Birthdays: we all have them. Every year, in fact. We pay a lot of attention to them, as they decide things like our star sign and our birthstone.

When you're a child, you look forward to your birthday all year, hoping your parents will get you somewhere great to have a party and the presents you've been wanting. You invite all the other kids in your class to your party, and hope they all turn up. You look forward to being a year older and becoming a big boy or girl. Many adults' clearest childhood memories are from their birthdays.

When we become adults, however, we have a tendency to stop seeing birthdays as something to look forward to and celebrate and start seeing them as something to be endured. Like with Christmas, many people go from being at their happiest at that time each year to finding it a cause of unbearable depression.

There are some simple ways, however, to put a bit of magic and sparkle back into your birthday. For a start, you should resolve to actually have a party instead of just ignoring the occasion - if you can't handle doing it yourself, the chances are that your overly-outgoing friend will be delighted to play host for you.

There are all sorts of things you can do to liven up a party and stop it all from becoming too serious: make it fancy dress, play silly games like musical chairs and pin the tail on the donkey, have a big birthday cake with the proper number of candles (even if you're 40 or 50!), make everyone sing 'happy birthday to you', and so on. If it seems too childish to organise things like that yourself, go out to a restaurant where they'll gladly embarrass you by bringing a cake and getting the staff to sing.

If you can keep celebrating your birthday in as silly a way as possible every year, then you'll have no need to be afraid of it. Just keep the whole thing under your control and make it a positive occasion: instead of thinking about getting older, use it as an opportunity to look back on your childhood and your life so far.