Commenting negatively on my Christmas due date

[Amber76]

I don't think I'm being unreasonable at all - just want to vent.

I'm pregnant and due on Christmas day (though it will be a caesarean so likely to be one week earlier). I am sick, sick, sick of people saying "oh, terrible time of the year to have a baby" - yes, thank you for your opinion, I'm aware its not ideal but there's not a whole lot I can do about it.

My sister in law, who has a child born on the 13th December, said how "awful" it would be to have a baby on the 18th December as that was the same week as Christmas. But that her darling born on the 13th was , thankfully, born far enough away from Christmas so that the birthday wouldn't get lost in Christmas celebrations. I just said we don't care when the baby comes as long as its healthy which is true but wish I'd said something more to show her what nonsense she was spouting.

Rant over..

My birthday is on 21st December, and people always say that it must be horrible for it to be so close to Christmas, but it really doesn't bother me! As a child I never got one present instead of two, and people always came to my birthday parties. We usually broke up from school around my birthday too, which I loved.

The worst part was that if I wanted something I had to wait a whole year to get it, as we didn't usually get toys apart from Christmas and birthdays. My mom offered to switch my birthday to summer if I wanted for this reason!

Bless you!
I have a DS with a due date of Christmas Day, he was born early, on the 10th. I thought he might be early as his two sisters were both born at 37weeks + a few days.

I also have a DD born in August, people rushed to tell me how awful that was from the minute she was born!! She has thrived at school...

And my Christmas baby ended up in NICU for a number of reasons, for Christmas, but we got him home New Year's Eve. A newborn pretty much turns a household upside down for a short while, doesn't matter whether it's Christmas or not! Good Luck OP x

YANBU! My DH loves having his birthday in Christmas week. It is part of our family tradition and it also means that he always gets to see all his long distance nearest and dearest on his birthday, unlike me, a summer born, so everyone is always on holiday.

Some people have melons for brains.

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

My dp's birthday is in December and he hates it, ds has a December 18th birthday and dp felt disappointed for him but I think dp is being a bit daft, if your in your 30's and one of your biggest disappointments is that your birthday is at Christmas then you have had a pretty nice life!

Congratulations! Our ds2 was due on Christmas eve but he was a planned section so I knew he'd be here before that. Loads of people made negative comments, but when I went to the hospital to get a date for the section the consultant said "Right then how about the 19th, you'll be home in time to cuddle your early Christmas present in front of the Strictly final with a glass of wine and some quality street. Brilliant! It was a very tiring but incredibly special Christmas and DH had his holidays over Christmas as usual then when DS2 was about a month old and I was a bit more mobile/less like a zombie, he took his paternity leave, so he was at home for 4 out of the first 6 weeks and that was fab.
DS2 is only one and I did find I was totally disorganised last year and kept forgetting I had to organise his birthday as well as Christmas but that's my own fault! Will try harder this year! We also didn't get him too much for his birthday so that we could get him some summer toys around now, and we'll probably keep doing that especially while he's small.
A baby is a gift whenever they arrive, ignore the eejits and enjoy not lifting a finger when it comes to Christmas dinner!

How rude.

Unless you are like my friends DH who refused to dtd when it would mean a Christmas baby (and this is rather forward thinking iykwim) then you are just thinking this might be when we make a baby not - ooh this will make a busy time of year to have a baby/birthday!

Whenever they arrive it will be an amazing day and for them it will always be their birthday so they won't care.

Fwiw my friend is born 18 Dec and loves it as friends are usually home (even though we are now in our 30's) over that time for the Christmas celebrations so are always there to celebrate with her!!

It may not be the best time for a birthday, but it is a magical time to have a newborn.

My dgs has a birthday on 22nd Dec and they put the tree up on the 23rd sobefore that the focus is on his birthday. He always gets two lots of presents and is very happy with the situation. His sister has a birthday on the 5th too but that is even less of a problem.

You: SIL, I need your help.
SIL: of course, ask away.
You: What would you do in my position?
SIL:

Ignore her daft comments.

It's a really special time of year and you can make it extra special for your DC's birthday. We have 2 December birthdays, including a Christmas Eve so we're pretty good at it now. We have always been militant about the DCs' birthdays being their day, not a run up to Christmas. It is not OK to give them Xmas cards as birthday cards or to wrap their birthday presents in Xmas paper. It is not OK to give them one present to cover both events. Luckily, all the family really get it and make as much distinction as they would if the DCs' birthdays were in June. I get all my Xmas prep done by 22nd or 23rd so that Xmas Eve is completely about the birthday, not last minute Xmas faffing.

BTW, the Xmas day after my Xmas Eve DC was born was by far and away the best Christmas I've ever had. I was completely bed bound after a c-section and smacked off my tits on morphine. Many's the Xmas I've thought wistfully of that day...

My birthday is 25th December. I always get the sad face "oh do you get double presents" question.

But I love having it on Christmas Day. There's presents for everyone, great food, great company and everyone drinks all day with me!

I wish my parents had made more of a big deal of it growing up but now I'm older I make my own big deal :-)

People said this a lot when I was pg with dd2. Her birthday is between Christmas and New Year, so there's often a 'poor kid' comment even now.

But I have always been utterly glad that she has a birthday. It's a very silly attitude towards the birth of a child to quibble about the date. I had 4 mcs so it was easy for me to be grateful that I had a second dc. Still am.

My ds was 22nd dec and it is a bit of a pain in the arse in terms of parties as people so busy in run up to Xmas, the house is full of toys as both Christmas and bday so close together but at the end of the day of he moans about it when he bigger (he's 2) I'll tell him its his own fault for staying in too long(was due 09th)

YANBU. My dd is a Christmas Day baby. It was lovely and peaceful at the birthing centre. For a long time she was thrilled everyone put out lights and trees to celebrate her birthday! Her conception was not planned and I would have been shocked if someone had been so rude to comment on the timing.

Congratulations on your pregnancy.

They are wrong, it's a wonderful time to have a baby! DC1 was born on 25th December. DH always says, best Christmas gift he'll ever get!

For their actual birthday, you are already all together on Christmas Day. As we always have birthday cake and candles, I never again have to make a fucking awful christmas cake (hate fruit cake).

Because their birthday is actually at Christmas, you can justify having a party in July and second round of gifts then to spread it out, but if they say, have an end of November birthday, it's far enough away that you can't really push their party/gift buying to another time of year, and IME, people with November and January birthdays don't get as much stuff and fuss anyway because of the cost/planning of Christmas. (November and January birthday children always have crap garden toys because noone ever thinks to get garden things at that time of year, with the 'buy a big gift halfway through the year' plan that most December babies get, most do have slides and swings!)

The magic of Christmas and the magic of their birthday all get wrapped up together.

As they get older, and they want a party at their birthday rather than halfway through the year, you can be the parent the others love because you put on a party between Christmas and New Year, that's a week when fuck all is happening, children are beginning to get bored of the tree and seeing relatives, cabin fever has set in, and often it's raining - all other christmas parties happen before Christmas, a party to go to will get a good turn out (if unlike this year, half your guests aren't stuck with flooding as we found, but that could be a problem for any winter party!!).

Alternatively, if you put on a party they can 'drop and run' the weekend before Christmas, you will be a hero to the mums who are running round like blue arsed flies trying to get Christmas organised!!

It'll be what you make it, nobody's business, my bday is Christmas and it's never been a bad thing. People just love to make comments. Ignore it all and have your own opinions

It's actually really special, so enjoy

oh and other reasons it's great - for the first 2 weeks when you are stuck to the sofa establishing breast feeding, there's lots of good telly to watch.

There's really yummy snack foods.

You get your first round of visits done in the hospital, then hopefully snow will keep all the hords of extended family away for a couple of weeks (I was very lucky, started snowing on the way home from hospital with DC1, kept everyone away for ages - both siblings and both sets of grandparents had seen DC1 in hospital already and had a cuddle, so noone missed out!)

winter baby means big, wooly jumpers and cardies covering a post baby body, by spring, you'll be ready to emerge considerably smaller. It is easier to breast feed discreetly (when first getting the hang of it) in winter clothes than in summer clothes.

Being heavily pregnant makes you very hot! Having had one winter and one summer baby, I was a lot more comfortable at 8 months with the winter baby.

No worrying about how hot the baby is, much easier to stick on the heating in winter than trying to cool a newborn's room in a heatwave.

When they start wanting to crawl around 6 months, it's summer so they can play outside easily, rather than midwinter and them wanting to crawl in rain/snow.

Dd was due on Xmas day and I had negative comments too. But we were just happy to be pregnant. She ended up being born on 8th Jan which people also lament! ?d2 was born 21 Jan this year so January will be a busy expensive month! It doesn't bother me. Having a newborn in winter is really good as by the time you're getting out more, the weather is improving!

My birthday is within a couple days of Christmas Day, I hate it and I hated it as a child. But, you know, it's not the end of the world. My birthday parties were always on the last day of term so everyone was really excited, Santa Claus once telephoned me to say Happy Birthday and my mother took down all the decorations in the house to make sure that we just celebrated my 18th Birthday (then put them all back up the day after). So I have nice memories of it too.

Congrats on the bump!

Ignore the people who make negative comments. My birthday is December 23rd and I love it. When I was younger I always felt really special having my birthday so close to Christmas.

My bday is 20th Dec & I love it.

We used to decorate the tree & put the decs up on my bday which I always thought was great, plus bday balloons.

Kids were always in a party mood.

Later maybe the works party fell on your bday-all good imo!

I should have been born end of Feb-so so much for avoiding!!

Parents were just glad I made it!

"When I was younger I always felt really special having my birthday so close to Christmas."

Yes, that's exactly it.

I was born on 22nd December, 26 years ago. My mum said it was fine :)

It's what you make of it and if you make the birthday special and to stand out from Christmas it will be.

My DS was due 21st Dec and came on 23rd instead. After 3 yrs of trying I didn't care he was due at Christmas. We were in hospital till 26th Dec and there is a very cute picture of him with a special tiny Santa hat on.

He's 4 now and yes it's a bit of pain that he has to wait so long for any big presents and it has been tricky to make sure his birthday stands out as everyone is busy preparing for Christmas but we're making new traditions to make sure it's special because it's at Christmas. This year we're going to the panto on his birthday - can't do that on mine or DH's summer birthdays!