In my family, we have a lot of December birthdays. Three of them are in the first three weeks, and then we hit the dreaded holiday birthdays. My mom is 12/23, my uncle is 12/25, and baby Lou is 12/27. Right in the middle of both Christmas and New Year’s.
A quick google search shows over 10 million results for “Christmas birthdays are the worst.” And it feels like I’ve read them all! I grew up hearing about how much my mom hated her near-Christmas birthday. She never got to have parties, because everyone was either out of town, too busy with family, or sick. She never got special gifts, because everyone would just give her joint Christmas/birthday presents. And she never felt celebrated, because everyone was so focused on the big upcoming holiday, that they didn’t have time to make her day feel special.
I am determined to do things differently! Personally, I’m not really a birthday person. I don’t like the attention or reminder of aging. But when it comes to other people I LOVE celebrating. I go all out for Ace’s parties and love the planning aspect as well. For Lou’s upcoming first birthday, we are just having a small family party at home. We did the same when Ace turned one. But as she gets older, I have a bit of a plan in place to combat the issues of having a Christmastime birthday. A few tips:
Plan a party that people can actually attend. This will look different for everyone. Some may do a Half Birthday party in June, or perhaps schedule for early December or Mid January. For us this year, we are doing a small party on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s a few days after her actual birthday. In future years, when Lou wants to invite friends, we will revisit this.
Ask the birthday child first. If your baby is now old enough to have opinions then you should certainly ask them what they want to do! You may be surprised with what they choose.
Keep it separate. All of it. The gifts, the food,the decor. Try to make the birthday feel distinct in any way that you can. You can’t help it if every relative wraps a gift in leftover Santa paper, but at home you can make it happen.
Plan around the date. Try not to schedule holiday themed events like light viewings or Christmas parties on the special birthday date.
Play it up. For younger kids, you can really emphasize how exciting it is to have a bunch of holidays all in a row, and that this makes their birthday even more special and unique.
Celebrate in style. It never hurts to get out of the house, away from the Christmas decorations, and into a birthday friendly event space! A day trip could work as well, but travel around the holidays is always more hectic and expensive. We hope to get out of town every few birthdays though, just like we do with our October birthday child.
Any Christmas birthdays here? How do you feel about it? And I would love to hear from anyone who is due in mid-December or later. I really worried about the whole Christmas birthday thing before baby was born, but now that we are approaching the date it doesn’t feel like such a big deal!
nectarine / 2018 posts
My 4 year DD was due in January but came early December. And on the same day as DH’s brother’s birthday, which we were in no way expecting. At first I was bummed but it is what it is. So far we have had her party in early December to make it work with family. When we decorate the house for Christmas we do not put anything in the dining room – that gets fully decorated for whatever birthday theme she is having. We have done separate gifts so far but in the future I could see giving her the option of one bigger gift. At this age she thinks it’s awesome that every where we go is decorated and that there are so many fun events. We’ll see how she feels as she gets older. We also always do half birthday cakes for all of us!
I know my BIL struggled with it at times as a kid/early teen but otherwise he thinks it’s great. The half birthday party never worked out though – he was always so excited for it and said he understood it was for his birthday, but when his birthday rolled around he was sad not to celebrate again with friends.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
I have 2 Dec babies and 1 is 5 days before Christmas! We’ve been keeping everything separate, and I think it helps that we don’t “overdo” Christmas where they will feel like their birthday are less than. We also haven’t had huge parties either, just family so they have felt the love
I absolutely don’t think s Dec bday is detrimental to their happiness!
cantaloupe / 6730 posts
It’s funny, my uncle’s birthday is Dec 29 and he has had a birthday party many times (whereas none of his 6 brothers or sisters do). And not the same, but my birthday is Jan 17 and I LOVED (love) combo gifts. Do you know how big a present you can get if you combine birthday with Christmas?!?!?!?
nectarine / 2436 posts
I’m due mid January but will probably go early and I’m agonizing about Christmas and New year’s birthdays! Here in New York early January is absolutely the worst too and no one wants to do anything. Praying I can make it til at least Jan 7!
guest
My son was born 2 months premature and ended up with a December 22nd birthday. He is turning 6 this year and so far it hasn’t been an issue. This year we are celebrating with family this coming weekend. We do separate birthday décor and wrapping paper. On his actual birthday we are going to a local water park with a few close friends. At first, I hated his December birthday but now I think it’s really special. Last year, his elf brought a special birthday plate and “Happy Birthday” lights that we strung in the dining room. I thought about doing a half birthday in the summer but I agree that he would feel really sad if we didn’t celebrate on the actual date.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
Charlie hates his early December birthday because he feels like he has to wait so long for his birthday. This year we also had trouble scheduling his party due to Christmas break and other December birthdays of friends. His birthday was kind of a disappointment due to a lot of factors. So I’ve decided to throw him a 9 3/4 birthday next year when he’s 9 3/4 in September because he’s obsessed with Harry Potter!
blogger / apricot / 439 posts
My birthday is just a few days before Christmas and I’ve always sort of hated it. My mom REALLY tried her best (and still does!) to make sure all my gifts were wrapped in birthday paper and that I got a separate celebration. Despite her best efforts, it honestly always got overwhelmed by the holidays. She also offered me an option of doing a party/celebration on my half-birthday and I felt weird about it. In hindsight, I’m not sure why I felt that was weird and maybe she should have pushed it more because I think I would have liked it! On the positive side, being just a few days before Christmas, my birthday is often the last day of school or work before break and so everyone is always in a great mood!
blogger / cherry / 138 posts
This is good advice. Snowy is only a few weeks after Christmas. It is a challenge for sure!
blogger / grape / 99 posts
@catgirl: I LOVE your idea of keeping one room not decorated for Christmas so that you can use it as a birthday space. I’m considering taking all the decor down early (I usually leave up until 1/2) so that her party on 12/29 in Christmas decor free. I just want it to be special for her
blogger / grape / 99 posts
@Mrs. Bee: As a huge Harry Potter fan, I support this idea
It sounds like December parties are hard all around. I know here we have soooo many Christmas events that it seems like every family is busy every single weekend in December. Makes it hard to schedule even an early December party!