Christmas Birthday - San Diego,CA

Updated on February 12, 2010
J.L. asks from San Diego, CA
21 answers

My daughter's birthday is the day after Christmas. After the Eve, day, and finally her birthday... she is cranky and in no mood to celebrate as are her friends. I thought a lot about the barrage of presents we received at one time and constant celebration I'm wondering what other families do with December birthdays. She's three now, so a quiet family day will be great now, but what about later? Any advise is welcome.

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D.M.

answers from Los Angeles on

My sister's birthday is the 27th of December. She'd either celebrate on the first of the month or on her half birthday (June) because then she could also have a pool party since it was warm then.

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S.P.

answers from San Diego on

I would say celebrate her birthday on her half birthday. Since she is still too young to understand completely the concept of time, her memories of the day wouldn't skip a beat.

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D.H.

answers from Los Angeles on

It still okay to celebrate her birthday when it actually is. I have friends who have a Christmas birthday and they have a birthday tree. Little tree for their birthday gifts. Also as they got older, they had a half birthday celebration for a party. So 6 mos. later they celebrated their birthday in June! Kind of a fun thing to do when they are older.

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A.J.

answers from Sacramento on

My b-day's the 27th and growing up my parents always celebrated the day of. Very rarely did any of my friends attend my party just because they were always out of town or just too busy. For me I was never bothered by it at all. I never was upset about getting all my presents at once either!! I guess if you don't know any different then there's nothing really to be upset about,,The only thing I ever wished could be different was to have a swimming party. I hated the cold and snow so I was bummed with that....

Having said that my 1st son's is on the 28th and I feel like he got the short end of gifts this yr from us and even the family. I plan on shopping for next yr, now, and until he's about 4/5 plan on just celebrating with family the weekend of his b-day. And then when he's old enough to want friends over let him decide if he'd like to celebrate at another time, like maybe he's expected due date which was Jan. 16th or a 1/2 bday in July. If he's fine celebrating as is then so be it. I've found in my experience other people were more concerned with my b-day being so close to christmas than I ever was...

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C.L.

answers from San Luis Obispo on

Great question, especially since my birthday is the day after Christmas. I am now 47, but my birthday memories have always been less than great because it is really too hard to get excited for another celebration after Christmas has ended and the house is a mess with all of the new toys etc. I suggest that you have Dec. 26th always be a low-key birthday celebration with maybe a meal out and/or a movie or bowling or something easy like this. just with family. If you want a party, you should do it a few weeks before. I did that when I was young and it worked out well. In fact, my mom always thought I should have had a 1/2 year birthday party so I could have a summer party, as opposed to always having an indoor cold winter party. Just a thought. As for presents, it is not fair to shortchange your child just because the two big gift days are right next to each other. Either give whatever you would give for the both days, or give less on the birthday and then give a gift each month for the next few months on the 26th as "still celebrating your birthday" which will make having a birthday the day after Christmas less of a bummer. I hope this helps.

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L.M.

answers from Los Angeles on

I have a December b'day. When I was growing up my Mom would always have a party with my friends at the beginning of the month. Since your daughters is at the end of the month maybe you would want to have a b'day celebration with her friends in the beginning of January when they are all returning to school. By then everyone will be done with family obligations and ready to focus on your daughter.

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M.Z.

answers from Reno on

My husbands birthday is Christmas Eve and when he was growing up his Mom always had his "friend" Birthday party in the summer on his 1/2 birthday. He loved it and never had a complaint about it not being celebrated on the actual day. By celebrating in the summer he could be outside and be with his friends.

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S.F.

answers from Santa Barbara on

Glad you asked this question! Our son was also born on the 26th! At first, I thought "I can do this" we'll just make it special, but the 26th this year we managed nothing but a little family gathering around the table. I figure this was like a "dry run" since he is so young, but I am now convinced that the way we are going to make his birthday special is to do a small family thing on the day of and a party at the 1/2 birthday. I am actually kind of excited about this idea, as our children's birthdays are only a month apart and I think a summer-time party sounds a bit more inviting than during the cold months.
I am sure whatever you decide will be great.

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T.G.

answers from Los Angeles on

Hi, my dad's birthday is on Christmas. When he was growing up my grandmother (his mom) always had the celebration on his 1/2 birthday (June 25th). Of course now that he is older we have to celebrate both days!! His actual birthday on 12/25 and then again on 6/25 (since everyone is too busy during Christmas to celebrate). Just goes to show, no matter how old they get they are still just little boys! Anyway, I try celebrating in June, this way she can get presents for Christmas and again at her birthday. The joke around our house is giving my dad a pair of socks (one for his birthday, and one for Christmas). Good luck!

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S.B.

answers from San Diego on

My friend's son's Bday is the same day as your daughter and she celebrates the birthday in January after school starts up again.

Good Luck!

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V.C.

answers from San Diego on

My daughter's birthday is Christmas Eve...yes it is hard to fit in a day JUST for her, without Christmas & Hanukkah competition. So we pick a Saturday, a couple of weeks before or a couple of weeks after, for her party. Because she wants school friends at her party, parties during the break don't work as well.

Over the years we have which ever party she wants: at home with jump houses & face painters, skating, limo ride to Corvette Diner, pizza sleep over, Drive in w/KFC & hair & makeup craziness--her choice (within our budget). But on her ACTUAL birthday, I still make her favorite food for dinner & she gets an Ice Cream Cake & we sing to her & give her presents from family. When she was your daughter's age, we had home parties, & as she has gotten older the parties got more "outside" so to speak & now, at 13, she had a Pizza-sleepover & was happy as pie. It was by far the cheapest too, which I appreciated.

Christmas was so overwhelming some years that my girls would just stop opening presents & save some for the next day, or the day after. That was when I knew it was time to cut WAY back. Of course, I had been wrapping socks, underwear, lip glosses...I got a little nuts about having lots to unwrap.

BTW, after my daughter's Family sing this past Christmas Eve, we all took off & went Caroling to different friends. She was fine with that, because she got "her" recognization. AND I make sure that NO presents are EVER wrapped in Christmas paper if they are for her Birthday. I've even slipped other kids presents to her into a "Birthday" bag--every adult I have ever met who has a birthday around Christmas will complain about presents for them, wrapped in Christmas wrap & how that made them feel 2nd rate. Good Luck with your little girl. V.

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D.M.

answers from Los Angeles on

My daughter has a December birthday too (16th). We've done the half birthday party in the past and it really works out well. We still have a small cake with candles on her birthday, but it helps to break up the presents and parties by having a half birthday. We also look for other opportunities for small presents throughout the year: Valentine's day, Easter, etc.

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M.C.

answers from Honolulu on

My daughter's birthday is not until Jan 5, but it is 2 weeks away from Christmas and also often within the school Christmas Break. (and her sister's birthday is Jan18th!) One thing that I started early and have continued was the following rule: Open a present, then write a thank-you note before opening the next present. This has worked out well for us, because we live far from family, so we can open the Christmas and birthday presents on our own schedule. We start several days before Christmas and we sometimes open presents for a whole month!! (depending on the number of friends coming to the party and bringing gifts!) We have never opened birthday presents at the party for this reason, and nobody seems to miss it.

For both of my kids birthdays, they get to pick the restaurant to eat birthday dinner. Growing up, as birthday kid, I got to pick the dinner that mom would prepare for the birthday dinner, which was also a treat. We have a party for friends after school resumes, that way we can hand out invitations at school and they won't get lost in the Christmas shuffle. We always end up celebrating about 10 days after my first daughter's birthday for this reason.

I know you will come up with a tradition that works for you. We tried several things, like having a b-day party over Christmas break, but we got a lot of no-shows because the holidays are just too busy and many folks go out of town, too. Once we went to a resort for her birthday weekend, which was big fun, but now daddy has decided that the resort thing is a treat for mommy's b-day (not bad, huh!). You have lots of theme parks, so as she gets older, she could just invite one friend and go to sea world for the day (or a few days later) or something like that.

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M.S.

answers from Chicago on

My son's B-Day is 12-30 and my daughter's is 12-29. We never have their party in December. People are to busy with the holidays and would often miss their parties. We usually have their parties at least three weeks after or before the holidays. If they recieve any gift cards we usually save them until summer comes along to buy summer toys. We often try to buy our kids summer type presents (bikes scooters, baseball T-stand, because people do not y=think of that stuff in the middle of winter. As far as their actual Birthday, we usually just celebrate it with the immediate family on the day off. The big celebration with friends and extended family waits until later when people are more in the mood to do Birthday stuff!

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K.H.

answers from Washington DC on

My daughters birthday is on the 30th , she has just turned 4. Like you said she get's a whole load of new presents and then nothing the whole year , her brother and sister both have June birthday's. What I have decided to do from now on , is keep some of her birthday money aside until June so that she can choose a new toy for herself so that she doesn't go a whole year with nothing. As for birthday party , for the last 2 yrs we have done it on her actual birthday , which has worked out ok so far , if in the future this becomes a problem then I may hold her party at the beginning of December.

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S.T.

answers from Kansas City on

My daughter just turned 3 and her birthday is December 28th I'm still trying to figure out what works also we had a big 1 birthday then for her 2nd we combined it with New Years and had a party this year we just did the family and I did a luau theme the day after Christmas for her 4th birthday we will probably do the family again and then we will do a big 5th birthday at the beginning of December! Good Luck and just have fun with it it goes by way to fast.

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R.J.

answers from San Diego on

My mum, uncle, & grandmother were all born on 12/25... so christmas turned into a HUGE celebration for our family (christmas in the morning & giant birthday party at night).

That said, if it was my own kiddo (instead of my elders) I would *probably* move it a month into January. Summer break bday's (ds7 has a July 2nd bday) are even harder than winter break bday's, because summer break is sooooo long, and so many people are out of town... we only ever have about 1 in 5 of our friends in town on any given date. Later on we'll be able to have smashing 4th of July / Bday parties, but especially as an elementary kid, the summer birthdays aren't easy, which is something to keep in mind if you start celebrating on the 1/2.

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J.L.

answers from Los Angeles on

half birthdays in July or party in January. Still honor her birthday on the day of but have a party on the alternate.

V.C.

answers from Dallas on

I can speak about having a birthday close to Christmas. It was a bummer! Consider celebrating her half-birthday with friends and her real one with just family.
Hope this helps!
Victoria

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A.H.

answers from Dallas on

My daughters birthday is actually Christmas Day, its a very overwhelming birthday. My daughter is only one right now in the future we plan on doing 1/2 birthdays.

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M.C.

answers from Washington DC on

I have 1 friend that celebrates the first week of Dec.; another friend celebrates in Feb. and another celebrates in June so that she can have a party with her friends from school.

M.

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