TO BE BORN ON CHRISTMAS -- A Bummer or a Blessing?
"Oh, you're a Christmas baby," exclaim grocery store checkers, "does that mean you get fewer presents?".
"Bah Humbug" used to be my typical response; and besides, if I ever tried to really explain the realm of Christmas babyhood, as it compounded itself each year, a really long line would form behind me ... a line of very impatient people.
The kid in us enjoys birthdays; but when the kid in us was still a kid, having that special day one can call all mine should be a birthright. My birthday. My validating connection to family and the rest of the world, shouting, "Here I am. It's time to celebrate my annual passage." Some of us never had a birthday we can call our own. "People whose birthday is not on Christmas," wrote Lloyd Staley, "feel very unique about the day in a way that I finally realize I never felt. It took me a long time to realize how important others' birthdays are to them."
Amy Pugh told me about her particularly painful experience on her 14th birthday. "My father had been dating this woman for a while, long enough to be a little familiar with her family's holiday customs. I had spent the morning with mom and my siblings, [then] went with my dad in the afternoon to his girlfriend's house. I had been sitting at the table, half-way involved in the activities of this other family, when I noticed a lit birthday cake being brought into the room. Touched, I smiled and said something like, 'oh, thank you ...'. After an uncomfortable moment of explanation and apology, the proceeding birthday song was sensitively amended for not just the Baby Jesus, as had been their custom, but to include my name as well. Believe me, I never made that mistake again."
"I wus robbed," sez Tom Wrona; "I hate being born on Christmas," claims Zoe Backman; and Chris Pestell from England insists, "You can be absolutely sure that ... no child of mine will be born anywhere near December or January!!"
These all fall under the "you must feel gypped" category:
- Have to share your birthday with Jesus
- Sometimes people forget it your birthday
- No birthday party with other kids
- Pumpkin pie instead of birthday cakes
- The combination birthday/Christmas present
- Birthday presents wrapped in Christmas paper
- We cannot take advantage of the free meal on your birthday, offered by restaurants
- Friends aren't around, everyone seems too busy
- Cannot choose what you want for your birthday dinner
- Receive fewer presents
- No cupcakes and party at school
- Can't get my drivers license on your birthday
It could always be worse, the consensus that Christmas birthday folks would not like having their birthday on February 29th or April 1st.
And it's true, it can't be all bad. There are advantages and special pleasures to having a Christmas birthday (Strangely, something negative for one person can be a positive for another):
- Have to share your birthday. Hey, Jesus and I are Capricorn
- The family is always together for your birthday
- Your birthday is an international holiday
- For many, you don't have to go to work on your birthday
- No school
- Receive far fewer birthday spanks and pinches to grow on
- You receive more attention
- You receive more presents
- Can ask for an extravagant present because it's your birthday and Christmas
2BBOC Home
What's a Parent To Do If You Have a Christmas Baby?
How to Treat a Christmas Birthday Person.
December Blues?
Important People Born On Christmas.
Any Comments? You may reach me at billk@sonic.net