How do you answer "what do you want for your birthday?"?

[MadreInglese]

Do you come up with a list of possibles cross checking for duplication against what you've asked your other friends & family members to get you (a la wedding list), or just say you have no idea or that you don't want anything?

I don't normally bother hugely with my birthday but it's a biggie this year and I'm finding some friends and family seem to be getting a bit miffed when I can't tell them what I want, and pull OMG-how-could-you faces when I say I actually don't want anything.

I don't want people spending money, everyone is skint and if they're going to spend something I'd much rather they just bought a bottle to mine (having a little drunken house party) and celebrated with me. When I say this in response I am laughed at like a loonie.

What's the obsession with YOU MUST HAVE A SPECIAL PRESENT TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT RIGHT NOW!?

(you're all going to flame me for being an ungrateful mare aren't you?

maybe suggest one different thing to each person asking?
tell them that you don't mind what you get, but you would quite like...

i always think of things in the month beforehand, because I always get asked by my family and they get annoyed when i say i don't know!

I have an Amazon wishlist - when I think of stuff I want, I put it on there. If no one buys it, I don't forget that I wanted it either.

Works brilliantly, and theres more than DVDs/CDs and books now

but there is nothing I want nickelbabe

personally it just feels a bit indulgent to be thinking of what I could ask for and writing a list of fluff when people close to me have lost jobs, houses, or loved ones this year

I just want my friends and family to come and get sloshed with me (which they are doing and that's fab), and I don't really want any extras

does that make sense at all?

One of those Oxfam unwrapped things?

Tell them you want the moon on a stick. Always stumps them

I think I would get it if someone said this to me but some people can't imagine feeling like this.
Could you ask them to make something inexpensive and personal so you have something special to remember your birthday? A handmade card or a poem or something. Or ask them if they have a good photo of you and them that they could have printed for you.

Am liking the oxfam and something personal ideas (although it will cement my reputation as an old hippy if I ask them all to make me something )