The Perfect Mother’s Day Gift

We have the perfect mothers' day gift (I know, I know, every brand claims that, but hear me out).

The Birthday Calendar is a gift that mums just love. It's useful and it's pretty. It's something they will look at every day of the year for years to come. Plus, it will help them stay organised in keeping all the family birthdays together, because let’s face it - this job generally falls on mums.. 

If you don't know about our birthday calendars, read on - they're one of the best things invented by the Dutch (ok, there are probably better things invented by them, but we're trying to sell a thing here, ok!?)

How to remember birthdays without Facebook

Cast your mind back in time. How the heck did anyone remember birthdays without Facebook? Well, we used to use calendars! And ahem, speaking from experience, unless all I want to do is leave a ‘happy birthday comment’ for my friend, I will need to remember their birthday a little earlier than on the actual day to get a card in the post.

While your usual diary or calendar set-up will work just fine, the benefit of a perpetual calendar is that you never have to rewrite all those birthdays in an annual calendar every year. It is a 'forever' calendar - it keeps all birthdays, anniversaries and special annual dates together in one place. Especially great when you have a big extended family and want to remember while there is still time to send a card (it takes X weeks to get a card to the Caribbean you know!).

The origin story

If you have ever visited a loo in a Dutch household, you would have likely seen a birthday calendar hanging on the door. In Holland, almost every household has a perpetual birthday calendar, most often found in the smallest room of the house (yes that one).

Birthday calendars or perpetual calendars, as they are also known, are such a practical product that I was surprised to not often see here in the UK. Being Dutch, I wanted to design a calendar like the ones I grew up with but with designs that felt modern and fresh.

How to use a birthday calendar

Let’s ease the mental load and get all those dates out of our heads and onto paper.

Grab a cup of coffee, (or hot chocolate - I won't judge 😜 ) and let’s fill out your celebration calendar.

For each month of the year you have a page with beautiful illustrations at the top. Underneath there is a column with all the days of the month but no weekdays, so that it works for any, and every, year. 

Start going through the months adding not only birthdays, but anniversaries, date specific holidays and other special dates. When you have added all the dates you want, it’s time to hang it up. Traditionally in Holland, the loo is the place of choice but anywhere you will see it on a daily basis works just fine. 

It is compact in size - 15cm x 30cm, so it would fit in those little spaces you don’t know what to do with and has a little loop hanger to hang it up on the wall.

Why we love them

This is not a project that you finish, you will keep adding to it for years and over time it often becomes something really special for the family. The same calendar could easily last 10 years, which also makes it planet-friendly.

While most people get them for the home, they are also great for the office to remember the birthdays of colleagues or clients and like we mentioned before, they make a fantastic gift. Public service announcement - Mother’s Day is coming up on the 27th of March here in the UK, in case you needed a reminder!

Botanical, bold or boho

At the time of writing, we have twelve different designs of perpetual calendars , and we keep adding more! There are botanical designs, abstract geometric styles, colourful as well as minimal black and white. So whatever the vibe of your home is, we should have something that floats your boat. We even have a zodiac star sign birthday calendar which is divided by sign rather than calendar month.

Get that birthday card sent out on time

So there you have it, how to never forget another birthday - without relying on Facebook. 

That amazing friend we have that always remembers our birthday most likely doesn’t have some kind of superhero built in memory for birthdays but a really great celebration calendar in their loo!