Every villager in the Animal Crossing series has a birthday, which players are invited to celebrate alongside them. In New Horizons, the festivities include a party at the villager's house and the option for players to give a gift. Are there consequences, though, for potentially missing the celebration? And how do villagers respond if their birthdays are ignored?
Timmy and Tommy will ask for a player's birthday near the start of New Horizons. Whenever that day rolls around, the villager with the highest friendship rating in the game - or a randomly determined villager, if all of their friendships are equal - will be waiting outside of the player's house to escort them to a surprise party. Throughout the day, players can then gather pieces from the Birthday furniture set.
Villager birthdays work slightly different than player birthdays, though. First, players will be given a reminder as to when the birthday occurs and will have to travel to the villager's house to attend their party. There, Animal Crossing: New Horizons gives them the option to present a wrapped gift to the villager. Another option is to send a letter mentioning the villager's birthday with a present attached, to which they'll respond by thanking the player for remembering their birthday.
Forgetting A Villager's Birthday In Animal Crossing: New Horizons
As much as the game encourages celebrating alongside the villagers, it isn't strictly mandatory to do so. In fact, there are few consequences to not doing anything for a villager's birthday, although they will respond negatively to poorly chosen gifts such as trash. It seems that New Horizons' developers are fully aware that many players can't be present in-game every day, and as such, villagers will make no mention of their birthday after it's passed. Players will likewise receive no criticism for not attending a birthday party or otherwise sending villagers gifts. Ignoring a villager's birthday also doesn't encourage them to move out any quicker, as Animal Crossing's process for determining which villager leaves is almost entirely random.
Relationships in the Animal Crossing series are relatively straightforward, and little can be done to seriously damage player's friendships with their island's villagers in New Horizons. Furthermore, players who use the time travel mechanic - which can be achieved by setting the Nintendo Switch's date and time forward or backward - can additionally go back to visit any villager parties they may have missed. Although it remains a possibility that a sequel to Animal Crossing: New Horizons may add more noteworthy consequences to the feature (such as negatively impacting a player's friendship with the villager in question), for the time being, New Horizons players can rest easy knowing that the game won't punish them for forgetting someone's birthday.