How to say happy birthday in a sweet way

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Introduction
• Considerations
• What could I say?
• How can I say it?
• In person or at least verbally?
• Email?
• A physical card?
• An instant message?
• Should I give her/him/them/it/something else a gift too?

Overview

The best way to say happy birthday in a sweet way is to take some time to really think about what you want to communicate, and how the recipient will feel. Think about what they like and what they will appreciate. Try to avoid using generic phrases that you or someone else has used before. A good way of achieving this is to avoid reading any articles like this one; if you do it will be someone else's idea that you're just copying. The most important thing is that you spend some time thinking about it. If you do that you'll have plenty of ideas, and whatever you come up with will be genuine.

Introduction

It’s easy to do something generic, but doing something sweet requires thought and effort, which is why most people don’t do it. And we all know that if something is more rare it has more value. So by just spending a bit of time thinking about what they’d like and how they’ll feel, whatever you come up with will be different from anything they’ve received before, making it valuable.

Considerations

I think the most important things are how well you know them, what sort of person they are and how much effort you want to make. If it’s for your partner who you’ve known for years and live with, then it should probably be something special, but on the other hand if it’s a colleague at work who you don’t know very well then maybe a quick message on Teams is sufficient. If it’s someone close to you then I think the best thing is to spend some time thinking about what would make them feel special, or perhaps amused. Once you’ve decided that the rest should be easy; just use your imagination!

What could I say?

As I mentioned above, I really think that it should be something personal, but I can understand why reading someone else’s ideas might give you some inspiration. Here are a few ideas:

• Hi Sally! Have an amazing birthday! I hope your day is full of fun!
• Hey Bob! Happy birthday my lovely; let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.
• Hi Tony! Happy birthday! I hope someone gives you something nice today.
• Hello Lucy! Have an awesome birthday! Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.
• Hello again Bob. Have a great day!
• Hi again Sally. Have a good one!
• Hello again Tony. Hope your day goes well!
• Hi Lucy. Good luck today!

How can I say it?

Now this can depend on the company culture or where appropriate the nature of your relationship with the recipient! For example if this is for a work colleague who you don’t know very well then maybe sending a message via Teams (or whatever system your company uses) might be appropriate. On the other hand if this is for your partner who presumably lives in the same house as you then maybe saying in person would make more sense! Or maybe not; perhaps sending an email would be more fun – after all he or she won’t expect that!

In person or at least verbally?

I think this could work quite well because if nothing else at least it shows that you've made some effort which makes it more personal than just sending a message.

The only reason why this might not work so well is because it's not particularly surprising which makes it less exciting.

If you're going to try this approach I'd suggest getting their attention in a playful way by calling their name loudly (but not too loud!) or perhaps going over and standing behind them until they notice you're there.

Email?

I think this could work quite well; email tends to be used mostly for formal communication so using it for something like this definitely makes it unusual which adds value.

You could also add an image into the email (perhaps one you've taken yourself) which of course makes it even more special.

A physical card?

This depends on whether you're nearby or not; obviously it's easier if you're nearby so you don't have to post anything but that's not necessarily a problem.

If you want to send something physical through the post then you'll need their address but that's easy enough – just ask them under some sort of pretense; maybe say you've got them an early Christmas present.

This has pros and cons: it's more effort which adds value but on the other hand it's pretty common so it's less likely to be surprising.

An instant message?

This could work well too because it's easy so doesn't require much effort but on the other hand it's easy too; also as with sending an email it's unlikely they'll expect such thing through this channel so may add surprise value.

Should I give her/him/them/it/something else a gift too?

This depends very much on what kind of person he/she/it/they are; many people probably expect a gift which makes me feel uncomfortable because that's not how gifts are supposed to work: they're meant as a way for one person to show appreciation for another person by giving him/her/them/it something nice with no expectation of getting anything back in return.

This means that nobody should ever expect a gift because by definition that's not what they're about – at least in my opinion anyway.

I realise though that plenty of people do expect gifts so you'll have to make up your own mind about whether you'd like to submit yourself to consumerist peer-pressure or whether you'd like stand up for yourself and behave as you'd like rather than being pushed around by everyone else (can you tell how strongly I feel about this?!).

If this has helped then I'm glad – please let me know either way by sending me an email at mr@mrinappropriate.co.uk