Tips for celebrating a Christmas birthday from a "Christmas baby"

December 17, 11:08 PMSeattle Parenting ExaminerKristy Stevens-Young

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ALL birthdays deserve birthday giftwrap 

I was born on Christmas day. To this day, when I need to show ID, people see my birthday and they all say the exact same thing, “ You’re a Christmas baby.” Really, they can be 18 or 81 and they all say the same thing and then of course they ask me if it is a good or bad thing. In reality it is a bit of both.

Having a Christmas day birthday assures nobody will forget your birthday which is always nice but it is a bit hard to take second place to the holiday. As an adult (especially a parent) my birthday is remembered but normally celebrated within the Christmas holiday with birthday gifts after dinner and before the birthday cake. I do plan on using it as a reason my kids will HAVE to come on Christmas day – it is my birthday after all LOL

As a child, when it was much more important, my parents made sure my birthday was very special and never treated as an afterthought. Here is how –

Christmas Eve-
As a child, I was told that Santa visited all the children born on Christmas day first – on Christmas Eve, After an early dinner, we would all load up in the car and drive around to see the Christmas lights. When we came back, the tree would be lit up and our presents from Santa would be under the tree! All of us would open our Christmas gifts and play with them until midnight mass.

Christmas Day-
When we got up on Christmas day, the decorations were all still up but the family room was decorated with birthday streamers and balloons.  All my birthday gifts were there and it looked just like it did when my siblings had birthdays.

We all opened our Christmas stockings as soon as we got up and I would open my birthday gifts after breakfast.

We always had a lot of family and friends over for Christmas dinner (who always brought Christmas AND birthday gifts) and I never had to help as my birthday crown kept me exempt from all chores for the day! It was great.

Ways Parents can Help –
Kids all want their birthdays to be notice. They are important to them and they didn’t ask to be born on a specific date.  They have very little control on how things are done and so it falls on the parents to make sure the child feels special and that they get to have gifts and cake on their actual birth date. Here are 5 things my parents did that helped make sure I always had a very happy birthday:

1.     Giftwrap
My mom always had a rule that all my birthday gifts were to be wrapped in birthday paper and never in Christmas paper. I even saw her take a gift from my Aunt, which was in Christmas paper, and rewrap it in birthday paper before giving it to me.

2.     Birthday cake
People may end their Christmas dinner with apple or pecan pie but if there is a Christmas day birthday, the one and only choice should be birthday cake. And of course don’t forget to sing Happy Birthday!

3.     Gifts
No Christmas/birthday gifts! Even if they are small gifts, a child prefers both a Christmas and a birthday gift over a combo gift. It makes them feel like the person didn’t care enough to get them two gifts and/or forgot it was also their birthday and said the gift was for both.

4.     Birthday Party
Obviously, you won’t be holding your child’s birthday party on December 25 but it really does need to be within a couple of weeks of the date. It is a bit hard to pull them together as many families have a lot going on but it can be done. I often went ice skating and then had a sleepover (bless my mom for that during the hectic holidays) with 10 or so girls. As I got older, I would have boy/girl parties the weekend after Christmas. Don’t do the ½ birthday – it is only cute to the parents and besides, kids are on summer break.

5.     Birthday Cards
When sending out your Christmas cards, don’t forget the birthday child and drop them a card too. They can often feel a bit over looked during the hectic season. On a personal note, I always hated those “For your Christmas time birthday” cards. It always seemed like the sender couldn’t take the time to get me both a Christmas and birthday card. As an adult, I know they must have taken even more time, to find the card but I still don’t like to receive them!