I am not close to either of my siblings. So, no.
Generally I send an email with a link or two. Sometimes it’s a lolcat (which includes goggies and Disapproving Rabbits), sometimes it’s a video, sometimes it’s just whatever I’ve come across lately. For my parents, I send a card and a gift.
I also randomly buy my siblings stuff. I was in their town last month, for instance, so my brother got a Munchkin starter set and some additional decks, and my sister got a lot of fairy tale retellings. She was amazed that I knew so much about the genre, and I was amazed that she liked that sort of thing, as she’s always hated science fiction and fantasy. But apparently a new version of Beauty and the Beast is OK.
I have what I have slowly come to realize is a rather unusual relationship with my siblings ( step-siblings actually, but they’re around the same age as me and we were raised together starting as early teens ). We’re very cordial with each other and even enjoy each others company. But we don’t really socialize much unless we are brought together by my folks for some event ( holiday, barbeque, whatever ), which isn’t all that often. This despite the fact that we all live in reasonable proximity of each other. We’re apparently a peculiarly insular bunch.
So, no - we don’t celebrate each others birthdays. Honestly I’m very, very bad with birthdays. I don’t particularly celebrate my own and haven’t since I was a teenager ( very close to Christmas so it was always anticlimactic present-wise anyway ). I really have a hard time remembering them in general.
My sister, brother and I gave up sending cards/gifts to one another about 25 years ago. It just seems completely pointless when we’re all adults. We speak to each other regularly anyway, so the actual birthday more often than not is just noted by an email or voicemale message.
I see my brother maybe twice a year and that’s pretty much the only times we ever talk to each other unless there’s some kind of emergency. However, despite this lack of contact, we always send each other birthday gifts. He’s very scatter-brained but for some reason he never forgets to send me something, so I make damned sure I send him one, too. No card and no phone call, though. We generally leave each other alone. We like each other just fine, but we have completely separate lives and we’re 2000 miles apart.
I would say we aren’t sentimental, but my present last year was a painting that he made himself (and it was good, too), so perhaps that’s not quite accurate.
My finances have been shaky for a while. When things are flush I will buy my sister a gift, or take her to a restaurant. She understands my situation and is gracious about it.
I’ve been married to two different men from larger families. Phone call in the same week as the birthday is the norm in both families.
Send an Email if I remember.
My sibling lives thousands of miles away. I send an e-card, or a paper card, and he does the same for my birthday. I may drop him a line via e-mail, but I hate talking on the phone as I really have nothing much to say, making small talk. He leads a charmed life, rich, popular, energetic, travels all over. I sit at home and ‘derp’. … We never exchange presents (and we have been trying for years to stop the goddamn Christmas present exchange but one of us always caves). BUT - I have one grown child, and he has three, two still in college, one out in the world, and we make a point to send cards and $20 to each kid on their birthdays. I’m sure his kids could care less, but my girl looks forward to that card since we don’t have that many relatives any more.
Gift, yes.
Card, no - they’ll get a birthday IM if they’re online that day. And if any of my siblings were on facebook, they’d likely get a wall post. But I don’t think any of us has ever in our entire lives given one of the others a card. That would be really weird.
I used to give/send gifts, but after years of neither thanks nor reciprocation, I stopped. He called me on my last birthday and it took me a few sentances to realize it was him, I thought it was my brother in law who *always *calls.
This is what we do, as well. It is another excuse to get together for us.
Other - There are always phone calls, but never cards or gifts. I always send my siblings cards for Christmas, but don’t count on getting them. That’s really hit or miss.
One year I visited my sister, and she still had a card for me, unstamped. She sent it to me a few weeks after I left.