IF it's your birthday this week, you probably already struggle to arrange any kind of celebration around Christmas. 

But a new survey has revealed it's a double blow for anyone in their 30s.

The study commissioned by Interflora found on average people stop celebrating their own birthday at 37 and start lying about their age at the same time.

After examining the attitudes of 2,000 people from across the UK towards their own birthdays, the study found that:

• 39% of us are choosing to not celebrate at all – with 1 in 4 saying they’d rather not be reminded of growing a year older.

  • The same number (26%) said they didn’t celebrate because they dislike being the centre of attention.

• More men (33%) than women (22%) are choosing to shun their special day.

• The research also found that men are more likely to lie about their age than women with 1 in 5 of the men surveyed admitted to having pretended to be younger than they are compared to just 17% of women.

So what occasions are we celebrating over our birthdays?

With people not wanting to celebrate their birthdays, other occasions are taking priority in people’s lives.

86.5% said celebrating their birthday was not as important as celebrating that of a loved one.

And surprisingly 49.8% of people thought a job anniversary was more important than their own birthday.

Occasions people are putting ahead of their own birthday include:

• Engagement - 89.6%

• Christmas - 88.1%

• Wedding anniversary - 84.5%

• New House - 84.5%

How long does your birthday last for?

For the people that still celebrate their birthdays, 37% of celebrations go on for 2 days or more.

On average two thirds of people receive between 0 and 2 phone calls for their birthday, whereas each person will receive more than 6 well-wishing social media messages.

Behavioral psychiatrist Dr Daniel Farrelly from the University of Worcester said:

"Issues to do with age seem to have a big influence on our perceptions of birthdays, namely as we get older we either celebrate less or not at all.

"It's likely our social circle decreases somewhat as further ties in life (career, kids) take precedent, but the data suggests this is not so important.

"What the data suggests is worrying about getting older is the main explanation, which is surprising.

"Instead I would suggest that the real reason relates to this indirectly.

"For example, it may be an excuse to not have to celebrate birthdays so much, because these other demands above make it harder (or less appealing!) as we get older.

"This is supported by the fact that men are more likely to stop celebrating birthdays than women, as there is evidence that the social support networks of men decrease more so when they get older.”