NEVER thought I would have anything in common with Melania Trump but recently, I learned that I do.

Both of us (along with the First Minister, Mariah Carey, Matt Damon and Tina Fey) have a big birthday looming on the horizon, which, depending on how you feel about these things means trepidation or celebration, or maybe both in equal measure.

I suspect FLOTUS has other things on her mind, but perhaps she has already decided how she is going to exit her 40s. (She also has to come up with an official birthday picture – last year’s was a weird shot of her perched on the edge of a sofa in the Oval Office, looking cool as a cucumber in green, surrounded by a bank of press photographers pointing their cameras at her husband and the Czech Prime Minister.)

Or perhaps she does not care. By planning a year of celebration, I am in the minority, it seems. I was intrigued by a recent story that generally speaking, people stop celebrating their birthday at 37, and start lying about their age at the same time.

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So, Chris Hemsworth, Carrie Underwood and Heidi-Range-from-the-Sugababes, I hope you are all planning a big birthday bash this year, as it will probably be your last.

The survey, commissioned by Interflora, examined attitudes to birthdays and discovered 39 percent of us chose not to celebrate at all. Reasons given ranged from not wanting to be reminded that we are ageing to disliking being the centre of attention.

If we are not celebrating our birthdays, then what do we consider worthy of a party? Almost half of the 2000 people surveyed thought a job anniversary was more important, with engagements, Christmas, wedding anniversaries and moving in to a new house all rating more highly than a birthday.

This is a bit depressing, is it not? Why have we stopped celebrating our birthdays?

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Social circles decreasing, increased pressures of work and life and, if you have children, a switch of focus that means birthdays become all about ball pits, pass the parcel and facepainting for a while, could be the answer. Behavioural psychiatrist Dr Daniel Farrelly thinks these are all excuses to mask worries about getting older.

But I agree with my fellow 49-year-old Mariah Carey, and plan to remain “eternally oblivious” to age, while celebrating in style each birthday that comes my way. And at least I don’t have to issue an official birthday portrait...