Birthday near Christmas?

[Brisen]

My 6 yo ds has his birthday near Christmas (Dec 15). While it's not the same as having your birthday on Christmas day or eve, it still tends to be pretty busy for making plans with family or friends, and I find the gift overload a little much all at one time (we have a lot of family who like to buy gifts). I'm considering this year celebrating his birthday a month early. My biggest reason for doing so is so that he gets some space between birthday gifts and Christmas gifts. I'm concerned, though, that he will feel let down on his actual birthday if we don't do anything. Does anyone here have experience with doing this kind of thing? What were the pros/cons?

[elmh23]

My nephew's birth day is December 29. He has a family party on his birthday (just dinner and cake and presents.) He has a friend party sometime in the spring or summer. I'm acutally not sure when that one is.

Could you do a special thing on his birthday like go to a museum he likes or go see a movie he wants to see? Also, let him pick out the dinner menu and have cake or pie.

I really can't think of any cons...

[Ruthla]

You could have the birthday party with friends a month early, but still do a little something special on his actual birthday. Serving birthday cake after dinner, just to household members, and giving him another birthday card should suffice. Alternatively, let him get gifts from friends on the party but save your gift to him for his actual birthday (or get him two smaller gifts.)

DD1 was born on the 7th night of Hanukkah, although the English birthday (as opposed to her birthday on the Hebrew calendar) often falls well before the actual holidays. IT's less of a problem now, as a teenager, since she generally gets cash as gifts from relatives. When she was younger, she often got "double gifts" at the family Hanukkah get-together while her sister got 'single gifts". She did feel kind of cheated out of "her own birthday" while DD2 sister was jealous that she got fewer gifts at the family get-togethers.

[plantmama]

Ds's bd is a couple days after Christmas. He NEVER gets double presents and now while he's young I almost wish he would
This year we are having a friends party the weekend after and will celebrate with the family (and cake ofcourse) on his actual bd.
I think it's fun, because it's nice to have a small family celebration but I think he's ready for a party with friends this year too (he's turing 5).

[Alyantavid]

My bday is on Dec 15 as well and growing up, I always kind of felt like my bday was an afterthought with everything else going on. I would definitely make sure he had something special on his bday. Do a friend party beforehand or whatever, but do make his actual bday special.

Have you asked what he wants to do?

[Brisen]

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. I hadn't really thought about doing a separate friend party, since I'm not really a party person but that might work.

Originally Posted by Alyantavid

My bday is on Dec 15 as well and growing up, I always kind of felt like my bday was an afterthought with everything else going on. I would definitely make sure he had something special on his bday. Do a friend party beforehand or whatever, but do make his actual bday special.

Have you asked what he wants to do?

I did suggest to him that we might celebrate his birthday a month early, and he was all for it. I'm just concerned, as you say, that he'll feel overlooked on his real birthday, even if we did a regular celebration a month earlier. I guess I'm also concerned about making it fair for his siblings -- I'm worried they will feel shortchanged if ds gets "two" birthdays, kind of like what Ruthla pointed out with her dds. My oldest was born on Hallowe'en, but it's easy enough to just have his celebration on another day -- it doesn't really overshadow things like Christmas does.

I think we'll try out having a party a month early, and then his choice of dinner & dessert on his actual birthday. If it's a flop, we can try something else next year.

Thanks!

[neptunemama]

Another idea would be to have his friends party on his half birthday in June. My niece's bday is Dec. 14th and that's what they've always done for her. On her actual bday they have a small family party. That's worked well for them, and she likes celebrating her birthday in this way.

[CarrieMF]

You could hold it 2 weeks before instead of a whole month before then it still seems like his birthday.

My middle dd's birthday is Mar 16th, my youngest is Apr 10th which is usually on the weekend of Easter(it's Good Friday next year). Due to Easter the younger one has to have her party early since everyone is on holidays the week after. I try to hold the oldests party early too otherwise I get partied out.

My oldest is Nov 7 but has had her party 2 weeks early in order to have a Halloween party

Though there is a benefit to having a birthday close to a holiday, it's easy to do themed parties for cheap and there different from most other parties so the kids have fun & remember them.

[Realrellim]

Originally Posted by CarrieMF

You could hold it 2 weeks before instead of a whole month before then it still seems like his birthday.

:

DD's birthday is also Dec 15, and my sister's is the 16th (and my grandfather's was the 17th and my aunt's is the 18th...I'm not making this up. Don't forget my older cousin on the 13th). Anyhow, my mom sometimes had her birthday party in early December rather than waiting until the middle of the month. Usually we had a family party (for obvious reasons) in the middle of the month. My sister may have been comforted by knowing she wasn't the only one dealing with the birthday/Christmas issue because it had always been in the case in our family. My parents also gave her a little less than they would in December, and then used that money to buy her a birthday gift in June.

DD doesn't like crowds and has no interest in a kid party, so we usually have the family over for a small quiet party on the weekend near her birthday. On her actual birthday we try to do something special: go to the zoo (it was 60 and sunny one year), or go to zoolights or to a museum or something fun.

[mamasgirls]

It is hard! My dd will be 7 on Dec. 29th and each year I am finding it gets a little harder! Gift overload is a biggie for us, but I also find it difficult to have friend parties in between Christmas and New Year's. We have done Feb. parties, but they always felt "off" to me. We can't do a half b-day in June because that is my DH's and my younger dd's b-day.

Anyway- I do try to make her birthday as special as possible. I never wrap with Christmas paper, we always do something fun and have a family party. I try to separate it as much as I can from Christmas, but it is so hard since it is so close.

[bmcneal]

My DD's birthday is the 22nd. We've been doing a small party for her on her birthday. Go out to eat/have her favorite dinner, cake and a party. We usually just get her one kind of big present for her birthday, and then do Christmas separate. (Right now, I'm mostly worried because if this LO comes on his EDD, we'll have DD's birthday on the 22nd, Christmas on the 25th, and this LO's birthday on the 28th.

[Love_My_Babies]

My older sons have birthdays in November and January. Their days are not as close to the holidays as yours are, but it is still a lot of presents and commotion for a few months.

What we decided to do for their birthdays is to pick a charity to donate to. So, friends come over to have cake and play and leave a donation (i.e. a coin from their piggy bank or a box of mac and cheese for the food pantry) for the charity. Birthday money is split into thirds. One third to the charity, one third (then matched by mom and dad) into their mutual fund account and one third on a toy they pick at the store. They get so much from santa and family for Christmas and they get one big gift for their birthday. So, they don't feel like they are missing out. Google "parties without pressure".

[mommy68]

My oldest child has a birthday in early December. We've always done his party the weekend right after Thanksgiving. It has always worked out. I'd probably just have a party for him the first weekend in December. That way nothing is really going on and people are getting over Thanksgiving and not truly in to gift buying for C-mas just yet. I've never had a problem having a party that first weekend in December.

[Marimami]

My birthday is Dec. 26 and as I approach my 39th celebration I have yet to have a birthday party with friends, and I'm still okay!

My birthdays have always been about family time. I am the youngest of 5 (by 8 years) but my parents were always off work, I was always out of school, and my siblings were out of school or home from college.

We have a whole set of traditions just surrounding my birthday that I always felt made it more special because my family took extra time around the busiest time of the year, just for me.

I've always been offended by the idea of celebrating a "half" birthday or something similar because it feels like my family wouldn't have bothered to make my birthday special amidst all the holiday hoopla.

DH has learned all the traditions by now, and it continues to be a family-oriented day for me!

Holli

[DaughterOfKali]

My son's birthday is just before Christmas. We haven't had a big party for him yet (only two kids at parties).
When we do start having larger parties, I will probably request a book exchange or decoration exchange in lieu of presents.

[marieangela]

My oldest son's birthday is two weeks after Christmas. He is turning 6 this coming January and I have yet to do a kid birthday party. Even with family and especially with my third on way, we already worry about too many gifts, making it special, etc. I tend to like to celebrate on or near birthdays and just make them special and separate.

[MrsAprilMay]

I've been thinking about this a lot with DS's first birthday coming up in early January. Not that he'll know this year, but in the future want to make sure that his birthday is special even though it's close to all the winter holidays.

With DD we always have her party on a day other than her birthday, and then have cake as a family on her actual birthday. I suppose it wouldn't be too different for DS. We'd just make his party later in the month.