Today, I thought I'd share just one confession...and that is the reason that I don't decorate for Christmas until after December 3rd. Are you ready for this riveting confession? Ha!
I have a December birthday. December 3rd, to be
precise. I HATE having a December birthday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I was
born and all, but every year, EVERY bloomin’ year, all the holiday parties,
gift swaps and whatnot completely overshadows my day of birth.
“Hey Leslie – your birthday is in December! Let’s do a
Christmas-themed b-day party/cake!” I’ve never heard that before. Never.
Just once, ONCE…I would like to have a birthday party
completely not related to holiday activities, décor, etc. I would love to
receive birthday gifts in non-holiday paper. I would love to not receive yet
another bottle of pinot noir inside a stocking, “How original!” said no
December-born person ever.
So I wait until December 4th every year to
decorate. Or buy Christmas Oreos. Or drink wassail, (okay, that’s a lie. I
totes enjoyed one with my friend Christi the other day.)
Other people with December (or near December) Birthdays in My Family:
Grandma – Typically falls on Thanksgiving Day.
Dad – December 14
Twin cousins – December 25th
WE ARE CLEARLY CURSED.
I once had a 15-minute conversation with my now-retired dentist,
lamenting on the woahs of having a 12/3 birthday. (Yes, my dentist and I share
a birthday and neither myself nor Dr. Wilson like it one bit.)
I have talked to a few other December peeps who agree.
It’d be nice to have the option of changing the month of your birth. But I
can’t do that.
If you really want to rub the salt into the wound of a
December person, get them one present, send it to them on December 15th
and tell them it’s “For both. Your Christmas present and birthday present all
rolled into one. Awesome idea, right?”
In other news, I impress myself with this extremely
refined and level-headed outlook on the whole December day of birth situation.
Picture of logic and maturity. That. Is. Me.
{This is completely meant in fun, so please do not take this with a grain of salt...well maybe just one grain.}
Be blessed, lovelies-
This is so funny (and true). My entire family is basically born within 6 weeks of each other... myself being the exception. We've got Halloween, Nov 21st, 22nd, and 23rd (so typically Thanksgiving), December 18th, 24th and January 2nd.
ReplyDeleteI'm just hanging out in August by myself.
My son was born December 21st. I get it totally. Didn't think back in March (never even crossed my radar actually) that when we started trying for a family that lo and behold, December 25th would be my due-date. We brought him home Christmas Day. I'm sure your mom would agree, the best Christmas present/blessing ever is a baby, hands down, so even though you don't much care for the December birthday, I'm fairly certain your mom would agree with me. I always make sure to keep my son's birthday and Christmas separate...it's a family requirement, hah! Cheers and happy decorating (after your wonderful birthday of course!!).
ReplyDeleteDecember 4th. And my grandpa - December 24th.
ReplyDeletei am completely with you. You'd think at 22 I'd be over this. Soooo not.
I think that anything December 23 and beyond is particularly rough with the exception of the New Year's Eve babies. They get a fab party every year. My husband and I are both on the 28th. It's a tough birthday but I power through with lots and lots of cake :)
ReplyDeleteMy birthday is December 16 and I love it!!! I think it has to do with my family clearly separating my birthday from Christmas. I made my husby do the same thing! I totally understand your woes though because a lot of my friends don't even blink at the fact it's my birthday.
ReplyDeleteAs somebody whose birthday is actually ON Valentine's Day, I completely feel your pain. Instead of receiving gifts in Christmas paper, it's always red, pink, with hearts and shit. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome to be alive, but I could do without the "two-in-one" gifts as well. And then when we go to dinner for MY birthday, you see all these other people celebrating their own thing. But it's MY birthday! Okay, I'm being a brat. My boyfriend's birthday is December 29 so we both are guilty of doing the "two-in-one" gifting... fair is fair I suppose!
ReplyDeleteAwww!! My Mom is Dec. 15th, my brother Dec. 17th, and my dad Christmas day... I ALWAYS get them both gifts and wrap them in non-Christmas wrapping paper just becaues they feel the same way you do. hopefully your husband gets it!
ReplyDeleteMine is March 15 and people always want to get all leprechaunish up in it. No! So I imagine that Christmas is crawling up your birthday's butt in a bad way. I support your reluctance to decorate until Dec 4!
ReplyDeleteMine's December 1 and I love it! I get to celebrate Thanksgiving, My birthday, Christmas, and New years in the span of a month- so fun! If you think about it everbody has a holiday the same month as their birthday- new years, valentines day, st patricks day, easter, mothers day, fathers day, july 4th, august and september you have labor day and football season to compete with so its hard to get people together to do something- in august people are travelling and in september you're stuck with a football themed party, then halloween, thanksgiving, christmas months.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right! My boyfriends' nephews birthday was yesterday, Nov 15 and his birthday party is the 17th. I took deliberate action to get him NOTHING that has to do with Christmas or Thanksgiving and I went out of my way to find festive birthday wrapping paper so that he wouldn't be seeing green and red holly paper for two whole months. He's only 1 so I'm sure he won't appreciate for about 10 more years, though. Lol!
ReplyDeleteTHat does stink! I myself have a birthday that falls right around easter. Not the same but close.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely thought about this when conceiving our kids (well, the second one at least. The first was a surprise and born Jan. 28) I was so glad we got pregnant in the second month of trying (baby born Nov. 1) because we were going to put trying on hold for two months to avoid a Christmas baby!
ReplyDeleteMy mother is so neurotic, she intentionally had me, an only child, as far away from Christmas as she could. And my birthday is July 4, so I've always had red, white, and blue parties, except for my Sweet Sixteen, when I insisted on something different. It's a fun birthday, though. Always off work or school.
My parents, husband, and both kids are all in Nov, Dec, and Jan, so add that to Christmas spending and our gift/party budget for that quarter goes through the roof!
My birthday is Dec. 6, my mom's is the 9th, and my Dad's is the 13th. To be honest, I disagree completely. I love having my birthday around Christmas. My family always celebrates birthdays during our birthday week but often that involves getting to do special Christmas things. We've gone to Disney World for birthdays and it's decorated for Christmas. I've found it puts me more in the spirit of Christmas than anything else. I love my birthday and celebrate that my special day is part of the most special time of year. :)
ReplyDeleteI just laughed the entire way through this. I have an October bday and while no means December I had my fair share of Halloween birthdays.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is January 6 and I think it's worse than Decembe . By her birthday everyone is worn out and broke from Christmas and they all forget about her. And most of the stores are cleaned out of the good stuff! Even loving grandparents forget!! She's 11, and I make a huge fuss over her special day and I will until I take my last breath.
ReplyDeleteI too am a December birthday, Dec. 21. I LOVED it! We'd have to have my birthday parties weeks in advance since most people are busy during the holidays. But, being theatrical, one of my birthday parties was a performance of a Christmas Carol, as in my 10 yo friends and I performed a Christmas Carol as my mom taped it, completely with haphazard costumes and all. Another birthday we went caroling; and another was a Christmas cookie party, as we all baked and decorated cookies and gingerbread houses.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact there is no shortage of things to do for my birthday. And everything is more festive with white lights and big red bows everywhere. :)
I did experience the birthday AND Christmas gift things here and there. But with all the holiday sales going on, my gift load was a little extra :)
Have a great birthday! enjoy it!
I too am a December birthday, Dec. 21. I LOVED it! We'd have to have my birthday parties weeks in advance since most people are busy during the holidays. But, being theatrical, one of my birthday parties was a performance of a Christmas Carol, as in my 10 yo friends and I performed a Christmas Carol as my mom taped it, completely with haphazard costumes and all. Another birthday we went caroling; and another was a Christmas cookie party, as we all baked and decorated cookies and gingerbread houses.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact there is no shortage of things to do for my birthday. And everything is more festive with white lights and big red bows everywhere. :)
I did experience the birthday AND Christmas gift things here and there. But with all the holiday sales going on, my gift load was a little extra :)
Have a great birthday! enjoy it!
My husband's birthday is November 22nd, mine is December 8th and our anniversary is December 23rd, so some years he tries to give me a "Christmabirthiversary" gift. Unacceptable. ;)
ReplyDeleteMy birthday isn't in December but I had a few friends who had them. And I did think it stunk!! I always made sure to get them non-Christmas related gifts. And when I was trying to get pregnant even though we had been trying for a year, I skipped the month of March and people thought I was crazy!! My husband was like "this may be the lucky month"!! Haha!! Both my babies were born in June ;) Happy Early Birthday to you!!
ReplyDeleteI think you should start throwing a big fabulous birthday party for your half birthday.......so clear your schedule's friends of A Blonde Ambition June 3 is the big day! Of course, you still get to celebrate on 12/3 too!
ReplyDeleteOh, girl, I can imagine it's frustrating that your birthday is in December but could you imagine your birthday being on the 25th, Christmas Day? I know a few, so I guess you could consider that a blessing. As cool as it would be to share a birthday with the big guy :)
ReplyDeleteI love this post!! I am a Christmas baby! When I was younger, kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. (double presents, anyone??) But now that I'm older, people just tell me how much it sucks to be me. THANKS PEOPLE! :-)
ReplyDeleteGirl, I'm with you! My Mom's birthday is Dec 27th and I always feel bad for her because it's like the 2 best days are sooo close together and most people typically lump Christmas and her birthday into one celebration!
ReplyDeleteI have a similar issue (though no wher near as bad) being born 2 days after Valentines day. Up until high school I really liked it...but now it kind of sucks. Combined gifts? Not unless you want to see me cry (ha). Can't really have a party because people are off celebrating Valentine's Day, etc.
My friend was born on Christmas day, so we try and celebrate her half birthday. Mine is always on/near labor day. Which means everyone is either gone for the three day weekend or Weddings. I have had to go to three weddings on my birthday. I hear ya, not fun.
ReplyDeleteMy mums bday is on the 2nd Jan and she hates it too, because everyone is always away!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your oncoming bday :)
Sweet Apple Lifestyle
I hear ya and I don't even have a December birthday. It must be tough for parents to have to save up to buy presents for both! I'm a July 3rd maybe so you can just pretend to be born five months earlier in the month and join in on my fun with me. But I tend to share all of my festivities with red white and blue parties so it's still almost the same.
ReplyDeleteMine is December 20th and I was always sad as a kid because we couldn't have cupcakes in class on my birthday - we were always out on Christmas break! Even though my parents and husband do an awesome job keeping them separate, no one else really has. My sweet husband also makes sure to make a big deal on my 'half' birthday so that I get a real non-Christmas birthday day. I'm glad you can sympathize :)
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with wanting to celebrate your birthday on its own! Hopefully you have a fantastic celebration this year (completely devoid of anything Christmas themed!) I share my birthday with Valentine's Day, so I (somewhat) feel your pain. I would say my biggest pet peeve is having to listen to people talk about what a crappy holiday it is. Don't ruin my birthday with negativity!!
ReplyDeleteI know almost exactly how you feel! My birthday is on St. Patrick's Day. fun day - everyone is generally happy. But not every year do I want to drink green beer and wear something green so I don't get pinched. Although, I do love me some green. While some people thing it's fun to have a big party on your birthday, occasionally I just want one friend to remember going out to dinner ON my birthday. Oh well...at least I get a big parade in my home town!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree and feel for ya! I had a friend in high school with a 12/27 B day. She hated it! And I can see why. It's really not fair.
ReplyDeleteI knew there was a reason we thought a lot a like a lot of the time... my birthday is December 1st. Thankfully I've never had too many problems with the COMBO birthday/Christmas thing. I used it to my advantage many years to get gifts I really wanted... 'You can make it my joint Christmas AND birthday gift" this was usually for big ticket items ;)
ReplyDeleteMy hubby's birthday is the 8th so we usually wait until after his birthday to celebrate ours.
I love Jesus don't get me wrong but I have always said... I will start throwing the parties and celebrating his birthday after I get through mine :)
HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY!!!! December kids rock!
P.S. I may or may not had a lot of TRIM THE TREE birthday sleep overs in middle school - my mom was a sneaky woman!
Mine is December 23rd.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain.
Oh I totally feel ya there! My bday is December 1st and luckily it is far enough away but still, a little too close. My brother is the 16th and my SIL is the 27th (that one totally gets missed!)
ReplyDeleteMy mother-in-law's birthday is Christmas Eve. She's never complained, but I have always felt bad for her...Christmas completely overshadows her birthday! I'm sure she's used to it by now, but I always make an effort to send a birthday package separate from the Xmas gifts and never use wrapping paper that looks remotely holiday-ish. I feel for you December babes!
ReplyDeleteMy Birthday is December 3 TOO!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I COMPLETELY agree with everything you said! HA! :)
Oh Sista - I know how you feel too. My B-Day is 5th!!
ReplyDeleteI get it. I was born on Dec 28 and while typically, my family has NEVER tried to wrap my birthday up in Christmas, it is overshadowed in general by the fact that it's right between Christmas and New Year's.
ReplyDeleteMy birthday is December 3, as is my sister's! She is 2 years younger. I don't buy any christmas presents until after my birthday!
ReplyDeleteMy birthday is on Dec 23rd and my daddy's is on the 24th...
ReplyDeleteI hate having a birthday this close to Christmas!!