Okay, I've had someone tell me in the past to write "Happy Birthday , Susie!" rather than "Happy Birthday Susie!"- on a cake. I just left the comma off anyway because I thought it looked strange.

Then, another cake order today where someone said...just put "Happy Birthday, John!" -- To me, that looks weird to have a comma after HB. What's right? (I don't think I'm changing though )

I've never used a comma.
It looks funny to me as well.

No comma!

I can see wanting the spelling to be correct, but the GRAMMAR? You're not writing a paragraph, haha!

My pet peeve is when you see a cake that says, "YOUR 16 (or a great guy, or whatever)" instead of "YOU'RE 16 (or whatever)". Drives me crazy!

adding a comma implies a closing and signature, as on a card or letter:

Happy Birthday to you.
Love,
John

So if the cake was supposed to indicate who had purchased it, or who the greeting was from, a comma would be correct. You would want to clarify that with the customer: "Do you mean to put a message of greeting to the birthday person (in this case John) or is the greeting supposed to convey the message "Happy Birthday to you from John"? I would ask to be sure.

I've never used a comma on a cake after Happy Birthday, it looks rather strange and out of place.

This one got me thinking---I just did two bday cakes today and they both had the comma!!!!!

Then I got really curious and I went back to look at all my bday pictures and most of them don't have the comma, but the ones I did today did. Bizarre that the question would come up today and those are the cakes I have the comma on. Strange.........but...now I know I'll leave it off from here on. thanks for the question.

Technically, a comma would be required, but it doesn't seem to apply to cakes. Sometimes I do it, other times not. I'm an English teacher, hence my ambivalence.

I have never thought of it before.

I have never thought it before either.

And I don't put the comma either. No one has ever said anything. They just want to eat cake!

I have never put a comma on a Happy Birthday cake....looks odd. Then again, I detest writing on cakes because I always mess it up and have to start over.
Angie

SO TRUE!!!! Doesn't matter what I use!! I'm a mess. My husband knows he has to leave the room and possibly the house if I'm writing on a cake because I'm going to spend an hour complaining and re-icing with frustration!

I have started using the cake board to write on if it's a stacked cake, and I'm a happier decorator for it.

Angie

Hello ...
voila: my 2 cents worth.

Grammatically, it is correct to use a comma.
The reason is because the birthday person is being addressed; in the same way as you would say: thank you, John. OR hello, John.

I can understand using the common if the whole greeting is on one line. I typically have one word per line, so the comma would definitely look out of place. I often write the happy birthday on the top of the cake, & the name along the front side... no need for a comma then.
I never use the comma.

I too hate it when people write your instead of you're... but the one I hate even more is: using of instead of have. ex: you could of done it; I should of called ... instead of you could have done it; I should have called.
and of course, the all time, most common errors: their vs there and hear vs here.
OK, I am rambling... enough from me. NO COMMA.

ciao

I'm a high school English teacher, and honestly, I'm sorry that someone siad that to you! What a waste of time to worry about this. A comma would add a pause, like an address, as noted earlier, but that wouldn't make it smooth. No one says, "Happy Birthday, John!" in their tone. While it may be a technically correct way to write it -- no one does it in writing or on cakes. Therefore, imho, it falls under one of the countless exceptions we have in the English language. Don't use the comma is my advice.

Honestly, the English language is more fluid than that. Today, one can end a sentence with a preposition and no one cares. Who and whom are vitually out the window, and kids are writing e-mails to me using text messaging lingo.

While proper grammar has its place, that kind of persnicketyness (how would they like that word!) just isn't called for here.

Sorry for the long vent, but I deal with this every day.

Sarah

grammar is relative (and that's coming from an English teacher)

there's one "grammar" for formal essay and report writing.

there's another "grammar" for journalism

and is there even such a thing as "grammar" in the advertising world?

so...in the cake world....no comma

(my pet peeve...the use of good and well)

would my kids love to have you for their English teacher, sonoma9!!!!!!

Oh goodness! I think we could have a thread on pet peeves in grammar. I hate "I seen." Worse yet, I hate "I brung it." I regularly attend our City Council meetings and our City Administrator repeatedly says "ain't" and "brung." I want to speak up and correct him. I mentioned to the mayor and city clerk that using those words made him sound very uneducated and made him sound like a country bumpkin. The mayor informed me that he liked the word "ain't." I give up! It is embarrassing to have him represent our city in important meetings speaking like that! Sorry for the vent...........I just had to tell someone! It's been bothering me for a long time!!!

Diane

Thanks everybody for the grammar lesson/advice! I thought I might get one reply if I was lucky! Now I know where to go next time I have a grammar question!

I'm sticking to the no comma plan. midialjoje, that is too weird that you did that today ! Thanks!!

My ex boy friend's mom always said, "I and whoever did this or that." I always wanted to tell her that you never put "I" first but figured she was 30 years older than me and she could say what she darned well pleased while I cringed!!!!

I grew up in California and 45 years ago I had an 8th grade English teacher that instilled in me how important good grammar and punctuation were. Everytime I hear someone make a mistake, her face flashes in front of me. I owe so much to her and I will never forget her.

Diane

My dh gave me a t-shirt that says, "Although the voice's in my head aren't real, they have some good ideas." I HAD to take a fabric marker and blot out the apostrophe in front of the s before I would wear the shirt! Of course, now he has to point it out to everyone when I wear the shirt.

I recommend the book, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, if you are a stickler for correct grammar and are annoyed by comma and apostrophe abuse. My 14 year old son also likes the parody of that book, Eats, Shites, and Leaves, which has a lot of examples of horrible use of grammar and ambiguous language.

RedPanda

No comma. It doesn't matter if its grammatically correct or it ain't. Lemme aks you this... Would you put the period at the end of the Happy Birthday message? I doubt it. So, why put the comma. JMO.

And forget the decorations... The message would be so busy with all the quotation that you wouldn't be able to fit even a flower on it.

"Happy Birthday, John."

Oh geez, my work life invading my cake central life! LOL! I work as a medical transcriptionist. Though I'm not at all correct all the time, I've noticed that grammar errors drive me nuts these days! I guess since I have to spend 40 hours a week correcting the mistakes of doctors, it seems to have invaded the rest of my life too! LOL!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has her 8th grade teacher's voice in her head. All that diagramming sentences and spelling rules.....

I actually met my DH online and the thing that initially interested me was that he knew how to communicate in English. Of course, little did I know he was much better at writing than "talking about things." Just kidding!

As for the happy birthday question..I put the HB and the name on two different lines.

OMG I loved diagramming sentences. My grandkids think I'm crazy when I talk about doing that.

Diane[/quote]

WHew -- glad I'm not the only one! I absolutely love it! In fact, when I taught freshmen English during summer school, I always used this technique, and the kids loved it! It's like a puzzle, so it appeals to them. I think people only hate it when it's presented in an incredibly boring way -- like "Here's the book. Complete page 9 odds only!"

Sarah

Grammar was my favorite subject in school!!! I still remember the "Linking Verb Rap" that my 6th grade teacher taught us!!! ("Be Am Is Are, Was Were Being Been, ..." ) I cringe when I see apostrophes where they don't belong ("they're" instead of "there", "your's" instead of "yours", etc)!! The whole I/me thing drives me batty, too! I try not to correct people too much, but on the inside, my stomach is doing somersaults!!!!

Oh, and one more thing ... not necessarily grammar-related, but pronunciation-related ... it drives me NUTS when people say "EYE-talian" instead of "Ih-talian"!!!!!!!!! My family is Italian, so I think I may be especially sensitive to it. My MIL does that, and a little part of me dies each time she says it!!! I just want to yell, "How do you say 'Italy', huh, huh, huh??? NOT 'EYE-taly', right?!?!? So why do you have to say 'EYE-talian'?!?!?!?!". But, for the sake of my future grandchildren and the current peaceful status of our family, I keep my lips zipped!!! DH and his siblings correct her all the time, but she just says "That's how I say it, and it's not going to change!"!!!!

P.S. - I loved diagramming sentences, too!!!