How to use the right birthday greeting.
Picking your happy birthday wishes for cards and other birthday greetings isn’t always easy. Sometimes, there are added factors to be considered when you think about your recipient.
It’s important to be both considerate and creative with birthday wishes. Apply these tips to make your happy birthday wishes not just genuine, but mindful of each recipient’s frame of mind.
- If someone has had a hard year leading up to this birthday, future-facing birthday wishes are sometimes more meaningful.
- Some people don’t like their birthdays, so for these folks, consider birthday wishes that make it more about you (for example, your admiration or your wishes for their wellbeing).
- Personalize your happy birthday wishes. Tweak a word or add a line to make your birthday greeting customized to the recipient and your relationship with that person.
Exercise: Too many options? Fill in the blanks.
If you’re stumped on a birthday greeting, play this fill-in-the-blank game to make an instantly sincere and personalized birthday wish. (There’s also a chance you’ll come up with something hilarious, which might be even better.)
Follow these steps:
1. Think of what the birthday person wants most today. It needs to be a noun (like “cake”) or a gerund verb (like “going to the movies”).
2. Think of an activity you like to do with the person. It needs to be worded as a verb, like this: “eat cake,” “go to the movies,” etc.
3. Describe the soonest you could possibly see this person.
4. Then, fill in the blanks below in order of your answers to 1-3.
“I hope your birthday is filled with ___________ and that we get to ____________ _____________. Happy birthday.”
Once you’re done, you have a genuine and personalized birthday wish.