Happy Birthday to you! Oh how I love birthdays and I know you do too! When it comes to celebrating birthdays of someone you love and you have a budget and need an idea (because most of us can't afford to have lavish celebrity birthdays!), then you have come to the right place! There are 169 USER submitted birthday ideas for you to read, smile, coo and use for awesome ideas. You might think "well , some of these are outdated such as making a CD!" Well, the good news is, they might be outdated but at the same time the are useful! CDs are still very much around and people are using them. You can buy a USB drive to record both DVD's and CDs - so yes they are very much still popular! Check out what readers have said and you will have a fun birthday idea on a budget!
#1 On My Hit List
My boyfriend turned 21 on the 26th of October last year, and I was really stuck for gift ideas. After a few days of trying to think of a great idea, a really good one came to me. I checked the Internet for the song hits that fell on his birthday for the past 21 years, and compiled him a CD of the number 1 hits of his birthday for every year that he had been alive. He really liked it, and even though he didn’t especially like every single song on the CD - each of them meant something special to him (and yes CDs are still in use today. Although not as common).
--submitted by Anon
'Our' Birthday
It was my birthday but by the end of the night it seemed like it was his. I planned this for awhile to surprise him even though it was my birthday and not his. It was an evening at home and I did the usual champagne, candles and snacks, etc. What I also did was write out about 30 love notes and coupons to my future husband, then roll them up and insert them into a balloon and blow them up. The notes were all different. Some told him to kiss me or rub my back. Some were coupons for him he could redeem at a later date, and some were just me telling him how much I love him. I placed them all over the place. In the tub, on the bed, in the sink, under tables, etc. I also dressed in a very sexy nightie and silk robe. When he walked in he was in shock. I handed him a pin and explained in order for him to know what to do he needed to pop a balloon. This went on for about 2 hours. He was having a ball looking for a balloon and popping it to find out his next mission. He was actually disappointed when they were all gone. It's months later and he still has all the notes.
After that game he gave me a candlelight bubble bath and fed me champagne. I had hidden under the bathroom sink another even sexier nightgown that I changed into after the bath which made his eyes pop out. I also wrote on the bathroom mirror in lipstick that I loved him and he was the best present I could ever ask for. By the end of the night it turned into 'our' birthday. It was the most romantic, sensual night of my life and I'm already planning the next 'our' birthday when his comes up in October. It was just crazy fun. You can do anything with the notes. I even stuffed a few Hershey's kisses in some balloons (you stretch the balloon over the candy) and however many kisses were in it was how many times he had to kiss me. Plus the fact that the love this man and I have for each other made it even more special. I'll never forget it.
--submitted by Renee
101 Patches of Love
My sister's boyfriend had been planning a surprise for her birthday and wouldn't let anyone in on it. He had been working on this surprise for four months and worked on it nightly. It was driving my sister crazy. Well, anytime my sister's boyfriend came to visit he would talk to my mom about quilts, and who made them in our family. So, when it came time to celebrate my sister’s birthday, he brought two big boxes wrapped up for her. When she opened the first box she found little gifts that he had been picking up from each place they went to, or if he saw something she liked he would buy it and put it in the box. Then the second box was what threw every one for a loop. My sister is in love with cows and the color green. So what her boyfriend had done is hand-sew a king size quilt! One side had cows and the other side was made of different green rectangular patches. At the top of the blanket it said her name and the underneath it said “101 reasons I love you because…” On each different green patch it had a different reason as to why he loved her. Reasons like (you make me smile, you think your shy, I want to grow old with you, only you can scare me, you blush when I compliment you) and in the center of the quilt in the brightest red fabric it said I love you! AND, he did it all himself! He made this entire quilt himself! He also made four matching pillowcases to go along with the quilt. How sweet is that? Needless to say there was a bit of elbowing going on and girls saying how come you never do that for me? It was funny. Now I see how much he truly loves my sister.
--submitted by Anonymous
20 Rose Filled Memories
My boyfriend and I have a long-distance relationship, where we don't get to see each other for up to 5 months at a time. We don't get to celebrate either of our birthdays together because of this. For his 20th birthday, I wanted to send him something special, so I bought 20 plastic long-stemmed roses that looked like the real thing (I couldn't get real ones because I was afraid they would wilt before they got to him). Then I cut 20 small pieces of blue card stock. On each of the cards I stuck a different picture of the two of us together, including photos of us from when we were toddlers and also when we were classmates, because we grew up together. On the other side of each card, I wrote a little love quote and parts of song lyrics that have special meaning for the two of us. Then I tied one card to every rose with some string and put it all in one of those flat gift boxes and got it sent to him for his birthday. He loved the gift and still has all 20 roses sitting in a vase by his bed.
--submitted by Anonymous
21 Ways You Drive Me Crazy
Before my now boyfriend turned 21 last year on the 21st of December, I wanted to show him how much I cared for him. So I decided to get creative and made twenty-one little notes saying how much he drives me crazy and stuck them into twenty-one fortune cookies. I put the fortune cookies in a bucket that I decorated with our pictures and surprised him with it at work on December 1st. I told him he needed to open one fortune cookie a day ‘til his birthday, read the notes, paste the notes on a card I made, and it would reveal a message on the last day (his birthday). He was a sport and played along, excited every morning to open a new fortune cookie. Until this day, he kept the fortune cookies and said he would never eat them because it is a memory of the first birthday I spent with him.
--submitted by Christalle
24 Ways Birthday
The day before my husband's 24th birthday I went over to one of our friend’s house and handed him 24 birthday cards to give out to all of my husband’s friends. I arranged it so that about every 1/2 hour someone he knew would hand him a birthday card from me throughout the day! The morning of his birthday I put cards all around the house in places he usually went, like the mirror, closet, and so on. I also had a bunch of balloons delivered to his work. When he came home I gave him a card that told him to get ready because we were going out to our favorite restaurant. I then gave him 24 instant scratch-off lottery tickets. While we were gone, I had my friend decorate our house with all kinds of stuff. On his bed I had them use Hershey’s kisses to spell out "I love you" and a have a palm pilot wrapped next to it. He still talks about how special I made him feel that day.
--submitted by S
365 Days Of Birthdays
My husband's birthday falls on December 25, which makes it a little hard. Not only do I have to buy a Christmas present, but a birthday present as well. I wanted to make his 34th birthday special, as he had told me that Christmas as a child was always kind of pushed to the side because of the holidays. I thought that I would give him something that he could enjoy all year long. So, I printed up 365 reasons why I love him, cut them out, and inserted them into 365 Hershey's hugs and kisses candies. I bought a container and filled it up with these "hugs and kisses." Now, he has a little present to open up every day until his next birthday, each with a little special note on why he is so special to me. He loved it!!!
--submitted by Lisa
A "Plane" Old Idea
My girlfriend is a fanatic for airplanes although she has never ridden in one. For her birthday one year I surprised her with a limo ride to the local airport where I had a plane waiting for her to carry her to the stars.
--submitted by El Jefe
A Birthday To Remember
This year, my boyfriend was going through some really hard times right before his birthday, so I wanted to make sure that he had the most memorable birthday ever. A week before his birthday, while he was at work, I cleaned his house, put some cupcakes in his fridge, and left him a card on his bed with a rose and a sign that said "Happy 7 days until your birthday!" Each day, for the rest of the week, I did something nice for him, ie: left a card and a small present (T-shirt, chocolate, ect.) with a sign saying happy whatever day until your birthday. On the day of his birthday, while he was at work, I filled his car up with balloons and one single rose. When he got home, his apartment was filled with the same balloons, roses, a huge card, and a box with his favorite cologne inside. He still tells everyone what a great girlfriend he has!
--submitted by Kristen
A Day Full Of Surprises
It was 5:00 in the morning on July 20, 2004, my 22nd birthday when my boyfriend called to say, “Happy Birthday, Sweetie, wake up because we’re going fishing.” I got ready. He came over and picked me up. On the way to the beach he gave me a card with a nose ring in it. It was really nice I was just so happy we were going fishing because I had always wanted to do that. We got our equipment, had some breakfast and went on the boat. It was really nice, just the two of us in the middle of the ocean on a fishing trip. We learned how to fish and even caught a couple. The fishing trip was over in the afternoon. He took me to my house so that I could get cleaned up then he took me out for lunch at a Greek restaurant; the food was great. After that we went to his house so that he could get ready. I always put my purse in his room so as I went to put it in there, on his bed was another card and a little gift: two very nice belly rings. I was surprised and loved them very much. I get very sensitive on my birthday so every time I got a card I started to cry because they we’re so sweet and deep.
We cuddled for a while and then we left. He had made reservations at a restaurant in Newport Beach called Mama Mi; it was a candlelit dinner right on the beach. We ate, and the food was great. Towards the end of our meal, a lady from the street walked into the restaurant yelling “I’m looking for Marylyn, Marylyn - the birthday girl!” I was shocked! she told me her name and introduced me to a guy who would be escorting us through Newport Lido on a gondola that my boyfriend had set up for me. I couldn’t believe it; I was so surprised! I started to cry with joy and kiss my boyfriend. We finished our dinner and our escort took us to the gondola. It was a beautiful gondola with a couch set.
It was a little cold outside so my boyfriend gave me a blanket. He brought some salami, crackers and cheese. The guy took a picture of us and took us around Newport Lido. It was so romantic; we cuddled, kissed, talked and held each other. Then I told my boyfriend that I hoped that was the last of the surprises for the day because I didn’t think I could cry anymore! He said, “Oh, I don’t know ...” We went on for a while, when I saw something in the water I thought we were going to hit. The gondola guy asked me to pick it up and when I first tried, I missed. He turned the gondola around and I tried a second time and I got it. It was a bottle with a message inside. Inside was a letter that started with, “Dear Soul Mate,” and of course I started to cry again. It was a very sweet and deep letter that made me feel so wonderful. At the end it said, “Let’s add another chapter to our lives …” and he got on his knee and gave me the most beautiful promise ring I had ever seen. I didn’t know what to say. I felt like I was going to faint! I told him that I loved him and “yes” to all his questions. He put my ring on; we kissed, held each other tight, enjoyed the moment and rode back to shore.
--submitted by Marylyn
