day that go with the activity you have planned for that day and make them guess what the activity could be.

Go DIY
Here's a way to put all that scrapbooking skills we learned in kindergarten to good use: Buy a scrapbook, or any notebook, and create a kind of memory journal. Get lots of the birthday person's friends involved and make them each write down sweet memories they have with the person on the scrapbook. Stalk the person's Facebook profile like the pro stalkers we all are and get old photos and paste them in the scrapbook as well, and voila! The perfect sentimental birthday surprise.

Keep the love in photographs
You'll need helium-filled balloons and lots of photos of the birthday person. Get your friend out of his/her house for a while, and decorate his/her room by attaching the photos to the strings of the balloons and allowing them to fly up and stay stuck on the ceiling. Your friend would have a trip down memory lane when he/she steps in. You could also use the photos to create the shape of the digits of their age and frame it to make a wonderful surprise present.

Pro-tip: If you've ended up with a horrible present for your friend, attach a note with a pun onto the wrapping. For example: if you've gotten somebody a stuffed teddy bear and they're a teddy bear-hater for whatever reason, write down "Life without you is unBEARable, I'm so glad you were born, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" and stick the note on the teddy. Your friend will be too busy laughing at your lame pun to notice how bad a friend you are.

Mayabee Arannya is a confused soul still searching for a purpose. Give her advice on life at facebook.com/mayabee.arannya