What Do You Do When Kids' Birthdays Fall near Major Holidays?

My grandson was born on 28 Dec (01), and we all agreed his birthday would be separate from the holidays, every year. Until this year, we did that by having his party by the second weekend in December, before the holiday got into full swing and before his preschool friends all left for the holidays.

This year was a bit different, and he's old enough to understand, so we planned it for after the beginning of the year--when his friends got back to school.

L. C

My son is now 13, today, and for a few years, we also tried to have his parties with friends on or near his birthday. But everyone was too busy. This does seem unfair, since he always went to all of their parties and brought nice gifts. My son always got cheated. So now we have his family party on or near his birthday and his party with friends in January or February. More people tend to come and when anyone asks, I just tell them the truth and they seem to understand. D. H.

L.,

I am sure you recieved all the request you needed to make a decision but I had to say something. I was born on December 27 and I will be 35 this year. My daughter is a December baby as well with her birthday 9 days before Christmas.

Growing up my parents had a party for me with friends the weekend before school got out for the holidays. Then two days before school got out for the holidays my mom always brought cupcakes to school. On my birthday I got presents from family. This always made me feel special because I got 2 partys and 2 cakes every year. My parents did stress to everyone (family) that I not be treated differently because my birthday was so close to Christmas, so no combo birthday/christmas gifts. I will also add being born so close to Christmas my biggest pet peeve is a birthday gift in Christmas paper. Oh and never put a Santa Clause on the birthday cake, I don't know what my mom was thinking one yr, she did that when I was 12 and we still give her a hard time.

Anyway, it's a crazy time of year with the holidays so the best plan is to just communicate with your child's friend's parents to make sure they will be in town, it's just a little extra planning.

I hope this was helpful.

Happy Birthday to your December baby!

M.

My 2 youngest are the same ages as yours. EXCEPT the 23 month old has her birthday ON CHRISTMAS DAY. The rest of the family is from Feb 12-Apr 6 (7 of them). What we do is to have one huge family party during March b/c so many of the kids birthdays are during then. We will celebrate her birthday then also. On Christmas Day we have a birthday cake for dessert and celebrate with the immediate family. I have warned them to NEVER wrap her birthday present in Christmas paper or to combine Christmas and birthday gifts. I don't mind the family waiting until March to buy her birthday gifts though. We get her plenty for her birthday and she get 2 celebrations, one on her day with Jesus and one with the brothers and sisters in March. That is what works for us.

We had friends that both of their children were near Christmas. They always had a pool party in the summer. We had no idea for years that their real birthday was not in the summer.

Be creative and find something that works for you. We also celebrate "gotcha day". That is the day that 2 of our adopted cildren came to live with us. We go out to eat somewhere special that day or cook their favorite meal - their choice. AND also celebrate the day their adoption was final - same thing either a special meal fixed at home or go out to eat somewhere special.

There is a lot to celebrate in our family. Good luck with all your choices. The main thing to remember is to make them feel special and loved beyond measure.

My son was born January 7th (he'll be 36). By then everyone is burnt out from the holidays so we just had a small party for him using his age to determine how many kids were invited (4 years old = 4 friends) and kept it really simple: a few little party games, cake and ice cream. Family was also admonished to keep Christmas and his birthday completely separate. We also invented "Kid's Day" which was the first Saturday in June as a mid-year celebration for him. This was just us and he got a special dinner and one present. We still celebrate Kid's Day.

Our older son will be 38 this year on Dec. 28th. We always made his birthday special by having bigger gifts (first bike, first watch) be for his birthday rather than Christmas. We never gave him one thing and told him it was for both Christmas and his birthday. We also didn't do the birthday party thing every year. We usually had some friends and family in for cake and ice cream, but not a birthday party. We even gave him the option of taking the tree down so his birthday would be special, and he said 'No, that's part of my birthday!" We made every effort to make him feel special and that he wasn't missing out on anything because of when his birthday was. It wasn't my choice to have a baby at that time of the year, but it just happened that way! I was just delighted to have a baby!

Suggestion: You might want to consider having a small party at day care for his friends. That's what our daughter-in-law did for our one grandson.

Yes, there were times when we wanted to have some of his friends in, and they couldn't come, but we worked it out.

My daughters' birthday is Christmas Eve. When she was 1-4 yrs old I always tried to have some kind of family get together for her birthday. It was not easy because everyone was trying to do their last minute Christmas shopping. So, when she was @ 5-9 yrs old I would plan a birthday party at a play place or skating rink, her choice, & have it 2 weeks before Christmas, so that everyone could come. Then on her real birthday I would give her a small cake & 1 gift from me, which also made it a very special time for her & I. Now, she is 11 yrs old today, she would rather do something special, instead of getting more gifts. For example, this year on the 10th we planned an overnight stay at an indoor waterpark. She absolutly loved it & its easier than planning a party & buying gifts. She said she gets way too much from all of her family at Christmas, she's an only child & has 3 Grandmothers,& this is like a minivacation. Then on the last day of school before Christmas break, I bought a Hannah Montana pull apart sheet cake for her to share with her class, & everyone loved it & she was able to share with everyone, teachers included, not just kids that MIGHT be able to come to a party. This afternoon, she will get a small cake & 1 present for her birthday, usually something small, yet special, that represents her & her birthday. She loves to write in journals, so this year it will be a journal call "My life according to me!", it has a place to keep notes, quizzez & questions about her from the day she was born unil now, etc.
Also, now that she is older we discuss what she wants to do. Hope this helps.

I see that you got lots of responses already but I didn't see this mentioned in any of them. One of my cousins was born the day after X-mas and her parents have always had a small "Birthday Tree" where they put her birthday presents to keep them separate from the X-mas presents. It makes her feel special because she has her own tree with presents only for her and it discourages combo gifts. I think doing something right before school gets out or right after they get back is an awesome idea, too. I was born on New Years Eve so I never got to have a big party with friends or bring treats to school and this would eliminate that problem. Good luck!

M.

HI L.
I know this is a little late but I just read your message. My son's birthday is on Dec 18th this year was the 1st year that he realize that it was his birthday. He just turned 5. We tried something new this year and it was a huge hit. We had breakfast with Santa. You will see this at a lot of places starting the first week in Dec. I happen to find one that the kids ate free and adults were $3.00. I bought santa hats for all the kids to wear. They all ate there breakfast and then santa arrived to take pictures and talk to the kids. We then had cup cakes and opened gifts. This was so nice all the mess was not at my house and all the kids loved it. This was all they could talk about the next week at pre school. The year before I hired a santa to come to our house. He really enjoyed this to. We then made ginger bread houses using gram crackers. (I went to my older sons school and collected milk cartons from the lucnch room, came home and washed them out.) I let the kids put frosting all over the milk cartons and stick gramcrackers onto them and then add candy. Well I hope this gave you in idea. Happy Birthday and Happy Holidays

A friend of my was also born near Christmas.

What her family did while she was growing up was to have a small family party on or around her actual birthday, then for friends they picked a random day during the year (one that was during the school year) and they had a birthday party for friends at that time (they kept that same day or weekend every year). That way her actual birthday was still celebrated but she also was able to have a party with her friends during the year.

My son's birthday is dec 19...When he goes to school, i plan to throw his parties the weekend before school lets out for winter break, just because most people plan their holiday trips to start on the 20th and so on...Same with my daughter, her bday is March 12th (Spring Break) though not a major holiday, lots of people will travel during that time, so I plan to send out invitations well ahead of time....hope this helps a little!

My birthday is January 2nd and we used to celebrate it on New Years day. My mother always made it special.. super mom she didn't want the holiday burn out to make my day any less special. It's tough but really worth it!

Have a 'half-birthday' for him in July! That way he gets presents every 6 months and has something else to look forward to. On his real birthday you can always do something small like go out to dinner with just your nuclear family and then celebrate big time come July! Tell everyone to hold off on "birthday" presants until his "half-birthday' I had a friend growing up who did this and noone ever seemed to mind. It was always fun, plus it gave her mom tons of ideas for fun "half" birthday themes... Good luck! ~J.

My cousin was born on that date as well and my aunt has his birthday party like the 1-2 weekend in December. My birthday is usually on or around Thanksgiving and I had my bday celebrations w/ friends the week or two earlier. For my 'real' bday it's just family and a small little cake and a present or two. I hope this helps.

L.,
My little girl was born on Dec 27th of '06 .. she was due on Christmas day but was a little late, I am actually glad she has her 'own' day rather than Christmas day. So, I will be in your boat trying to figure out how to plan parties for her. I want her to feel special and not like the after thought in the middle of the holiday season. I am sure we will come up with something that works ... best of luck to you also!

My daughter's birthday is December 30. She will be 30 this year. We always did a family party on her birthday and she got to choose the meal and we had a cake. She also got her gifts from us and extended family. Then in late January we did a big "friends" birthday and grandmothers etc. did not come. By then all the kids were back in school, bored and really glad to have party to attend. We never had a Christmas theme or cake on her "real" birthday. Also(strongly)encourage family to give separate gifts for birthday and Christmas. Older kids may want gift cards or money so they can purchase something later or get a summer or outdoor item that can't be bought in December. Everyone else gets gifts for both and a "Holiday Child" should too. Half birthdays didn't work for us because friends were on vacation in June. We also have a niece born on Christmas Eve and her brother on December 15. They had a shared family party on Christmas Eve a big dinner, cake, gifts and then church at midnight. I think they thought for a while that the special church service was for them!

My DD b-day is Nov. 22 always near or on Thanksgiving and it is very hard b/c we plan are Holidays w/in-law one year on/one year off so we aren't home for her b-day most of the time. What I did last year and felt guilty now about was have my girls B-day party together. The older ones B-day is Oct.16 so I thought it would be okay and have it in the middle of the two on Nov. 12 but it was too much for everyone including me. We still had a small gathering the day of their actually B-day w/our family and my mom and bro for both of them and a cake.
Birthday months are coming up so I know we start thinking about it and the wheels start turning. My kids b-day run all together Sept. 14, Oct. 16 and Nov 22. I am pretty busy.

If I were in your shoes I would have his B-day party in the middle of Dec before school let's out.
Also March is a busy month too w/spring break and sometimes Easter break.
Don't worry about the amount of kids at the party it what you do for your child and them having fun.
My son is not a very social person so most of the time his b-day parties is just his cousins and a friend or two. Most of the time the parties consist of family b/c I am A SAHM.
Hope this helps and Good Luck,
L.