When people don't show up at your birthday party

Birthday parties are a pretty big deal. A lot goes into the planning of it, you make sure you invite everyone, prepare the food, decorate the place and make sure you have plenty of drinks in. So it’s understandable to be a little miffed when people don’t show up at your birthday party – even more so when everyone bails.

Coming To Terms With It

Let’s be fair, when people don’t show up at your birthday party, you’re not going to instantly think “ah, that’s right – nobody is coming”. It’s gonna take a little minute to wrap your head around it, and that’s a journey. You’re gonna feel things along the way!

The initial shock

You’ll have a moment of disbelief, as you watch that clock tick over to your party’s start time, and there isn’t a barrage of knocks at your door.

The moment of denial

Once you realise that nobody is actually there, they aren’t hiding to jump out and surprise you, you still don’t necessarily believe they aren’t coming, just that they aren’t there yet.

Then the guilt sets in

Okay, so, nobody is there, nobody is coming. Wait, is it your fault when people don’t show up at your birthday party?

It’s time to get mad

No, that’s not right, it can’t be you. They are just not fair. They said they were going to come and they didn’t. How dare they?

You’ve never felt so lonely and sad

The anger has dissipated, and you look around and realise that there is nobody there, and you’re all alone…

You’ll do anything

You sit there and try and convince yourself that next time it will be different, you’ll change how you are, you’ll invite more people, you’ll do pretty much anything.

Time to accept it

It’s time to just accept the thing. People don’t show up at your birthday party and it’s very sad, but it is nevertheless what has happened.

So, Now What?

Okay, so you’ve accepted the sad truth that is people don’t show up at your birthday party. But, what next? You’ve done all the prep work after all.

Move on

That’s right, you need to move on. Enjoy yourself, it is your birthday after all.

Celebrate your trip around the sun

It is a day to celebrate. Thank yourself for being there, you were after all the only one who made the effort.

Eat all that cake

All of it, I mean why not? It’s not a birthday without cake, so have the cake – you can even eat it from the middle.

Get drunk

You literally have enough alcohol for a whole crowd. Even when people don’t show, you might as well put it to some good use.

Play some party games

Thinking about it, you might need to be a little selective here, but there are some games you can still play even when nobody shows up at your birthday party.

Dance the night away

The joy of this is that you don’t need to choose your music to please the room. Put on your favourite jam, and dance all night long. Certainly beats crying yourself to sleep.