Comments on: Birthdays at Christmas Time http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html On the Road to Joyful Motherhood Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:21:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Lynette http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-55433 Lynette Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:14:29 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-55433 <a href="#comment-55432" rel="nofollow">@Lynette</a>, I forgot to mention that his vacation time started over with the 1st of the year - so that's why I had to move it close to the end of the year! @Lynette, I forgot to mention that his vacation time started over with the 1st of the year – so that’s why I had to move it close to the end of the year!

]]> By: Lynette http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-55432 Lynette Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:10:56 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-55432 I'm probably impractical, but I actually choose my Dd's birthday to be December 31st! Let me explain: 4th baby, 4th c-section and my due date WAS December 29th. Except, back in May when we found out that I was infact going to have a baby - we were also using all of my hubby's vaca time to go to Disney World (one week from when I found out mind you!) So, no vaca time on the 29th to have hubby help out after baby is born. I would have been in the hospital until close to the 1st either way - but hubby would not have been able to stay at home with kids to take care of them. I actually had to set it up WITH my dr's to have a c-section scheduled for the two days AFTER my due date (I've never popped early thankfully!) So low and behold, I spent New Year of 09 in the hospital with my brand new spanking baby! LOL! Thankfully, I'm old enough to not care too much that we won't be celebrating New Years Eve like I might have when I was younger and single (not going there). Although, I do have family members who might be celebrating that night. This last year, we through the birthday party between 6 - 8 at night (and the grandparents are definietly not staying out late on that night anymore!) but I realized how silly it is to insist on having the party at night! Almost everyone I know has the day off from their jobs - which means we can have the party earlier in the day, and if anyone does want to go out and celebrate New Years Eve - it won't conflict with the two. I'm sure as she gets older (as well as my older kids) we will want to make staying up late as part of our celebration - so we'll figure out how to have a party earlier, and then do a late night movie and snackie night to make things easier on all of us (yeah, right -easier on ME!) I’m probably impractical, but I actually choose my Dd’s birthday to be December 31st! Let me explain: 4th baby, 4th c-section and my due date WAS December 29th. Except, back in May when we found out that I was infact going to have a baby – we were also using all of my hubby’s vaca time to go to Disney World (one week from when I found out mind you!) So, no vaca time on the 29th to have hubby help out after baby is born. I would have been in the hospital until close to the 1st either way – but hubby would not have been able to stay at home with kids to take care of them. I actually had to set it up WITH my dr’s to have a c-section scheduled for the two days AFTER my due date (I’ve never popped early thankfully!) So low and behold, I spent New Year of 09 in the hospital with my brand new spanking baby! LOL!
Thankfully, I’m old enough to not care too much that we won’t be celebrating New Years Eve like I might have when I was younger and single (not going there). Although, I do have family members who might be celebrating that night. This last year, we through the birthday party between 6 – 8 at night (and the grandparents are definietly not staying out late on that night anymore!) but I realized how silly it is to insist on having the party at night! Almost everyone I know has the day off from their jobs – which means we can have the party earlier in the day, and if anyone does want to go out and celebrate New Years Eve – it won’t conflict with the two. I’m sure as she gets older (as well as my older kids) we will want to make staying up late as part of our celebration – so we’ll figure out how to have a party earlier, and then do a late night movie and snackie night to make things easier on all of us (yeah, right -easier on ME!)

]]> By: tracyandwizard http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8834 tracyandwizard Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:53:29 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8834 My daughter, Rachael, turned 3 yesterday 12/22. We had a small dinner, with just us. We decided when she turned 1 to have a small party for her. But when she was turning 2 we decided to have a celebratory dinner and then last June we had a huge blowout barbeque where we invited all the family and friends. Her birthday cake even said Happy 2 1/2 birthday, Rachael. We're going to do the same thing this year too. yesterday we had a dinner with just us. She picked what we had for dinner and she got her b-day present from us. We had a great day. In June, as close to 6/22 as possible, we'll have another big blowout party. We told all the relatives to hold her birthday presents till then. That way we don't deal with the combined b-day christmas present, which we haven't had to deal with yet.<br /><br />We tell Rachael that not everyone gets to have their birthday this close to Jesus' birthday and that only special people actually get to be born in the same time frame as he was. We also tell her that she's lucky in that she gets two birthdays a year. So far it doesn't seem to bother her, but we also try to make a big deal about her birthday too. My daughter, Rachael, turned 3 yesterday 12/22. We had a small dinner, with just us. We decided when she turned 1 to have a small party for her. But when she was turning 2 we decided to have a celebratory dinner and then last June we had a huge blowout barbeque where we invited all the family and friends. Her birthday cake even said Happy 2 1/2 birthday, Rachael. We're going to do the same thing this year too. yesterday we had a dinner with just us. She picked what we had for dinner and she got her b-day present from us. We had a great day. In June, as close to 6/22 as possible, we'll have another big blowout party. We told all the relatives to hold her birthday presents till then. That way we don't deal with the combined b-day christmas present, which we haven't had to deal with yet.

We tell Rachael that not everyone gets to have their birthday this close to Jesus' birthday and that only special people actually get to be born in the same time frame as he was. We also tell her that she's lucky in that she gets two birthdays a year. So far it doesn't seem to bother her, but we also try to make a big deal about her birthday too.

]]> By: LS http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8824 LS Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:06:19 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8824 My brother's birthday is the 27th of Dec and he hates it because all of his life we've been away from home visiting family or at the cabin in the Mts. for Christmas and it's hard for his friends to come to a party. He's gotten lots of the dual gift or the gift in Christmas wrap thing. My mom did a June half-birthday for him one year and he LOVED it and got to have a swimming party, an ice-cream cake, and got a bike instead of winter gear. I think the half-birthday is a GREAT idea if you can have the self-control to not do two in a year. When the real birthday rolls around, go out to eat to celebrate, but save the partying for later. If any of my kids had a Dec. birthday I would do this. I realize you can keep it separate and not mix them, but what about the poor exhausted Mama? All the festivities, cooking, baking, family, traveling, and wrapping catch up with moms. When you don't have a Dec. birthday you can put so much more effort and special touches into it without feeling like a truck ran over you.<br /><br />We do have a birthday crunch in our family in the first 2 weeks of November and my solution is to plan ahead and have gifts ready and wrapped and sent. If we lived closer to those family members, I would ask that they combine parties. I did it with my cousin as a kid and it was no big deal. I think we make too big of a deal out of spoiling kids and that they have to have their own special day and everything has to be perfect. This has resulted in 3 birthday celebrations per person for my SIL's family. That's exhausting! I'm of the mindset that if the grandparents can't make it to the party at our house, then too bad! We don't throw 3 parties per kid and we're not against cousins and Grandpa and auntie sharing a cake for a simple family celebration. Keep life simple! My brother's birthday is the 27th of Dec and he hates it because all of his life we've been away from home visiting family or at the cabin in the Mts. for Christmas and it's hard for his friends to come to a party. He's gotten lots of the dual gift or the gift in Christmas wrap thing. My mom did a June half-birthday for him one year and he LOVED it and got to have a swimming party, an ice-cream cake, and got a bike instead of winter gear. I think the half-birthday is a GREAT idea if you can have the self-control to not do two in a year. When the real birthday rolls around, go out to eat to celebrate, but save the partying for later. If any of my kids had a Dec. birthday I would do this. I realize you can keep it separate and not mix them, but what about the poor exhausted Mama? All the festivities, cooking, baking, family, traveling, and wrapping catch up with moms. When you don't have a Dec. birthday you can put so much more effort and special touches into it without feeling like a truck ran over you.

We do have a birthday crunch in our family in the first 2 weeks of November and my solution is to plan ahead and have gifts ready and wrapped and sent. If we lived closer to those family members, I would ask that they combine parties. I did it with my cousin as a kid and it was no big deal. I think we make too big of a deal out of spoiling kids and that they have to have their own special day and everything has to be perfect. This has resulted in 3 birthday celebrations per person for my SIL's family. That's exhausting! I'm of the mindset that if the grandparents can't make it to the party at our house, then too bad! We don't throw 3 parties per kid and we're not against cousins and Grandpa and auntie sharing a cake for a simple family celebration. Keep life simple!

]]> By: Twinsmom http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8822 Twinsmom Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:04:26 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8822 In our family, all the birthdays are clustered between October 23 and March 16, and each birthday is never more than 7 days from another. I was born in January on my grandmother's birthday (I always thought that made me her favorite!) and my twins' birthday is 2 days later. One year the twins' Grandpa asked, "Do you really think they want a birthday present since they just got a bunch of Christmas gifts?" Uh, yes, they do! And he should know - his birthday is 3 days after Christmas! (And we won't even get into the "yes, each twin would appreciate his/her own gift and not one gift that they have to share" discussion [unless it's something big they both want and agree they both want it!]. *Sigh*) In our family, all the birthdays are clustered between October 23 and March 16, and each birthday is never more than 7 days from another. I was born in January on my grandmother's birthday (I always thought that made me her favorite!) and my twins' birthday is 2 days later. One year the twins' Grandpa asked, "Do you really think they want a birthday present since they just got a bunch of Christmas gifts?" Uh, yes, they do! And he should know – his birthday is 3 days after Christmas! (And we won't even get into the "yes, each twin would appreciate his/her own gift and not one gift that they have to share" discussion [unless it's something big they both want and agree they both want it!]. *Sigh*)

]]> By: Susie http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8821 Susie Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:49:33 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8821 Those are GREAT ideas!! Those are GREAT ideas!!

]]> By: Patty http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8820 Patty Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:50:14 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8820 This topic is of great interest to me. Over the years I watched my husband’s grandmother always give gifts during December as a Birthday/Christmas gift and I always thought that was “not the way to go”. Now, years later, I have a daughter with a December Birthday and we celebrate her Birthday as any normal Birthday celebration.<br /><br />In my family we celebrate all day long. The Birthday child has the day off to do whatever he or she wants to do. They choose what’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner and they also decide if we go to the “dollar” movies or if we stay home and watch movies on T.V. It is always such a fun day for the kids because they enjoy having a full day just for themselves. This topic is of great interest to me. Over the years I watched my husband’s grandmother always give gifts during December as a Birthday/Christmas gift and I always thought that was “not the way to go”. Now, years later, I have a daughter with a December Birthday and we celebrate her Birthday as any normal Birthday celebration.

In my family we celebrate all day long. The Birthday child has the day off to do whatever he or she wants to do. They choose what’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner and they also decide if we go to the “dollar” movies or if we stay home and watch movies on T.V. It is always such a fun day for the kids because they enjoy having a full day just for themselves.

]]> By: FloridaMom2Seven http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8819 FloridaMom2Seven Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:34:16 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8819 Between Nov-Dec we have 4 of our kids' birthdays, and my husband and my son were both born on Thanksgiving Day, plus we have our anniversary and a grandpa's birthday. Right before Christmas i have 2 sons birthdays that are 3 days apart. It is a challenge! But we always make sure to separate each child's birthday and we always have separate cakes or cupcakes. My husband's mother always celebrated his birthday on Thanksgiving day (a cake along with all that PIE?!!), but we have the cake either a few days before or after, to make it more special. I love "birthday season" though, it makes our holidays even more special. Between Nov-Dec we have 4 of our kids' birthdays, and my husband and my son were both born on Thanksgiving Day, plus we have our anniversary and a grandpa's birthday. Right before Christmas i have 2 sons birthdays that are 3 days apart. It is a challenge! But we always make sure to separate each child's birthday and we always have separate cakes or cupcakes. My husband's mother always celebrated his birthday on Thanksgiving day (a cake along with all that PIE?!!), but we have the cake either a few days before or after, to make it more special. I love "birthday season" though, it makes our holidays even more special.

]]> By: Danielle http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8818 Danielle Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:33:16 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8818 I agree with Chrissy, "It is just the adults that put a downer on Christmas birthdays." My oldest's birthday is on the 29th of December. From the time I was pregnant I knew I'd just have to plan carefully. I try to be done with all birthday and Christmas preparations in November anyway. The biggest fall back for us is other relatives who don't plan, we have never been able to have everyone over for a party. It's sad, but even some close family skip it completely. We even tell them not to worry about the gifts, we just want to celebrate with you.<br /><br />But there is always a Christmas tree in the background, and while at times it bugs me, my daughter loves it!! I agree with Chrissy, "It is just the adults that put a downer on Christmas birthdays." My oldest's birthday is on the 29th of December. From the time I was pregnant I knew I'd just have to plan carefully. I try to be done with all birthday and Christmas preparations in November anyway. The biggest fall back for us is other relatives who don't plan, we have never been able to have everyone over for a party. It's sad, but even some close family skip it completely. We even tell them not to worry about the gifts, we just want to celebrate with you.

But there is always a Christmas tree in the background, and while at times it bugs me, my daughter loves it!!

]]> By: auntjone http://lifeasmom.com/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8817 auntjone Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:36:21 +0000 http://lifeasmom.net/2009/12/birthdays-at-christmas-time.html#comment-8817 Gah! My family is full of holiday birthdays. Mine is Dec. 31 and a few years ago I declared that I wanted Christmas presents separate from my birtday presents- no more combining of the two. It doesn't happen when one's birthday is in July, so it no longer happens to me.<br /><br />Here are the rest of our dates:<br />Jan. 6- my husband<br />Jan. 8- his sister<br />March 17- my sister (we were both born on holidays!)<br />May 9- my dad and it sometimes falls on Mother's Day. He doesn't get combined gifts, either. :)<br /><br />We have a group party for the December/January birthdays after the holidays and no one uses Christmas paper to wrap gifts, thankfully. Gah! My family is full of holiday birthdays. Mine is Dec. 31 and a few years ago I declared that I wanted Christmas presents separate from my birtday presents- no more combining of the two. It doesn't happen when one's birthday is in July, so it no longer happens to me.

Here are the rest of our dates:
Jan. 6- my husband
Jan. 8- his sister
March 17- my sister (we were both born on holidays!)
May 9- my dad and it sometimes falls on Mother's Day. He doesn't get combined gifts, either. :)

We have a group party for the December/January birthdays after the holidays and no one uses Christmas paper to wrap gifts, thankfully.

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