Help! My friends won’t stop having birthdays

Birthday culture is taking over social calendars, turning once low-key celebrations into expensive dinners, multi-part weekends and bachelorette-style celebrations

Help! My friends won’t stop having birthdays
Screenshot 2026-09-01 at 4.28.20 PM

From April through July this year, Kate*, a 24-year-old marketing manager living on Long Island, celebrated a birthday – sometimes even two – every single weekend. There was the house party that turned into a group sleepover, followed by lunch the next day. There was the “karaoke thing”, preceded by dinner. There was the summer camp-themed blowout at a house in the suburbs which was, naturally, an all-day affair. One stormy Saturday, Kate even found herself with one birthday partyhellip;

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