Break out the candles, put up the streamers, and turn up the music: we're having a party. I forgot what we're celebrating, but... who needs an excuse to have a party?
**These Redditors couldn't believe it when they saw celebrations taking place for something that really didn't warrant all the fuss. **
[Source listed at the end of the article.]
Time To Relax
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“I had a couch-warming party.
After 4 years of being married and living in a new apartment, my wife and I could finally afford living room furniture. The signature piece was an old, 6 person sofa from the 1960s that we pulled out of the trash a had reupholstered.
It was magical. We had a bartender, people wore suits, and we all took professional photos on the sofa.”
With A Little Help From My Friends
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“This one’s not really dumb at all, pretty great actually in my opinion. A friend of mine got diagnosed with brain cancer, so we decided to throw a ‘brain cancer party.’ At some point, we had him on our shoulders and were chanting ‘cancer, cancer, cancer!’ after hours and hours of partying. Our friend couldn’t stop laughing.
The next morning we all woke up and said, ‘that was weird’ and he just said, ‘cheers lads.’
I think he just didn’t want to feel different or be treated differently. He recovered and is now cancer free.”
The Birthday Bear
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“Several years ago, my family celebrated a birthday for a stuffed bear. It was one of the dumbest things we’ve ever done, but we mostly did it to humor my brother and because we find this kind of stuff funny.
I think my brother was like 7 or 8 at the time and insisted that day was going to be a teddy bear’s birthday; so we just said, ‘screw it, okay.’ We got a cake from the store and a tiny cowboy hat as a present, and sang it ‘Happy Birthday.’
My family is weird.”
Sounds Like Harry Potter
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“Due to crappy circumstances, my little brother had to live with relatives a few states away. They have a daughter younger than him, whose birthday is July 25. My brother’s birthday is Jan 28. Every year they celebrated her ‘half-birthday’ on Jan 25, with cake and friends over and everything. This really took the spotlight off my brother since his birthday was just days away. They would do a much-smaller quickie celebration for him. Always made me sad for him.
I’m so thankful he is home now.”
Shouldn’t You Be In Class?
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“One day after lunch in high school I was sitting in the outdoor courtyard area between the buildings where students gather between classes.
This guy took a glass drink bottle and placed it neck down in the grass. He then started stomping the bottle to sink it slowly lower and lower into the grass and dirt.
His 3 friends were standing around him and cheering wildly as if it was the greatest thing that has ever happened. They lost their minds at this guy stomping a bottle into the ground.”
The Bankruptcy Banquet
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“A kid I graduated with… his parents threw a party to celebrate being $1 million in debt. I wish I was joking.
For context, we live in a small farming community in Wisconsin. They owned their farm outright, when suddenly, boom – they’re millions in debt. Nobody in the community really knows what happened, and the family wouldn’t speak more about it, except to say that yeah – we threw a party for it. It all continued to go downhill after this, too, because the wife divorced the guy, his kids basically want nothing to do with their father, and I believe he lost the farm as well (shocker).
My best guess is he made some pretty poor investment choices or something, but like I said – nobody’s certain.”
The Puberty Party
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“My kids go to a pretty ‘earthy crunchy’ private school and occasionally one of the more extreme moms will have a ‘goddess’ party when her daughter gets her time of the month for the first time. Like a ‘celebrate and support’ type thing. My kids were horrified, as if getting your time of the month wasn’t awkward enough.”
Overkill
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“There was this time in Toronto where a raccoon had died on the side of the road (roadkills aren’t rare here). Someone put up a picture of the raccoon next to it with some flowers and a card and then another person put flowers as well. Soon enough there was a shrine and a memorial service and a candlelight vigil I believe. The roadkill removal service was pretty confused when they arrived to pick up the animal.”
They Missed The Point
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“I know of a couple that had lived together for 7 years before getting married. They already had everything they needed, so the things they had on their wedding registry were absolutely ridiculous. They had 4 different choices of flat-screen TVs, three different wine chillers, stoves, refrigerator, power tools, riding lawn mowers, snowblowers, kitchen cabinets, carpets… the list goes on.
Mind you, they lived in an apartment where none of this was necessary. They were not the most pleasant of people and ended up chasing everyone away by the time their wedding came. Only one woman showed up to her bridal shower and she ended up buying the bride ceramic cups for crème brûlée. When their 5th year anniversary came around the wife started a wedding anniversary registry at Williams-Sonoma, Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond. Nothing was purchased off the registries and no one went to their party.”
Happy Unbirthday, Alice!
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“My parents got this idea for an ‘unbirthday’ from Alice in Wonderland. Now in that book/movie the unbirthday is any day of the year that is not your birthday. My parents decided it would be the day you were born, but in other months. For example, if your birthday was July 15, your unbirthday would be the 15th of every other month. They didn’t do parties or anything for it, they’d just be like, ‘Hey! It’s your unbirthday today! YAY!’
Well that was fun when I was a kid. When I was in my 20s and working night shift, my mom would call me 5 times in a day until I finally answered the phone. Just to wish me a happy unbirthday. They didn’t do this to anyone else in the family or each other. Only me.”
Who Needs A Reason?
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“I was once part of a celebration of literally nothing.
I was in a town in Ireland, out drinking in a popular outdoor area, and for no reason whatsoever, we all started cheering. It started somewhere down along the crowd, and pretty quickly made its way to me. We all wholeheartedly joined in, screaming, shouting, the whole nine yards. I have no idea why.”
Things Got Trashy
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“Have you ever burned a trash bag? Take a 30-gallon black trash bag, twist it up, and stretch the crap out of it. Then you hang it from a tree or something (in a way that nothing is going to get set on fire) and light the bottom. At night.
If you’ve done it right, little blobs of flaming plastic will shoot downwards, making a great light show. Really. It’s better than it sounds. Great fun at an outdoor party. When it really gets going, shooting off little blobs rapid fire… zing, zing, zing!… people really can get fired up about it.
If you’ve done it wrong, you look like a bunch of idiots watching a trash bag burn.”
High Stakes Y2K
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“This one’s less of a dumb reason to celebrate and more of a strange celebration.
It was New Year’s Eve, 1999, and everyone was nervous about ‘Y2K.’ I was in Las Vegas with my girlfriend and a group of friends. I dressed in a suit and she wore a dress, and we hit the strip and walked from various casinos until our group found a spot we liked. Las Vegas was prime for a Y2k breakdown being that they relied on a tremendous amount of power and automation for a relatively small city. You could feel there was a slight tingle of uncertainty in the air that night and people were meandering around with a bit of a high anticipating what we all thought would be a total breakdown of society.
Las Vegas had blocked off the strip and set up a fireworks show. I believe they did this for two reasons: a) for the Y2k celebration, and b) In the case of a breakdown, you wouldn’t have people running out of hotels/casinos into streets packed with cars. So, right before midnight, as I’m in the middle of an amazing roll on the craps table, my girlfriend and group of friends drag me outside the casino onto the strip to watch the possible Y2K implosion/fireworks show.
Of course, Y2K doesn’t happen, and everything goes off without a hitch. I kiss my girlfriend at the stroke of midnight and we return to the casino. However, now that Y2Kers are streaming back into the casino, the table minimums have been bumped up. I was on a $10 craps table and they are now $25 minimums… so, with the foolishness brought on by the joy of the world not imploding, I rallied and laid down some serious (for me at the time) coin on my regular numbers and let the dice roll. It was serendipitous! I couldn’t lose and sat at that table as long as my girlfriend and friends let me (which was only 15 minutes or so) and had an amazing roll… It was a great way to kick off the millennium!”
Too Many Anniversaries
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“Here in South Korea, couples celebrate everything: the 14th of every month in addition to their 50th day, 100th day, 200th day, 300th day, 400th day, 500th, day, 600th, day, and so on.
My obsessed friend who has since moved on to study Korean to teach English overseas was OVER the MOON when she learned that my SO and I started dating on the 14th, and would regularly congratulate us.
It sounds tedious when listing everything out, but it ends up being so sweet, and we ended up stacking our wedding date on the 14th as well.
We don’t make a big fuss about it, but normally, gifts and cakes and flowers are expected.”
Sizzle Sizzle
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“One time at a party at my house, we had a bonfire in the backyard, and we were throwing random objects in the flames – cans, bottles, etc. Then we decided to start taking them out and dropping them in a bucket of water and watching them sizzle.
At some stage someone put a brick in the fire, and so we decided to pull it out and put it in the water. The whole time everyone was cheering and chanting ‘Brick! Brick! Brick! Brick!,’ and when it hit the water it went ‘sizzle sizzle’ for a few seconds.
We all went quiet as we realized how lame we were being. Some guy’s girlfriend was visiting from Portugal – I imagine he had to explain that this was an anomaly and that putting hot bricks in water is not the height of entertainment at house parties in our country.
Still, I have fond memories of ‘brick brick brick.'”
That Kid Ain’t Celebrating
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“When a man on one of those daytime ‘couples therapy’ shows is proven to not be the father. Or conversely, when the woman celebrates like she won something after a deadbeat, who initially denied the kid, is proven to be the father. Neither are good situations for the kids.
That whole thing is so trashy. I can see feeling vindicated that a guy who said he ‘couldn’t possibly be the father’ really is the father after all – especially if he accused you of cheating beforehand and you actually didn’t cheat.
Still awful to put all your business on TV like that though. If I didn’t know who my kid’s father was I wouldn’t tell ANYONE.”
Just An Excuse To Eat Cake
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“I feel like there are so many parties these days… I’m 24 and all my friends are married, getting married, or having babies. I’d go broke if I went to all the engagement showers, bridal showers, bachelorette parties, baby naming parties, baby showers, first year parties for the baby, etc. They all expect presents for every event, and it’s become such a greedy turn off to me that when I get to those life events, I won’t be having any of these parties.
An engagement shower, bridal shower, bachelorette party and a gift at the wedding itself, too? Jeez. How much do you need?”
These comments have been edited for clarity.