What to Do for a December Birthday?

Some people have what is called a half birthday. Instead of having a birthday party in December have it in June. It will not diminish her birthday in anyway.
Just an idea.

S.

Hi! I am a December baby too, the 24th of December, and I have to tell you that now being 35 (36 this year) I am sooo happy to look back at my childhood and be able to say that my mom and dad never shared by birthday with the Christmas Holiday!

That being said, I think that the beginning of December works out great, or even into January, since the rush of the holiday season is done at that point and you can look forward to something fun.

My own son's birthday is the 18th of December (he'll be six this year) and like you I want to keep it separate from the holiday, make him feel special and have a day to himself. Again, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the feeling that I never got lumped together with the holiday!

I was a Dec. 22nd baby and my best parties were June 22nd!! all my friends were there and no one was overbooked with holiday parties!

A.

My twin brother and I share a birthday on December 23rd. Because the weather can be so bad and it is so close to Christmas, my parents always had a birthday party for us in the S. with all of our friends. I never felt like I missed out because I was able to have a great bday party with my friends during the S. months and celebrated the acutal date with my parents. It was great, I had 2 birthdays every year.

Hi S., We have been celebrating my Grandson's Birthday in the S.. His parent are divorced & Hid Dad lives with us. So in August we have what we call, Mikey's S. Birthday party. His Birthday is in January & our home isn't big enough to hold everyone, we have lots of rooms, but none big enough to get everyone in there to even sing Happy Birthday. So we gave Mikey the option of having a pool/Birthday party. We've been doing it now for three years & it turns out great! We always have a "rain date" just incase. Even though our having the S. party is a different reason for yours, I thought this might help.

I will tell you how much I hated having a Christmas Birthday December 20 as well. When I got older my mom would let me celebrate it in June. We would rent out a local pool and some of my friends would bring me funny gifts like balloons with winter images on them or other Christmas related gifts. But I do encourage you to really keep the Birthday separate from Christmas. I would even get combined gifts from family, which when you are a kid you know when you are cheated out of a gift. So for now early December is a great idea until she is old enough to give her own input.

My daughter's birthday is 12/22 and we always celebrate with her friends the weekend before her birthday and celebrate with family on Christmas. Surprisingly, she never gets gypped on gifts and most of her friends are able to make the party the weekend before. I give them plenty of heads up, though. I am letting everyone know NOW that her party is scheduled for December 19th.

My birthday is Dec 17th, so I've lived with this every year. Rule #1 is NEVER EVER do "combination" presents. When I was a kid we usually celebrated our "half birthdays" in June (my sister's B-day is Dec 30) - this was when we had a party and invited friends over etc. which was nice b/c the weather was usually good and school was usually out.

Our actual "real" birthday was a family-only celebration, with a present from mom and dad and we got to pick what we ate for dinner that night (I always requested fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans).

S., It's so great that you're thinking ahead. My b-day is 12/21. As a result, I never had a b-day party as a kid and even now it's difficult to get people together to celebrate. I like the idea of having the party in June or a few weeks before the actual date. That will help make her feel special and will cut down on the dreadded "combo gift."

It is great that you are sensitive to this, and starting a tradition early. My birthday is the 25th, so I can tell you from my experience, it is important to separate the the two things. Growing up, my best friends birthday was the 28th, so we used to have a joint party the week between xmas and new years. It was great because everyone was out of school, and having it together made it extra special. Whatever you decide, starting now will ensure that your daughter knows that her birthday is important too!

My daughter will also be turning 2, but mid-December. I found picking the weekend before usually works out better for the family. The problem I am having is figuring out what to actually do on that day. Since she's only 2 she does not have a lot of options. I think she'd be happy just playing with her cousins, but since they are all older I feel like I need to find something "bigger" for them to do.

Ha. My son was born on Christmas Day so this has been a slight issue from day one. To tell you the truth it's kinda impossible to separate, try as we might at least with family. But as far as a party with friends goes, we always did it in early December before the Christmas rush of everything begins. That worked better for us then doing it after Christmas or in the S.. My son has always loved his Christmas birthday and has never been unhappy about it so I guess so far it's worked.

Hi S. Here in Northwest Indiana, we have a Tyler Tenders that host birthday parties for children. They furnish the food and decorations. You just bring the cake. And the children get to ride a train that they have. You can go online to see if any Tyler Tenders are in your area. My grandson have his 2 yr. party there and the all the kids just loved it.

You are a very thoughtful mom. Of course that's a good idea. Why not? I know people who have celebrated on their half birthday every year.

My soon to be eight year old daughter's birthday is December 27th. She is adopted, and the first year we had her home from Ukraine, only one of her classmates came to her party. Now we are having it mid month before everyone gets out of school. It is still always a challenge to get people to come, so sometimes we try and do things with the family to make it special. One year we did the water park, then we were in Florida, so we did Disney (and made it her special day). Good luck!

Hi S.,

My birthday is Christmas Eve. My mom was great for making sure my birthday was never overlooked. During the school years, my birthday party with friends and classmates would usually be during the Christmas break after the Holiday. This way people were coming down from the holidays and hopefully had time to make it. Every year on my birthday with family we would celebrate MY day. I would pick my favorite food for dinner, maybe have a special activity for the day. There would be birthday cake and presents. The presents were always Birthday presents only. I know many families have the tradition of opening presents at Midnight. We did not do that in our home because my birthday was just ending. We would open Christmas presents after waking up on Christmas. I can't tell you how great it was to know that my birthday was my day and extended family complied with that. To this day, my family continues to give me 2 presents. I will always be grateful to my Mom for putting in the extra work to make my day so special. I could never complain about having a birthday so close to Christmas. I hope this is helpful for you.

I share your pain! my oldest son, who will be 21, was born on dec. 28th. I was also worried about his birthday and christmas being combined. I have not had any problems. If you begin by treating it totally separate..always..you should not have a problem. you stress it to the grandparents, and anyone else...and stick to your guns! Also, because his birthday was always during Christmas break from school, he didn't have as many birthday parties as some of his friends. as he got into his teen years, it was easier to offer him $100 dollars cold hard cash, to avoid a party! he took the cash every time. Our situation now is he is turning 21 and would like a party with some beer..and we told him only his other friends who are already 21. there aren't that many. most have birthdays after him!

I completely understand your concerns for wanting to keep your daughter's birthday seperate from Christmas. Between my family, there are a total of 9 December birthday's (none on the 25th, though) and it can be a bit overwhelming. I would definitely try to schedule her party a bit earlier in the month if possible to make it easier on you and your family. On the upside, there are actually a lot of good sales on toys at that time of year so it makes it a bit cheaper to buy presents for kids. :)

I also have a daughter that turns 2 in December and I worry about people combining her birthday with Christmas. What I do because her birthday is the 3rd is have her party the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so that technically the party is in November. I know sounds insane, but I want her to know her day is special and is not the same as Christmas. Because it's on the 20th what about having it as far ahead in December as possible. I have nephews that have birthdays a month apart and my SIL always has them at the same time and my other nephew doesn't ever seem to care that his party is so far before his birthday because they still do pizza and a smaller cake or other dessert on his actual birthday. I also like to do a party out of my house, mostly because I don't have room, but also away from the Christmas tree and other decorations. Fun party places could be a moon bounce place, park district open gym for toddlers or a designated toddler gym or Chuck E Cheese. Hope this helps!!

My son will turn 2 on December 21st this year so I feel your pain! We have had it either the weekend before or on his birthday and it has worked out. This year, we are having it a week and a half early which isn't too early but for me close enough to his birthday. Also, I think as he gets older, we would have sleepovers or go to the movies, etc for birthdays with friends and so I think I could do that on or very close to his birthday without it being an issue. good luck!

My daughter will turn 1 on 12/17. We are planning to have her party the weekend before this year on 12/12. In the future, we'll probably do either the first or second weekend of the month knowing that trying to schedule anything the last 2 weeks of the month will be very difficult to do with people traveling, having guests, etc.

I used to have a neighbor whose daughter had a mid-December birthday and she would always have the "kid" party in the middle of January instead. She always got a great turnout. My daughter was born near Christmas as well. She's still too young for a "kid" party but once she's old enough, I'll probably do the same thing my neighbor did.

My kids were born on 12/28 and 12/29. We never do their B-Day parties close to their actual party. It is to close to the holidays and many of their friends are out of town. We have done the beginning of December, and we have also waited until mid/end of January. It is better to wait or do it early. There is so much going on with the holidays around that time of year. Many people are busy with holiday stuff. Better seperate the parties at least three weeks from X-Mas and New Years.

My younger son was born on December 17. We have always just put our efforts into focusing on his birthday as a separate event. We have always given him the opportunity to make a birthday wish list separate from his Christmas wish list, and as far as I can remember we have always celebrated his birthday on his birth-day as if it was in any other season of the year. We give him his gifts and sing to him first thing in the morning, and he gets to choose the menu for his birthday dinner.
Best wishes,
J.

My birthday is December 28th and I never once felt slighted - my Mom & Dad did a FANTASTIC job at that! I think if you have a party for her early in December now it would be fine, but when she is a bit older, try to have one on or close to her birthday so she doesn't feel like her birthday has to be moved because of Christmas. If you do a big party early and then a small family party on her birthday, that would work good too. Also please make a point of asking people to wrap her birthday present in birthday paper - not Christmas wrapping paper. This was a small act, but meant a lot to me and really made me feel my birthday was truly separate from Christmas. Also, see if people can make sure not to give Christmas-type presents for her birthday such as ornaments, stuffed animals with santa costumes, candy canes on the outside of her presents, etc. I did receive a few of these type of items from family and it made me feel like they didn't even try to find a birthday present - they just grabbed whatever Christmas stuff was on sale and wrapped it. I know that was not their intention, but that was how it made me feel. Hope this info helps!

I was born on 12/23 and growing up, I always felt I got the short-end every year. I received 1 "happy birthday, merry xmas" present, birthday parties didn't happen b/c of winter break and the craze of the holidays. I vowed that if any of my children had birthdays close to a "celebratory" holiday, that they wouldn't not feel how I felt.

The best way is to keep Xmas and birthdays far separated as possible.

Well My step sisters birthday was on th 25th. My step mom was great. From the time they got up until noon was Christmas. Then from noon till bedtime was Kathy's birthday. Seperate celebrations and seperate gifts. It worked really well. So just have her birthday near her birthday and remind family that if her birthday was in June she would get a present and then another in December. So budget for her birthday and Christmas so she is not shortchanged because her birthday is in December. Usually only family members do Christmas gifts so they would be the only ones that you would have to talk to. If you give them a heads up they should be receptive and understand.

My son's b-day is December 21st and we go away to Ohio for Christmas every other year, so I know how hard this is!! People are often travelling, visiting relatives or busy with their own holiday stuff right when the birthday is!

We've done 2 things: Sometimes we have the party on the weekend at the beginning of December. If you want to have a lot of kids, this is usually easier. Parents know how hectic the season is and I think most would rather get their kid to an earlier party than try and squeeze it in right before Chirstmas. So early is a definite option.

Now that my son is almost 10, we've also found that he was fine with having a small sleepover or party for just a few 'best friends'. We had pizza and cake and took all the boys to a movie and it was great. Since there were only 3 other kids to co-ordinate, we did this on his actual b-day. But this only works well for a LITTLE party.

The other option is to arrange something fun for the week AFTER Christmas. Most kids are off school and moms are eager to get them out of their hair for a few hours, lol. Ice-skating rinks, sled parties, all kinds of things are possible the week after Christmas!

We have also offered my son the 'half birthday' option of having his party in July, but he has not wanted to. He says he likes having a winter birthday.

As far as gifts go, my brother and I and ALL of our kids have been born right around the winter holidays, lol. So we are all very careful in our family NOT to combine b-day/Christmas gifts, UNLESS REQUESTED. Now that my son is older, he wanted a fairly expensive bicycle last year. Grandma said they would get it for him, but it would have to be for b-day and Christmas and he was totally fine with that. Of course he had other gifts from family to open anyway, so that is an option that works for some types of present.

But just do whatever fits best with your schedule and remember that no matter what you do or when you do ANYTHING, some kids won't be able to come. Just have a great time and that will make your daughter happy!