Perpetual birthday calendar: what it is and how to make one that lasts

How a perpetual calendar works

A normal calendar is tied to one year, because the weekdays move: March 12 is a Friday one year and a Saturday the next. A perpetual calendar leaves the weekdays out. Each page is a month with the numbers 1 to 31 and room next to each day, so nothing on it ever goes out of date.

That makes it the natural place for things that repeat on the same date every year: birthdays, anniversaries, the day you got the dog. It isn’t meant for appointments; it’s meant to answer one question at a glance: whose day is coming up?

In the Netherlands and Belgium the perpetual birthday calendar is a household institution (a “verjaardagskalender”), traditionally hung where everyone sees it every day, often on the back of the bathroom door.

What to put on it

• Birthdays of everyone you would hate to forget: family, close friends, godchildren, neighbors you exchange cards with.
• The birth year next to the name, e.g. “Grandma (1947)”. An age would be wrong from the second year on; a birth year never is, and you can work out the age in your head.
• Wedding anniversaries, with the year of the wedding.
• Other yearly dates that matter to you: the day someone passed away, the day you moved in, a pet’s birthday.

Leave space. A good perpetual calendar has room to write in new people as the family grows.

February 29 and other details

A perpetual calendar needs all 29 days of February, so leap-day birthdays have a place. In the years without February 29, most people celebrate on February 28 or March 1; the calendar simply shows the true date.

Because there are no weekdays, the months all look the same. Artwork or photos per month make it easier to find your place, and a list of each month’s birthdays next to the picture means you can see the whole month without reading every day.

DIY or personalized?

You can make one yourself: print twelve pages with the numbers 1 to 31 and write the names in by hand. It works, but it tends to fill up in different handwritings and pens, and it’s easy to miss someone.

A personalized perpetual calendar is printed with the names already in. You add the dates once, see every page before it prints, and get a calendar that looks finished on the wall, with space left to add new people by hand.

Where to hang it

• Somewhere you pass every day: the kitchen, the hallway, or, the Dutch way, the bathroom.
• At eye height, so a glance on the first of the month shows who is celebrating.
• Next to where you keep cards and stamps, if you still send them.