To Write In A Birthday Card - 93 Birthday Messages

Birthdays are special days, where we celebrate the anniversary of the day a person was born. 

Sending a birthday card today is a common way to acknowledge and celebrate a person's birthday. Birthday cards in fact make up 60% of the cards sent globally! They are an important act of thoughtfulness throughout many different cultures. The origin of birthday cards is uncertain, but many believe the Romans were the first to create the custom of celebrating the birth of everyday men (as opposed to kings, queens, or emperors). In fact, the earliest known birthday party invitation was found at Hadrian’s Wall, a famous Roman built wall in the North West of England - albeit the invitation was a wooden tablet. Birthday greeting cards as we know them today were first mass produced in mid-19th century Britain, shortly after the introduction of Christmas cards. 

So, you know the history of birthday cards and you’ve chosen the perfect card to celebrate a loved ones birthday, but you’re stuck on choosing the best birthday message to write. We’ve created a list of go to birthday wishes and messages that would suit any occasion. Our birthday wishes are perfect for mums, dads, brothers, sisters, friends, and even your pet cat! You may wish to use these birthday messages as a starting point, and add a more personalised touch to your card.

Short, Sweet, and Simple Happy Birthday Messages

Keep it short and sweet with a simple birthday wish message. You don’t need to write an essay, but a sentence or two will suffice. If you choose the right words, you can brighten up the day of the recipient. 

1. Enjoy your special day.
2. It’s a very special day indeed.
3. Birthday wishes to you.
4. Happy Birthday to you!
5. Wishing you the happiest of birthdays.
6. Have the best birthday!
7. Today is all about you!
8. Thinking of you on your birthday!

Funny Happy Birthday Messages

Using humour in a card is a good way to make the recipient laugh. Just be sure that they will take the joke in good taste and not be insulted - especially with any age related jokes!

1. Happy booze and cake day!
2. Time for some cake.
3. Let’s pop a bottle on your birthday.
4. Time to get drunk!
5. Another year older, but not wiser.
6. Happy anniversary of your birth!
7. Happy 30th +20th Birthday!
8. Wow, you’re how old??
9. You’re older than you’ve ever been, but hey – you’re younger than you’ll ever be again!
10. Enjoy this folded piece of card on your birthday!
11. Congrats on getting another year older.
12. If you were Jesus, today would be Christmas!
13. Happy birthday! You don’t look a day over fabulous.
14. This card is your gift. You’re welcome.
15. Forget about the past, you can’t change it. Forget about the future, you can’t predict it. Forget about the present, I didn’t get you one.
16. Right, let’s get drunk and forget you’re getting older
17. Happy birthday to someone who really isn’t showing their age… or acting it!
18. I was going to arrange for someone beautiful to jump out of your birthday cake, but we can’t be risking heart attacks now, can we!
19. We thought we would get the right amount of candles to put on your cake this year, but quickly ran out of space. Happy Birthday!
20. It’s about time one of us turned 18! Drinks are on you, then! Happy Birthday!
21. Another year of annoying everyone.
22. I only came here for the cake.
23. Like a fine wine, you get better with age.
24. When I reach your age, I’ll still be younger than you.

Complimentary Happy Birthday Messages

Maybe a heartfelt and complimentary birthday message is better suited to the recipient and your relationship with them. This list would work well as a birthday message for a friend. 

1. Happy Birthday to a wonderful human being.
2. You are a truly special person. Happy birthday to you.
3. You light up our lives all year round but today we celebrate you more than ever!
4. We’re all so proud of who you have become. Happy Birthday.
6. Hoping your birthday is as full of fun and laughter as you make our lives every day.
7. The very happiest of birthdays to one of life’s best people. I am grateful for every day we spend on Earth together!
8. To the most caring, supportive, and hardworking person I know.
9. Hope your birthday is as special as you are.
10. Today is the perfect excuse to celebrate you.
11. You deserve all the happiness in the world.

Happy Birthday Message for a Friend

1. So thankful for your friendship. Happy Birthday.
2. Friends like you don’t come around often. Happiest of birthdays.
3. Wishing my dear friend another year of happiness and love.
4. Big hugs for my best friend on their birthday!
5. What would I do without you? Probably lose my mind! Happy birthday friend!
6. Hoping your birthday is as full of fun and laughter as you make our lives every day.

Happy Birthday Messages for Him

Write a special happy birthday message for him using the below list. Perfect for using on a card for your brother, father, grandad, son, or friend.

1. Happy birthday son - we couldn’t be prouder.
2. Mate! It’s your birthday! Let’s get drunk.
3. Happy birthday to the best husband I could ask for.
4. We all love you. Have the happiest of birthdays Dad!
5. To the no.1 dad - Happy birthday!
6. The man, the myth, the legend. Happy Birthday!
7. Like a good whiskey, you get better with age.
8. Here’s too many more adventures. Happy Birthday bro!
9. Brother from another mother. Happy Birthday!
10. You’ve turned into a strong, thoughtful, and confident young man.

Happy Birthday Messages for Her

Whether it be a happy birthday message for your sister, daughter, mother, grandma, wife, or friend, knowing what happy birthday message to write for her can be difficult. Try to think of something about that person you are grateful for and you’ll be able to create the perfect happy birthday message for her.

1. Another year more lovely… if that’s even possible!
2. To the most beautiful wife - happy birthday.
3. To my bestie - wishing you another year of success and adventure!
4. Couldn’t have wished for a more strong, caring, and loving inspiration - Happy Birthday Grandma.
5. To my best friend and my sister - Happy Birthday!
6. Mum, today is all about you!
7. Relax on this day!
8. Wishing for a birthday as lovely as you are.

Happy Birthday Quotes

Wish them a happy birthday with a thought provoking quote instead.

1. Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears. — John Lennon
2. My life is better with every year of living it. — Rachel Maddow
3. Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young. — Fred Astaire
4. I was brought up to respect my elders, so now I don’t have to respect anybody. — George Burns
5. And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. — Abraham Lincoln
6. At twenty years of age, the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgement. — Benjamin Franklin
7. The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. — Oprah Winfrey
8. Let your joy be in your journey, not in some distant goal. – Tim Cook
9. There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents, and only one for birthday presents, you know. — Lewis Carroll
10. Youth has no age. — Pablo Picasso
11. We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. — George Bernard Shaw 
12. Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wings of time. – Jean Paul Richter
13. Please don’t retouch my wrinkles. It took me so long to earn them. — Anna Magnani
14. Every birthday is a gift. Every day is a gift. — Aretha Franklin
15. I still think of myself as I was 25 years ago. Then I look in a mirror and see an old bastard and I realize it’s me. – Dave Allen
16. You don’t get older, you get better. — Shirley Bassey
17. Middle age is when you still believe you’ll feel better in the morning. — Bob Hope
18. When someone asks if you’d like cake or pie, why not say you want cake and pie? — Lisa Loeb
19. There is still no cure for the common birthday. — John Glenn
20. Whatever with the past has gone, the best is always yet to come. — Lucy Larcom
21. We turn not older with years, but newer every day. – Emily Dickinson
22. If we could be twice young and twice old we could correct all our mistakes. – Euripides
23. The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything. — Oscar Wilde
24. Everything I know I learned after I was 30. — Georges Clemenceau
25. There are two great days in a person’s life—the day we are born and the day we discover why. — William Barclay
26. Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself. – Tom Wilson

Now you have plenty of birthday message inspiration! Take a look at our birthday card collection to find the perfect card.