I’m one of those people who can’t remember when my friends’ birthdays are. I’m lucky if I remember when someone in my family has a birthday. Most people understand and accept that, but sometimes it can get tricky if I can’t even manage to send off some kind of happy birthday card.

I ran into this situation again just a little while ago. Someone close to me had a birthday coming up – a fact that occurred to me the day before it arrived. I was going to be in a lot of trouble if I couldn’t scrape something together fast.

The natural last resort of anyone desperate for a last minute gift is, of course, the Internet. Surely I could scrape up some ideas for a good birthday gift. Maybe there were instructions for how to make your own little happy birthday card, or – and this is what I was really hoping for – instructions on how to deliver a heartfelt apology for being an insensitive and forgetful clod.

This time I came across a site that offered free birthday ecards. Like many people I had both seen and received these in the past. In the past, I wasn’t all that impressed. Something about’ animated puppies all barking the Happy Birthday song… in the middle of my office, just didn’t really strike a chord with me.

But I was desperate this time, so I looked a little further into the free birthday ecards that they listed on their site. They were a little different from the one I received so long ago. There were a lot of options available that actually seemed like something she would enjoy.

This site offered a full range of cards that were more than cheesy animations and electronic sounds. Sure, those were part of it, but this site let me customize the card until I knew it was something she would like. In this case I took the free birthday ecard and embedded a YouTube video in it. It took a while to find the right one, but the sight of a poor, but excessively cute, dog staring at the camera with huge eyes should hopefully be enough to placate things between us. And then I tagged an happy birthday message onto the end that was a little more upbeat.

Of course, you never know how it will go until you actually send it. There’s something pretty impersonal about sending happy birthday cards through email, but at the same time I can only hope I personalized it enough to make her smile.

And I will admit that I know this isn’t the same as sending flowers or buying her off with jewelry, but I did have to put some thought into this before I sent it. I can’t say for sure if that free birthday eCards are good enough on their own, but it’s the thought that counts. Right?

While it may not always be the most appropriate option, emailing someone you care about a free birthday ecard is a very simple way to show them that you thought of their birthday. You can also set them up to be sent in advance just in case you forget. You can find plenty of great ecards on the Internet.

categories: family,friends,birthday,holiday,reminder,planning


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