As one who's not just a minimalist but also an introverted one, I don't really fancy birthday celebrations, I love them for other people and I might push myself enough to show up to birthday parties, but I'd rather not have a party or be the center of attention on my birthday.
I'd also rather get cash gifts than a bunch of stuff I don't necessarily need. I'm always grateful for whatever I receive from others, birthdays or not, but I don't have it in me to express how I really feel about being gifted stuff that I won't put to good use.
I don't get a lot of stuff on birthdays anyway so it's not so much of a problem because my few good friends who are now cities and countries away have sent money instead in recent years. I guess I am hard to please because I don't like a lot of stuff and frown at a lot of things (these were my friend's words on a certain birthday of mine) 😄
It's easy to just send money like I mostly do on friends' birthdays but it's sweeter to put some thought into a gift. It's why when my friends came to my city and surprised me with a visit on a certain birthday, I realized they gave me the best gift ever. We created memories that I still cherish and it will go down in history as one of my favourite birthdays.
Maybe some other day I'd share my worst birthday experience where I got a surprise birthday party from a boyfriend and I broke up with him immediately after the party. I have a good explanation and my anxiety was spiked from the surprise. I'm not a terrible person I swear.
An activity-packed, fun-filled day exploring a city with a close one is my kinda stuff and having cash gifts sent by others makes the day even better. I hope I get to experience beautiful birthdays in the coming years and ofcourse, I'm always eager to see what my husband gets me because that's always special or quirky.
So yeah, I guess I have eased into birthdays a bit and I generally don't have a problem with the mode of gifting I currently get, cash gifts will always make my day when a thoughtful gift doesn't suffice. More than it being convenient, I think my friends are genuinely always clueless on sending stuff over because of my personality so they go with monetary gifts.