Benefits of a December birthday?

[Biancadelriosback]

It's DS's birthday today (2) and out of the 10 people invited to his party, 5 didn't come. Excuses range from lack of money to need to go Xmas shopping. He obviously didn't know the difference but I'm sad for him and worried about a lifetime of crap birthdays. Can I ask you to tell me the benefits of a December birthday?

What a shame for your DS. Mine is in December too but I sometimes celebrate it in November if I’m planning something with others to avoid a situation like you’ve described. Essentially it means you have one celebration with your friends in November and another with close family in December. If two birthdays are good enough for the Queen, they’re good enough for me. Lol. My DS birthday is in the middle of the summer holidays so he has parties with his friends two weeks before the schools break up for the same reason. X

Mine was yesterday! Benefits - everything is all lovely and sparkly and mostly people are in a good mood. It’s quite often been the works Christmas do on my bday which I’ve alsays found fun, lots of colleagues buying drinks and generally making a nice fuss of me! I had a brilliant team for a few years who always got me a lovely present. As an adult I like that I can combine my birthday and christmas present budget from DH if I want a particular big something. Sometimes it snows and that’s pretty fun on a birthday. I do keep threatening to have a summer birthday one year just so I can have a bbq in the rain but generally I’ve never had an issue with people not turning up for parties.

My mum’s is the 2nd of jan and she has the same problems!

My youngest will be 1 next week and I’m expecting all the invities to attend but it’s been hard pinning people down in December

Dd's is the 31 St. Going to be 12 she has accepted nobody ever sends a positive rsvp so we haven't tried to have a party for years!!
We do go to her favourite restaurant as a whole family - the only time we go, just for her - this is more than acceptable she says!!
Her 18 th will likely be different!!

You can have Yule log as a birthday cake.

That's a big plus for me. It's better as an adult.

My DD is 27th, people are busy and doing their own family thing. The benefit though is that her family are usually around to do things. We've stopped trying to do parties because she was usually disappointed, despite the reasons seeming genuine and unavoidable. Now we do a family party then a day or if her choice. This year she's going away for a couple of days with her dad. Another upside is people tend not to give her presents as they don't know what Santa will bring so she ends up with lots of money to buy what she wants, and usually in the sales too.

Better presents as I could have combined ones.

You know who your real friends are if they make the effort.

You can decide to have 2 birthdays without seeming like a crazy person.

If you go to any Christmas party you can casually mention how awful to is to have a December birthday and people will buy you drinks.

If you hate being the centre of attention but still want to celebrate your birthday, you can kind of tag it on to a Christmas event/party/work do which is nice. So you get the good bits (everyone being nice/buying drinks) without the awkwardness of trying to get everyone to go to a birthday-specific event.

Or if you don’t like going out to celebrate anyway, there’s usually something good on TV and it’s lovely to snuggle up on the sofa at this time of year in your PJs with some candles, Christmas lights and a blanket.

Oh ffs, not connected to December. I am born in December very soon after Christmas and I NEVER had any excuses. Maybe people are just shit and you see their true colours.

It can be a bit crap as an adult even in early December. Going out for a meal means dodging Christmas menus and it's hard to have events with friends as the month is already busy and expensive. As a child mine was fine as its early enough in the month to still be distinct.

My birthday is a week before Xmas. A lot of people are busy/skint. Rather than have one day, stretch it over a week . Cheap cinema deal Monday with one friend. Yoga class tues, cake and coffee with another weds ect. I've had years to come to terms with naff joints presents so instead I cherish those that can spend time instead.

Same as if you are an August birthday - just have an 'official' birthday for friends the month before or the month afterwards, as well as doing something with your (house) family on the day and Grandparents / local family tea on the nearest weekend. My dc love having 3 birthdays

Honestly my birthday is in the middle of July and it's still shit; everyone is usually away on holiday.

I feel so bad for DS but all excuses were actually reasonable. The Xmas shopping one is a friend who is celebrating Xmas early next week as she works for NHS so will be working over Xmas week.

My DH's is 24th! As a child he hated it. He never got any B'day presents, he was always given a combined B'day/Xmas one and he never had a proper B'day party. Since we have been married I have always made an effort to have the 24th as just his B'day and gone out for a meal and have non xmas things that day.

My birthday is today. There’s nothing good about it. I’ve had a shit day and had a little cry about it.

Work retail so not allowed the day off. Everyone’s busy and or skint. The weathers fucking shocking.

I always had a good birthday as a kid though. My mum made a big deal of not putting the tree or decorations up until after my birthday and she always made a special spot for my cards that wouldn’t get taken over by Xmas cards. She always said ‘Christmas doesn’t start until after NotExactlys birthday’. It was lovely.

Mines in the middle of December and I've always loved it never had joint presents ect always been an special day on it's own and even as an adult my friends have come and celebrated when I wanted to do something. I usually mention the day (usually weekend before or after my birthday so still in Dec) I was planning on doing something in October to them so it's in their calenders. Also I like that every is usually in a celebratory mood in December anyway (or so it seems!) And I like that I always get a chocolate from my advent calendar too!

Hope he has better ones to come!

My birthday is 23rd December, I am nearly 45 though and I don't remember all the pre-christmas hysteria being quite so intense when I was a child. It's quite nice to have a special day just for you when everybody else is focussing on christmas. As an adult it's a good time to go out, everybody is up for going for a drink. I think a birthday between christmas & new year is worse, my friend's birthday is 28th, nobody wants to eat any more or drink ever again and he never had a birthday cake because there was always plenty of christmas cake around.

We have a birthday routine now, me & dh & dcs go to the pictures to a film of my choosing, go home and eat indian takeaway, tree will be up by then so you get lovely lights and celebratory feel to the day.

If there’s something expensive you really, really want, you can ask for a joint Christmas and birthday present (I’m cheating a bit, my birthday is in November).

I'm early Jan and have same problem, money has already been spent and it's a looong way till pay day. People are so busy/flaky/forget that they let you down Every. Single. Year.

And there was no 'double budget' when I was a kid. Always combined Xmas/birthday present from DM as a child to save money. Yes, money was tight, but it never felt special for me.

I always wanted a bbq for my birthday. Sorry OP, no positives here.

We have decided that the tree won't go up until after his birthday but the rest of the decs go up beforehand. We've booked santa visits and other local Xmas stuff to do after his birthday too, but it does mean next week is crazy busy!

Mine is 30th and I love it, although was never one for big parties. as a child I loved being at home and watching films with all my family home too. Or we would go to the cinema. Nowadays we go for a massive Chinese buffet and a nice walk or day out in the countryside. I've never been to school or worked on my birthday! Never had joint presents. In fact I used to get extra presents from aunts/ uncles/ distant family who were visiting for Christmas and my siblings never received presents from them during the year. People go a bit bonkers during December and do become flaky, so maybe start your own birthday tradition for your son with family or solid guaranteed friends who won't let him down.

I've got a December birthday, hated as a kid, no-one cared, you got 'joint' presents (which was a crap excuse for people forgetting/not having the money/laziness) so never felt like a birthday.

As an adult I care much less, will be taking DC to a Christmas party on my birthday and won't do anything, but that's because these days my kids are more important than me celebrating getting even older. Me and DH will go out for a meal if we can book a sitter.

I did plan both DC to avoid the festive period though! No guarantees with that, admittedly, but it worked in my case.

DH is the 20th of January and reckons that the Jan babies have it hard- at least people are cheerful in December. In January everyone's skint, fat and depressed.