Birthdays Around Christmas

My son is 3 years old , today !.....Dec 22nd
( The wife and he came home, from hospital, on Christmas Eve 3 yrs ago )
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My wife's family is quite disfunctional around the holidays....and tax season for that matter !
She tells me last week - "We'll celebrate his b'day on Friday 26th cos that's
when I can get my family together."
I nod..."okay".....( I don't like it at all.......sounded too much like my brother's crazy family ! )
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Yesterday,
She comes to her senses -
"Screw them !.....he needs to be celebrated ON HIS real birthday."
I nod...."okay".......
( you notice a pattern, right ?)
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So, after work I'm to get balloons + a cake.
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I said to my wife "So, he has two birthday celebrations...who cares ?...he won't !....I've
known persons who celebrate their birthday ALL WEEK."
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I was told "Birthdays around Christmas can get confusing because people are
out shopping + attending holiday functions. Having people attend a birthday party can be
tough to do sometimes.".....(..this person's son was born Dec27th )
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So.....what day were you born ?
And how has it been with a birthday near Christmas ?

 

My son on Dec 31st, not such a great deal,Mrs. JG Jan 8 th. not the greatest either. My daughter and our anniversary the same day in Oct. .

 

12/20 for me.

My mom always ensured that birthday was birthday and Christmas was Christmas. Terri's now the adult to this child and she does the same thing. (And I have now fully recovered from Saturday's festivities, I'm pleased to note!)

 

My birthday is the 23rd, so I learned early what I did and didn't like about having a birthday this time of year. Christmas wrap or choosing a present from under the tree on my birthday is something that I absolutely loathe! It's a birthday so should be celebrated as such, some may think I'm being picky but would you wrap a July birthday present in Christmas wrap? Birthday parties are hard to plan with all the Christmas concerts, preparations and travelling as people are just to busy.

My son's birthday is today, he's 20. if you ask him about his birthday celebrations he will say every year was made special. We always kept one room not decorated so we could decorate it for his birthday, a rule in my house is all birthday presents must be wrapped in birthday wrap. We kept his parties small inviting only his closest friends from school and family members, as they seem to be the ones that make an effort to attend. When inviting the "class" in our experience there is a lot of disappointment for the kids as they do not understand why so many don't show up.

Having a birthday just before Christmas was my lesson on how to make my son's birthdays special so here's what I've always tried to do:

Make time for your child's birthday and make it special somehow. Children look forward to birthdays, almost as much as they look forward to Santa try and find a way to make it memorable.
Birthday Wrap for the presents.
Do not let people combine the presents into one gift for both occasions.
Get or make a Birthday cake - not a Christmassy one (unless your child was like me and in love with Christmas).
If your house is decorated Christmas, leave one room for the Birthday decorations or take the party to another location that can be decorated for a birthday.
Basically make it something your child will remember, it is their "special" day and they deserve to have it celebrated as a birthday any other time of year would be celebrated.

 

My son is December 26th.

My ex-wife's water broke at 5PM on Christmas Day.

My son was born at 1:30PM the next day.

When he was born, I made a promise to him that I would not "consolidate" his birthday. EVER.

I was born on January 4th and as I grew up I got "consolidated" presents.

My son actually has 2 Christmases and 2 birthday celebrations. One set with her family and one set with my family.

One year we had a "half birthday" party in the summer since his (my) friends were all available in the summer.

On his 21st birthday we will spend Christmas in Las Vegas.

 

Wow !
Everybody, Good insights --

 

My son's 3rd birthday is tomorrow. Had his party yesterday. Will always seperate his birthday and Jesus' birthday completely. When he gets older and wants to combine the two to get a more expensive gift that's fine, but will always have a different celebration for his birthday.

 

i wasn't born around Christmas, but Happy Birthday to your son Joe.

 

My oldest son and faithful Vegas companion (who will be 33) was born on Christmas Eve (arrived three weeks late). I remember when Erik was younger, he thought all the festivities around the holidays were in his honor. Obviously, it would have been impossible to have his birthday party with his friends on Christmas Eve. However, I always had it as close to the date as possible. We always have celebrated Christmas Eve with his grandparents. In addition to Christmas cookies, we always had a birthday cake and sang "Happy Birthday". His birthday gifts were always opened separately before the Christmas Eve festivities, and always wrapped in birthday paper.

Happy Holidays!

 

One of my nephews was born on Dec 24. The other was born on Jan 4. Guess my sister and her hubby got it on in the spring, lol. I usually give them a "combined" xmas and bd present but it was the equivalent of 2 presents (I used to give them gift cards to the video game stores but they don't buy as much so I just give them cash nowadays).

 

My birthday is today! When I was growing up my mother always made the day special and made sure that I received Birthday present(s) separate from Christmas. The most special thing was to get to choose what dessert we would have with dinner because we did not have dessert as a rule! Now the day is always made special with a trip to the local casino. Too bad that today's was not profitable (like most!)

 

My Father's birthday was the 25th. He died when I was young so I don't remember any birthdays. But I remember my Mother lighting a candle for him every Christmas. It's a bit of a sad memory.

 

my sons birthday is January 26, so almost exactly a month after christmas. It is kind of annoying because he gets tons of stuff for christmas and when his birthday rolls around he has anything he wanted, and he has low demands.. so we usually do Disneyland and I have a pass for me, and he is still "free" bad I know, but no one has asked me for a ticket for him and i had bad planning when I renewed.

 

29th here. There are certainly pros and cons from the point of view of school boy thecarve. I did like the fact that I could ask for bigger gifts as a Bday/Christmas combo without looking like a greedy little brat. But the fact that I would get so many cards and (non-super sized) gifts that were of the “Happy B-day & Merry Christmas” variety sometimes pissed me off. And, as mentioned by another poster, those cards and wrapping paper were always Christmas themed…the birthday was a bit of an afterthought.

Also, when you’re a kid, Christmas is already a pretty big deal – presents, seeing cousins you haven’t seen in a year, getting two weeks off of school, the sledding, snowball fights, hot chocolate...So adding the birthday to all that was almost overkill. I was always a little jealous of kids with birthdays in the spring or summer – it was like they got an “extra” special day/week that I didn’t. On the plus side, I never had to go to school on my birthday.

One somewhat funny memory I have that somewhat relates to this topic: I was a latchkey kid and always had a few hours between when I got home from school and when mom and dad got home from work. During the winter months, I would spend much of this time searching the attic, the basement, mom and dad’s closet – every nook and cranny in the house – to find out what presents I was getting. (Impatient little brat, wasn’t I?) So by the time Christmas/my Bday rolled around, there was very little I didn’t know about already. But the hardest part was after Christmas when I had opened all those presents but I knew that I still had certain toys/games/etc. that the folks were obviously saving for my birthday. It killed me not being able to play with those for another four days…and not being able to whine about it to my parents!


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