DESPITE the fact that the most popular birthday months statistically are August and September, our family finds itself overdosed with them in February.

In just one week of this month, there are six, (yes, six) and each one of the people celebrating is someone special, therefore requiring that we buy the person a lovely gift to mark the occasion. They themselves don’t require it, obviously, but it’s nice to give loved ones a proper treat. 

The afore-mentioned birthdays belong to a best friend of mine and to family members such as my husband’s grandmother. And two of them are, for me personally, a couple of the biggest birthdays of the year, belonging as they do to my mother and my daughter.

Thus, there will be parties and cards and expenditure and stress, and upset at the post office when I discover how much it now costs to send a relatively small parcel to someone.

It’s no wonder that I quite often retreat and give my business to a huge online company who sell items which they will then post to the recipient at no extra cost. Their gift wrapping option is a little inadequate for what it costs, but it’s cheap at the price considering what is now asked for when dispatching a more-than- two kg little box.     

Not only do we have these occasions to take care of, but the rest of this month holds six more birthdays, including a big one for the boss (the editor of this very paper, who I hope has not deleted this mention).   

His party will be marginally easier to organise than the daughter’s shindig, I’m hoping.

Re the latter, we had to get on the ball early as we had an idea of what we’d like to do and it was an event which took place on a specific day. Luckily, we’re teaming up with another pair of parents, so a party shared has been a problem halved.

It’s not that it’s really a problem, but masterminding a celebration for a gaggle of boisterous four year-olds is a daunting prospect. Aside from the main activity, there’s the issue of what to feed everyone, how much to make, how to sustain their attention and what to put in their party bags.

But, even though I know that it’s all a little over-the-top and unnecessary, it would be very hard if we couldn’t put on a fun party for our daughter who has finally twigged about the fabulousness of birthdays when you’re a small person.

She has talked of nothing else for weeks and just wants to blow out candles on a cake covered in sprinkles – not too much to ask, is it really?