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Count Your Buttons Day

Fun · October 21

Count Your Buttons Day invites you to tally the buttons on your clothes, in your drawers and in that old tin, and see what they reveal.

Count Your Buttons Day falls on Thursday, October 21, 2027. That is 359 days away.

Buttons are everywhere once you start looking. They hold shirts closed, keep coat pockets shut and sit in jars at the back of closets, waiting for a missing twin. The idea here is simple: count them.

Start with what you are wearing. A dress shirt can carry more than you expect once you include the cuffs and the tiny spare sewn inside the hem. A cardigan has a neat row down the front. Jeans usually have just one, plus a few rivets that look like buttons but are not.

Then there is the button tin. Many households have one, often inherited, full of strays from coats long gone. Sorting it is oddly calming. Shell buttons have a soft shine, wooden ones feel warm, and plastic ones come in colors no garment seems to need. Most have two or four holes for thread, while others have a little loop on the back, called a shank, so they sit slightly above the fabric.

Counting can turn into a family game. Children like guessing a total before the tally, and adults tend to guess far too low. The winner is usually whoever owns the most shirts.

Somewhere in every tin is a single brass button nobody can place, and it usually stays right where it is.

Ways to celebrate

• Count the buttons on today's outfit and guess the total first.
• Sort an old button tin by color, size or material.
• Sew a loose button back on before it disappears.
• Hold a family guessing game for the house's total button count.

Dates

All national days on October 21

Also on October 21

• National Apple Day
• National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day
• National Reptile Day
• Back to the Future Day

Categories: Fun days