It’s that time of year when POD tells everyone it’s her birthday soon. On discovering her birthday is Christmas Day, the response is often negative. Typically we hear “you poor thing”, “what a shame” or “that’s rubbish” closely followed by “do you get double presents?”. My personal favourite is “you didn’t plan that very well” although asking if we celebrate her birthday on Christmas Day has to be in the mix too. The truth is POD loves her Christmas Day birthday and we’ve always done our best to make sure she doesn’t miss out.
When she was younger, we used to have a birthday party for her the week before her birthday. But over the years, however far in advance, we planned it, it’s not the ideal time as everyone is busy with the build-up to Christmas. Her birthday parties got earlier and earlier, so much so we were not far off celebrating a month early. Rather than do this, we decided to have her “non-birthday party” as we call it in the summer. After all, it means she has something to look forward to midway through the year and she can have a proper get together with her school friends.
Of course, we celebrate her birthday on Christmas Day because it is her actual birthday. It is very separate to Christmas in that we have a “birthday room” with birthday bunting, balloons and birthday cake. She doesn’t have joint birthday and Christmas presents. Christmas presents go under the Christmas tree – birthday presents go in the birthday room. She doesn’t open all her presents at the same time either. Typically Christmas presents are opened in the morning as its a family affair with the birthday celebrations taking place after Christmas lunch.
We can’t change her birthday, and nor would we, so why not make it as special as we can? This has always been a good combination and I suspect the best way to make sure she never misses out. What do you think, have you got a Christmas Day birthday and if so, how do you celebrate?
