Happiest Birthday

A Birthday Sayings For Generations to Come

“Dickie’s got a birthday, I’m so glad. I hope it’s the best one he has ever had,” sang Clinton, as he swung his now four year old grandson up into the air and whirled him around.

Olive smiled. She had heard this refrain or a variation of it over and over through the years starting with the first birthday she had celebrated as a young married woman in her own home and passing along through the years with their own children and now with the grandchildren. It had become a family tradition and one of which she never tired.

“It’s my birthday, Grampa Clint, it really is,” Dick told his grandfather.

“I know,” answered his grandfather. “You are getting to be a really big boy. How old are you now, three?”

“No Grampa Clint, I’m bigger, I mean older than that. I’m four. I’m big,” said Dick.

Clinton grinned. Although he personally thought of Dick is being a very little boy still and hoped that he wouldn’t hurry too much about growing up he knew from when his own sons and daughters, Dick’s father Wallace included, that four years old was pretty old from a child’s view point and he didn’t want to do anything to minimize it.

“Well that’s good,” he told him. “I have a present over here that’s just right for a four year old and I didn’t know but what you might be too young for it yet awhile. Are you sure you’re really four years old? I remember when you were born and it doesn’t seem that long ago.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” insisted Dick. “Mama and Daddy both said so.

“Well then if you say it’s so and they say it’s so, I guess it must be so,” Clinton told him. “Grammy Olive and I have a present here for you that should be just right for a four year old boy.” He reached over and pulled the blanket off an object that had been standing in an out of the way corner of the room so that Dick could see the handcrafted rocking horse standing there, a palomino by color, resplendent in its bright red saddle.

“Wow!” said Dick. He walked over to the horse and patted it gently on the head. “What’s his name, Grampa?”

“I guess that’s something you’re going to have to decide his grandfather told him, lifting him up and sitting him on the horse. “Give him a try and let’s see if he goes alright.”

Dick rocked the horse back and forth, back and forth. “He’s great, Grampa Clint. He goes really fast!”

Dick spent a long time that afternoon, riding off into adventures that only he and his new horse knew about. His mother, Doris, visited with her parents in-law and soon Dick’s father got through work and arrived at his parents’ home for the birthday supper.

“Dickie’s got a birthday, I’m so glad. I hope it’s the best one he has ever had,” he sang as he swung his small son up in the air and whirled him around.

Olive smiled. It was a good thing to see that this special birthday saying was being passed down through the generations. Some things were just made to be treasures and in her mind, this was one of them.

Whether you are a parent delivering a birthday toast to capture the love for your precious daughter or a son presenting a toast to your parent, our birthday speeches will help you find the perfect words.

Out With the Old! Create Clever New Birthday Sayings for That Special Someone

“On your birthday, I wish you all the blessings for the year to come.” Oh, yeah, I really feel that.

“In celebration of your birthday, I want to say, I hope you live every day, to its fullest, in your own special way.” Gee, how deep. Forget it.

Have you ever, let’s say in the last 30 years or so (if you have that kind of longevity going), just gotten sick of the over-sentimental, maudlin birthday sayings (otherwise known as drivel) that’s been rehashed and warmed-over since, at least, antiquity?

It just doesn’t have to be that way. You can change the situation. Take it upon yourself, march en masse against the drooly, dippy birthday sayings that are so outdated, so generic, so meaningless, that you’d just as soon not get a card at all.

But hold on: Everyone loves birthday sayings, as long as it applies to them, personally. Let’s get original here! How hard can this be? We’re creative people; we live in the age of self-promotion, “anything goes,” and forward-thinking enterprise.

Let’s guess: You go to the grocery store (or, if you really want to spend more money, to a specialty birthday shop), peruse the cards with their nearly identical birthday sayings with about one-millionth of an ounce of interest, finally decide on one because you like the picture on the front, and forget about it until you deliver the gift.

Because this same thing has happened to YOU ad infinitum, you know where that $4 card with the squeaky-clean, grandmotherly birthday sayings will go – straight into the circular file nearest you.

Look. These are your friends. These are people you care about. Don’t do this to them! Sure, there are other card companies that appeal to the more modern, up-and-coming population, but how many times can you squeal with delight when yet another dog/cat/giraffe/ugly elderly person/baby-making-a-face/cutesy stick figure hits you, year after year?

Birthday sayings should be personal; birthday sayings should be directly from YOU to THEM, with no commercialized riffraff standing between you, creating a gulf full of all that is phony. But don’t get sidelined: Birthday sayings don’t have to be glittering with hearts and flowers, causing an avalanche of tears; birthday sayings don’t have to be cutesy-funny to the extent that it makes the recipient of your personalized message squirm and turn red with embarrassment; and birthday sayings don’t have to be, if you’re in a love relationship, all about “I love you forevermore, without sight, without thought,” for heaven’s sake. Get real! Say what you REALLY mean, and everyone from the distant cousin you couldn’t stand since childhood to your nearest and truly dearest won’t wince: leave the stores empty-handed and resort to your own, self-made birthday card and birthday sayings inside. It will mean more to them than that lovely Mix-Master you got for a present any day.

The possibilities are endless! Get your trusty pen out and go crazy!

Whether you are parent delivering a birthday toast to capture the love for your precious daughter or a son presenting a toast to your parent, our birthday speeches will help you find the perfect words.