When I was a young, the traditions went like this: Very early in the morning, we went to see my grandmother to ask for her blessing, then piled onto the car to Wat Benjamabopitr to give alms to the monks and released the birds/turtles. Then I got dropped off at school with a pass from my parents to be late AND to bring in treats for my classmates. Later that night, we’d have dinner with my family and then my cousins and grandma would come over and we’d have cake and open presents.
As we grew older, we lost grandma and my cousins moved away, and then the traffic got so bad that going to Wat Benj became a half day effort, so our birthdays were reduced to just dinner with family and maybe a few presents, usually from my mom’s friends.
Birthdays have been more of a family affair for our family. There were only a few birthday parties where friends were involved that I could remember. Heck, I didn’t have a party for friends until I was in 5th grade…which I did at McDonald’s. LOL.
One thing that seems to be consistent though is that we celebrate birthday by TREATING OTHER PEOPLE i.e. have a party so you can feed your friends, not for them to feed you.