When you celebrate a milestone birthday, it's not unusual for your loved ones to go above and beyond to make the day special - be it with presents or a day out they know you'll enjoy.
But one woman has sparked a debate online after she revealed she's celebrating her husband's upcoming 40th birthday by splashing out on 40 separate presents.
The trend of buying one present for each year of someone's life has been around for some time, but many people accused the woman of being "awfully wasteful" with her gift idea, even though she's just trying to do something nice for her husband.
The woman made her intentions known in a post on Mumsnet, where she posted to ask people if they had any ideas about how to give her husband the gifts.
It's common when presenting multiple gifts to do one per day, but the woman worried that 40 days of gifts would get tedious, though she also noted that 40 presents in one sitting would be "overwhelming".
In her post, she asked: "My husband's 40th is soon. I've gone with the 40 presents idea, I know what I'm buying him, but no idea how to 'present' them!
"[Doing] 40 days of gifts sounds like the novelty will quickly run out, [but] 40 presents in one go sounds overwhelming. I don't think he'd like a gift hunt.
"Any suggestions gratefully received."
Commenters were quick to tell the woman that 40 presents was overkill and urged her to rethink her decision and just get him "one nice thing" instead.
One person said: "Can't you just get him one nice thing?"
While another added: "Does he need 40 things? These kinds of presents seem awfully wasteful to me."
But the woman defended her decision, pointing out that people have "no idea" what she's bought or made for her husband, or what budget she had when choosing the gifts - so they don't truly know whether the gifts are "wasteful" or not.
She responded: "You have no idea what I have bought, or even made. If they are edible, plants or tools. I haven't intimated a budget etc. I could have bought him 40 Bugattis for all you know. Or I could have given him 40 trips away.
"Let's just stop with the judgement; if you don't like it, don't post."
The woman also said her husband is aware of her plans as they talked about it beforehand, and she just wants to make him "feel special and cherished".
She added: "My husband knows about the gifts, it's not a secret. He's thoroughly happy with the idea; preferred it in fact, as he doesn't need or want anything big, but would rather have small useful/meaningful gifts.
"It's not about me - it's about making him feel special and cherished after a truly, truly sh***y few years for him. Does that make everyone feel better? It's not about me, I'm not killing the planet, it's not consumerism, nor is it for social media (we're not on it)."
Not everyone was judgemental of the woman's gift-giving ideas though, as many other commenters did give helpful suggestions of how to break up the presents - including spreading them out throughout the day.
Someone said: "Spread it throughout the day, so 5 gifts before breakfast, 5 after, same with lunch and dinner, save the remaining gifts to open in bed?"
As someone else added: "I'd wrap them up and put them in a nice hamper and let him choose how he wants to open them. He might want to open them all, or space it out."
And a third wrote: "My friend has just done this for her husband's 40th. She just did them all at once. He didn't get overwhelmed, he loved it. Presents ranged from silly, to sentimental to a holiday. She took a photo of him with each one and made a photo collage of them. It's very sweet."
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