"The Year You Were Born" birthday cards - would "the years 5-20 years after you were born" be better?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I recently attended my great aunt’s 90th birthday. She had a giant card an on the back was list of notable events and most popular song and that sort of thing from the year she was born. I’ve seen those before (always targeted at 70+ years old, it seems).

While I can see how that’s interesting for other guests - how much the world has changed and so forth, I wonder if it would actually be of any interest at all to the recipient. After all, they aren’t going to remember those things and it seems unlikely to evoke an emotional response even as mild as nostalgia. I think a card that had the popular toys when a person was 5 and the popular music when they were 15 - or even just notable events from their lifetime would be better. I admit to being biased in favor the years 5-20 or 5-25 because you don’t have memories earlier and the more recent stuff is something everyone else there remembers, too, so things you might hear more often. Plus, honestly, most people seem to get nostalgic over or like to share about their childhood through very early adulthood more than later years in my experience.

2

I could see a “Year You Graduated” card being well-received.

3

At my recent x0th high school reunion there were handout sheets with lists of top movies and songs (and lists of prices, etc.) from our graduation year

4

Just make sure they didn’t flunk.

Yeah, that works better. Of course I get that both are referencing one specific year and that makes it easier. As for price list - I wish those would also include average wages from the time. I find people tend to remember yesterday’s prices better than yesterday’s wages and have a rosier view of the economy of the past than it deserves.

5

Agree. My folks paid $50.00 a month for their mortgage in the late 1950s (if I remember correctly what they told me), but I’m sure that was a strain on their budget at the time