Here's how Animal Crossing: New Horizons celebrates your birthday

Birthdays are one of the many things you can experience with your villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Also, celebrating a villager's birthday is an awesome way to strengthen your friendship with them and have some fun. However, something that some may not know is that your villagers will return the favor and celebrate your birthday when it rolls around, too! Here's a breakdown of what you can expect when you play Animal Crossing: New Horizons on your birthday.

Surprise!

Image 1 of 2

When you start up the game on your birthday, one of your island's villagers will be waiting for you at the door to your house. Once you come out of the door, they'll immediately initiate dialogue and tell you to follow them, promising that it will be fun. After this, you will automatically load into the house of the villager who spoke to you.

When you walk inside, the villager who talked with you as well as two other villagers will yell, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" to you, tricked out in party clothes. Also, the house itself will be furnished with some special party furniture like balloons, a birthday sign, a cake, and a unique set of wallpaper and flooring. There will be party music playing on a radio, too!

Blow out the candles and get a present!

Image 1 of 2

After the villagers wish you a happy birthday, one of them will encourage you to walk up to a nearby birthday cake and blow out the candles using the A Button. Once you do this, the villagers will cheer, clap, and blow some party poppers into the air in joy.

One of the villagers then approaches you and offers you a birthday gift that the three of them all picked out and wrapped for you together. This present contains a rare piece of furniture or clothing.

Piñata time!

Once you open your gift, the villagers will excitedly announce the next part of the party: breaking a piñata! The group will show off a special star-shaped piñata that they made for you to bash open, and they promise you that once you bust it apart, there will be goodies within. Then a villager will hand you a long stick, and you'll be prompted to smash the piñata with it repeatedly using the A Button.

As you do this, the villagers will cheer you on and encourage you to swing faster until finally, after about 20 swings, the piñata will break. Following this, 10 birthday cupcakes will spill onto the floor (gross). The villagers will then collect them up and hand them to you. These cupcakes will be useful later, so don't eat them all!

After the cupcakes are handed off to you, all the "activities" at the party will be over. From here on out, the villagers will simply dance around the room and sing your island's town tune until you decide to leave. Once you do, the party ends.

Give cupcakes to everyone!

Image 1 of 2

After the party ends, you can share your birthday cupcakes with your other friends on your island who didn't make it to the party. Also, if you see any of the villagers who came to the party later, you can give them one too; they didn't take any during the party itself, after all!

Not only will this make them very happy, but it will also prompt each of them to give you a birthday gift. These gifts aren't as nice as the one that you get during the party, but they're usually pretty cool nonetheless — you'll typically either get a normal piece of furniture or clothing, or a unique piece of furniture or clothing that's birthday themed. Eating those cupcakes is tempting, but it's worth it to share them with friends in the long run!

What do you think of the way Animal Crossing: New Horizons celebrates your birthday? I think that it's fantastic. The addition of a piñata minigame is really neat, and I love that you can save birthday cupcakes to share with all of your villagers after the party ends.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for $60 on Nintendo Switch.