I usually just treat it as a birthday month, take a couple weeks vacation then, and spend it with people I like. I find it facilitates loved ones being able to filter in and out of the birthday situation as their schedules allow without putting much pressure on me or anyone else to have a good time. It feels like cheating, but I like that any good memories during that month get attributed to the celebration and any bad ones can get written off as “not birthday.” It might be fractured to the point of delusion, but I still like it.