Day 264/365: Friday’s Unscientific Poll: Birthday presents

[nanila]

Dear Readers, this weekend contains my birthday, on which I become the answer to life, the universe, and everything! (Douglas Adams fans will have immediately deduced how old I am. Everyone else will have to use Google.)

I’m very pleased about this, and am considering whether I should attempt to do another project in celebration of it, because naturally I am not busy enough with this daily blog project + full time job + bringing up two small children. One of the nice things that has happened in my forties is that I’ve accepted that some of my flaws are never going to go away, like voluntarily taking on too many responsibilities, and that I should just accept that I’m probably not going to finish everything I start.

Anyway, as my birthday approaches, there have been cards and gifts arriving with each day’s post. Not loads, I hasten to add, but enough to keep my curiosity piqued. And thus, today’s Unscientific Poll.

Poll #20474 Birthday presents

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56

View Respondents

When it's my birthday, I like for my gifts to be

View Answers

a complete surprise. I put them aside and don't look at or touch them until the day.
34 (60.7%)

thoroughly prodded, poked, shaken, and pondered. I consider volume, shape, sound, weight, and (if known) the giver's identity, and then I attempt to deduce what's inside.
22 (39.3%)

Comments

[pax_athena]

I'm kind of missing the "opened too early and then super ashamed that I just could not wait" option :D

[nanila]

SO AM I, hahaha; this is exactly what happened with Slowly Rotating Jupiter. :P

[hamsterwoman]

SAME XD (well, more like "vaguely guilty" than "super ashamed", but come on! It was right there! Looking at me! Impulse control, what impulse control? :P)

[azurelunatic]

I poke, shake, speculate -- then put them aside and probably forget my conclusions.

[nanila]

Ah, that's a good way to be, because then once you come back to them, they're a surprise again.

[angrboda]

Mine are, in fact, immediately confiscated by Husband. (And vice versa. This gets a little interesting when your birthdays are only 7 days apart and you have family members abroad. Is the address on the front the actual recipient or the confiscator? Is this envelope a card or a letter? We think this parcel is a gift, but who is it for and is it wrapped?)

[nanila]

Haha, that is excellent. Although I'm afraid I'd find it far too easy to use all those questions as an excuse to open the parcels.

[angrboda]

It does mean a bit of extra vigillance sometimes. I once confiscated a parcel before Husband came home because I was uncertain about whether it was a present or something he'd ordered. The box it came in was really revealing with big logos on it, so if it was a present and he saw it, he'd know precisely what was in it. Had to write to his parents and his sister and ask if it was one of them before I could give it to him. Luckily it was indeed his dad who had bought something off his list and (completely sensibly, postage time and prices being what they are) had it sent directly to our address, only he hadn't realised it meant it would be a good idea to warn me.

[hilarita]

While technically a surprise, as a family, we often give bloody big hints about what we'd like.

[nanila]

The bloke's family are big on lists. I like this. It takes the stress out of things. It also means I'm 99% certain that one of the Amazon parcels contains a bottle of rhubarb gin.

[cmcmck]

Hippo birdies for this weekend!

[nanila]

Thank you!

[brainwane]

Happy birthday-in-advance!

[nanila]

Thank you very much!

[fauxklore]

It has been years since anybody gave me anything I couldn't guess from a quick glance. My family goes for money (or maybe gift cards). Everybody else gives me books.

[davidgillon]

Mostly the family just give me money and then I go out and buy the electronics, or esoteric naval history book, I actually want.

[weaverbird]

Happy Birthday a few hours early! May this year be your best yet.

It's a good age, yours. The prime of life. :)

[caulkhead]

Happy birthday!

[silveradept]

Congratulations on obtaining the Answer.

I usually receive monies or cards, as those are far easier to ship than actual gifts off the list. It has been some time since a surprise gift arrived, but some part of that is also that I share a birthday with a major States holiday, and therefore have essentially resigned myself to "nobody celebrates with me because they've already made plans, and several places where I might like to go are closed." I don't necessarily want to be Eeyore about it, just that I understand my place in the celebrations.

[quoththeravyn]

Happy happy birthday birthday!

I can't remember the last time someone wrapped up a gift for my birthday. Perhaps the ex did? Dunno. But certainly when I was a kid it was all about using whatever information was available outside the box/wrapping. Sometimes they were purposely obfuscated, for example a box with a rock in it, oh and a note saying where to go look for the next note, directing one to a third note, and ultimately to the gift itself. One December my mother was out shopping and the pickup truck died, as it happens in front of a Ford dealership, so she traded it in. There was a treasure hunt for my dad under the xmas tree, ending up with a baby blue truck and a big red bow, in the garage. I'm not sure why he hand't happened to go to the garage before that...

[hamsterwoman]

Happy already-your-birthday-where-you-are! :D (What a kickass universal milestone! :D)

[fred_mouse]

I actually have no idea what I do!

[castiron]

Happy birthday!

I'm the one who bought most of my presents, so I know exactly what's in them, though this year I didn't open the packages when they arrived in the mail but saved them until my birthday. Spouse did actually go with the kids to buy me some cotton yarn for dishcloth knitting -- I'd told him that was what I wanted the kids to get me, so I wasn't surprised by yarn but did enjoy being surprised by the colors.

[slemslempike]

I now prefer to put them aside, but when I was little I would try to find out (though not very assiduously). When I was being mean to my sister I would threaten to tell her what her presents were to upset her. (Not very often.)

[liseuse]

Happy Birthday!

I keep presents and cards to one side, to only be opened on my birthday, even if I know what is in them. I have certain friends that this drives round the twist because they can't help from exclaiming that I could at least open the card! It's a holdover from being a kid when cards and presents were opened after school (if my birthday was on a weekday) or after breakfast (if my birthday was on a weekend).

[worlds_of_smoke]

Have a happy birthday!!

[white_hart]

Happy birthday!

[omnipotent]

Happy birthday! XOXO!

[establishingaplace]

Happy birthday! I am a year behind you but celebrated on the 18th.

[soliano]

Happy Birthday an may this year bring joyous experiences and memories.

[lurkingcat]

Happy Birthday!

[ironed_orchid]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

[meepettemu]

Other: I open presents as they’re given to me!