My 60th is in 362 days from now and I am already stressed about it 
I haven’t had much luck these years with spending my birthday with others. My eldest sister cancelled my 40th which is one of many reasons for terminating contact with my family. I’ve had two friends “take me out” for my birthday every year up to a couple of years ago then after dinner say “oh! you weren’t expecting me to pay were you?” This year I said f* this I am getting take out from a Thai place I like, I skipped the drama and had dinner in the peace and quiet of my own apartment. Next year will be the same - either take out or dinner in a fancy restaurant with the pleasure of my own company.
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@ottawaoperadiva I’m sorry that happened to you.
If nothing else, you’ll spend your 60th with us, here at Hungry Onion!! You won’t be alone!
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I think one has to be clear about who is expected to pay before the birthday.
It can be a cultural issue. Greeks often like to treat, and will fight over who gets to pay. (Some Greeks might also keep score if a fellow Greek never ever offers to pay 
) As a half-Greek, who likes to offer to pay, I’m sometimes shocked by how some people try to weasel out of paying.
I treated a few of my friends to dinner at restaurants on my birthday for most of my birthdays from 30-46. That way I could choose the restaurant, and wouldn’t feel guilty if I ordered exactly what I wanted on my birthday. There was usually one friend on a tight budget, and I can have fancy taste when it comes to restaurants, relative to what some friends liked to spend. This way, I could choose the restaurant, choose exactly what I wanted to eat, have all the friends present. Now- I admit, there was a fellow Greek who came to 7 or 8 dinners, who never offered to pay. She had a good job, owned her own condo, spent a ton on concerts, aesthetics and soccer tickets. She also never hosted a birthday party for herself, and never treated any of us in the group to dinner. I didn’t invite her to my 40th as a result. And that bit me in the butt.
Another friend had mentioned my party to her. The stingy friend reached out the day of the party, wishing me a happy birthday, and in retrospect, fishing for an invite. I didn’t take the bait, then I felt guilty for not just inviting her.
I accepted my friend’s offer to buy my wings and cocktails last year. That is the only time I can remember a non -family member treating me to a birthday dinner in years. That said, my HO friend treated me to a birthday brunch after my 50th 
, so I lucked out last year .
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I’m 65yo, and rarely celebrate my birthday. There were two life-emotional events that happened on my 19th and immediately before my 21st birthday, so it’s not been a day I much look forward to.
My sister took me out for a birthday dinner in my 40s after I moved to MA (and finally gave in at her constant insistence), and she bought tickets to a local concert in the same decade that happen on my birthday (for the record, it was Jonathan Edwards of “Sunshine” and “Shanty” fame. I had seen him at The Bottom Line in NYC in 1977 as one of the earliest concert shows I had attended. I still had the paper ticket from the Bottom Line show, and he was floored I still had it when I went up during a break to have him sign the ticket…20-some odd years later. 
)
Coworkers had a very quiet surprise celebration in an office for my 50th birthday (the one who planned it knew I despised having a “big deal” made, so she only had certain senior management employees there).
My sister continues to try and get me to go out to dinner, but I tell her I’d rather we do dinner at another time that’s not birthday-related. I’d rather cook whatever the hell I want - it can be a pot roast, or roast duck breast, or it can be leftovers or a bowl of cereal; make myself a nice dessert or have a big bowl of ice cream. I read or watch TV, and do whatever I want to do.
No Stress.
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Greeks often like to treat, and will fight over who gets to pay.
Heh. I’ve sat through so many check-grabbing arguments with my extended family. A long time ago, when my father retired, I decided that I wouldn’t let him pay for meals. Surprisingly, he went along with it. Until my last visit, a few years ago, when he grabbed the check again.
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Good riddance. With friends like that… who needs enemies? 
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Often someone pays the server before the bill gets to the table, when others aren’t paying attention. Surprise! 
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Gen X’er here with a barely Millennial wife. We have both my wife’s grandmother’s china (mostly still in boxes) and my parents’ full service for 12 that they purchased on their honeymoon and didn’t want to take with them to their retirement community house (my sister didn’t want them). My parents used those dishes on Thanksgiving once my cousins’ families started growing larger. We use the gravy boats and serving platters quite a bit, but haven’t had an occasion to use the plates. The only part of my wife’s grandmother’s china we use are the teacups and teapot.
And speaking of birthdays…my 50th was during the worst of the pandemic. My then-employer sent cupcakes to my house from a very good local bakery. Which would have been great, had they not thought I had the tastes of a 7-year-old. (FYI, those are unicorn horns.)
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what a crazy story
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I have tons …my mother’s china and my china, my Villeroy & Boch, my Stone Mountain Whispering Pines- note that none of this was bought in the last 40 years. I have later acquisitions from Pottery Barn and some odd holiday pieces from WS and eBay and Horchow, but I haven’t bought an entire dinnerware set in decades. I have no bunny plates. The closest I have is Bordello Pinheiro cabbage leaf plates. But I have tons, tons, and tons of various dinner plates. Too much!
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I have my Bunnykins. Bunny plates that are year-round bunny plates for kids, not Bunny plates for Easter or Equinox.
I almost gave my Bunnykins to a cousin with little kids, who seems to appreciate things from the 70s, but maybe I’ll use my Bunnykins for Easter a few times first!
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I always wanted a bunnykins plate and mug for myself. 
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Of all that inherited china, the stuff I really want to use frequently are my great aunt’s set of 12 ‘engagement cups’, at least a century old. They were hardly used, but who drinks tea out of a 6oz. Cup these days. Maybe I’ll wait untill the grandaughters are old enough to be careful enough with them and have a real tea party with them.
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Boomer here. Somehow I have inherited a full set of my mother’s good china (Noritake) and a GIGANTIC set of my mother-in-law’s Limoges china. Also two full sets of silver plate cutlery from my mother and another from my mother-in-law. We were the only ones with a house big enough to keep them, and we are also the only ones in the family who host anything at all so we have the whole mess. When I set the table for dinner parties or holidays I like to mix all of those sets of everything up - all the plates and cutlery all mismatched. It gives me great satisfaction to see my mother and my mother-in-law co-existing happily on the table, when in real life they hated each other.
I dunno what my kids will do with it all when we kick the bucket. And I don’t really care.
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What I would do to be a guest at one of your dinner parties! 
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My grandmother was married in 1911, and one of her wedding presents was a set of four different demitasse from Limoges and Dresden. I somehow inherited them, but I continue to use my everyday cups for espresso. You have inspired me to break out the old cups and use them.
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Dishes? No.
But I still have, via inheritance and gift, a few Holiday-themed serving platters. I sheepishly break them out when I entertain on those occasions.
I’m more sympathetic to food-themed platters, ramekins, casseroles, tureens, etc. I don’t have many, but I admire some a lot. I just don’t make hare or squab often. I have, from a thrift, a gigantic tureen in the shape of an artichoke–I can’t use it without thinking of the movie “Alien”.
Do I remember correctly that you have some beautiful food-themed ceramic pieces?
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I have no kids. So, I shrug. Somebody’s gonna vacuum up a lot of replacements.
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Life is short! Do it!
I’ll get right on it!!
ETA: done!
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