[Everybody except Ambrose.]

[thezerothlaw]

Pardon me.

[As polite as ever; Daneel rarely speaks on the psychic network at large, though he listens enough. It's rude to interject, he feels.]

I'm interested in what you generally feel are acceptable birthday celebrations, and what sort of details are involved. Ambrose's birthday is very soon, and I would like to do something for him, but I have little cultural experience with birthday parties. Spacer culture is the one I know best, but birthday celebrations past childhood are not common for them.

What would you suggest is appropriate?

Also, I would greatly appreciate help with the creation of food and drink, for those of you capable of it.

Comments

[mytearsaremine]

Cake. You definitely need cake, usually his favorite kind of cake, and usually with like cute decorations on it. And you should have little party hats, like the pointy kind with little elastic bands that go around your chin.

And you have to sing "happy birthday". Loudly.

Usually there's gifts and things, too, but since I guess people can make anything they want here, so that's probably a little less of a thing. I mean, unless you have some really cool idea that you don't think he'd think of, and you can surprise him with. But it should be wrapped in fancy paper for him to unwwrap so it can be a surprise, if you're going to do that.

Also, hi, I'm Jolie. What's spacer culture?

[thornsofmalkav]

Dude, we should make him a chocolate peacock. [Look, when you're a bird dude...] I totally copied down the recipe for it. They had it, like, on the BBC website back in Newport.

[HER FORMER INFILTRATION MIGHT HAVE BEEN ADDICTED TO CERTAIN BRITISH REALITY TELEVISION OK OK.]

[howexciting]

... it is very rare in my time to celebrate one's birthday. Unless you are a noble of some form - which Ambrose certainly is - you are expected to celebrate your saint's day instead. Nobility and royalty celebrate their birthdays and their saint's days, as a sort of display of wealth - and depending on how rich one's family, the longer the birthday celebrations can last, sometimes up to a week after their birthday.

Given that we can infinitely create food, here, we could easily celebrate Ambrose's birthday for a week, if you so desired.

[uzoda]

That's really great of you to want to do! Uh, but what to do...

That's kind of a hard question to answer. Every place has its own idea of what a birthday party should be, if they even do that kind of thing. So... are you hoping to do something that he'll really enjoy because it's just like from home? Or are you wanting to do something that's just fun?

I mean, you can't go too wrong with cake, at the minimum.

[awondrousplace]

I can help with food or drink if you need me to. Perhaps Naoki would be so good as to help as well.

As for birthday celebrations, the ones I know are from a much earlier time than many here, and quite a lot more... extravagant. I was unaware, however that millinery was a large part of the celebration of one's birth.

[morethanashadow]

Cake is the most important thing. And lots of food. And things he'd think were fun!

[set_your_watches_for_fun]

A thimble and a coin should be placed in the cake, do not forget. I am not sure how that would work, if one is not baked, but instead created from whole cloth.

There should also be cards.

I agree with the suggestion of dancing. It should be smashing! Do you need musicians?

[fridgeninja]

Every culture has their own traditions. Since we're all Travelers now, anything we come up with should be all right.

But a big meal, cake for dessert, and small presents for the person whose birthday it is are traditional in western culture on twenty-first century earth, which is probably the only time and place most of us have seen or visited.