Birthdays at Christmas Time
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Every December 23rd without fail, my mom calls her younger brother, my Uncle Ed. She could wait until the 25th when she calls the rest of the family. But, she calls him then, too. You see, today, the 23rd, is his birthday. (Happy Birthday, Uncle Ed!)
While I don’t have a sibling or child with a birthday near the holidays, I do have a brother-in-law, father-in-law, and nieces who do. And from what I’ve heard, it can be a little challenging to make a birthday special when it falls between Thanksgiving and mid-January. Either everyone is wrapped up in holiday plans or they’re too broke to make merry for a birthday. Often well-meaning friends and family try to lump the occasions together which doesn’t always make the birthday person feel “special.”
How can you avoid the Birthday Blues at Christmastime?
Plan Ahead – Last year my sister got blindsided and found that, all of a sudden, her husband’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s, and two girlie birthdays were upon her in a matter of a few days’ time. She learned that preplanning was the key to her success this year. We have a similar phenomena in the Spring when Mother’s Day, my birthday, our anniversary, and three FishKids’ birthdays occur in a five week period. I have to have a plan to survive with a smile on my face.
Make Each Holiday Special – It can be tempting to present a gift that is a combination birthday/Christmas gift. Many friends with winter birthdays have said they preferred that the day be acknowledged separately. Yes, it can be a little more work or cash at the holidays. Just shop in June and you’ll avoid some of that.
Bake a Special Cake – Yes, December is full of sweets. But, there’s something so fun about having a special cake. It’s a magical thing — and a great break from pumpkin pie and Christmas cookies. For inspiration, consider buying my cake book that is full of cake themes for a wide range of ages and interests. Or browse the cake archives.
Don’t Use Wrapping Paper with Santa On It – It’s easy enough to buy solid colored paper in the holiday section. In fact, it’s a more prudent choice anyway. Buy solids and you can use it all year long.
What do YOU do to make birthdays special at Christmas time?
Related Reading:
- Amy’s Deliciously Pink Princess Party made her daughter’s December birthday special and included Christmas elements into the theme without seeming overly Christmas-y.
- Nichole shares how she lays down the law regarding her son’s birthday six days before Christmas.
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.
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.
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!!
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.
My daughter's birthday is Dec. 26. I treat it as any other birthday. I plan ahead with my purchases (gifts and supplies)when the items go on sale. I also tell our guests the date of the party ahead of time. She thinks Dec 26 is pretty special, since it is right after Jesus' birthday. It is just the adults that put a downer on Christmas birthdays.
With both my daughters b-days we usually got to I-Hop for dinner. It is a pretty cheap meal and the girls love it.
My oldest sons birthday is Dec. 18th and the next 2 (twins) are Dec. 22…so we just finished our birthday celebrations. They always get birthday gifts wrapped in b'day paper, they pick the dinner menu and special dessert for their day just like their siblings do the rest of the year. You do have to prepare ahead of time and not wait till the last minute. All their birthday pictures have Christmas lights in them and the tree in the background! With my oldest, I tried doing a 1/2 birthday, but he ended up getting extra goodies because we did the birthday and the 1/2…talk about expensive. So now its just on his birthday!
Thanks for posting this. My sons birthday is December 27th. He turns two this year. I'm still trying to figure out how we're going to do it to keep it special. This year he is young enough that a special cake will do!
My daughter's birthday is Dec 5th so I won't setup any of our Christmas decorations until after her birthday. The bigger challenge for us is figuring out a way to celebrate our anniversary on Dec 6th without it interfering with my daughter's birthday.
Hubby's birthday is Dec 17th and we still make that his day where he picks dinner and we have cake and so forth, but he is old enough to cope with the Christmas decorations being up.
We have LOTS of December birthdays in my family!! My husband and son are 13Dec and my sister is 21Dec.
Growing up, my mom always waited until the 22nd to decorate our tree and do the SERIOUS Christmas decorating — It wasn't Christmas until AFTER Sarah's birthday!
We have done something similar in our family too — I set up our artificial tree, but only decorated it with lights and candy canes… and I've pulled out a few things here and there… but we did most of our decorating after the 13th… This keeps the holidays separate!
Also it kinda helps out the idea of Christmas being Jesus' birthday! We are going to make a special birthday cake for him too — So it all comes full circle! 🙂
What do most kids look forward to? Birthday and Christmas.
My son's birthday is 15 days after Christmas. This year he turns 2, so he still is young enough to not really realize how close his birthday is to Christmas. Last year some far away relatives either gave him his present early (in birthday paper) or they left it behind for a closer relative to bring to his party.
As he gets older, since the two days are so close, I plan to do something special in the summer as a kind of "half birthday". I'm a teaacher so we will be home together all summer, and will be a nice way to have some special time with him!