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 DS1 was due on Christmas Day, born a few days later. He loves having his birthday around Christmas and we makes a huge fuss of him on the day! It will be fine. Ignore the commentators, none of their business quite frankly. And huge congratulations!

My DS was born on the 18th December and given that it's about the best thing that ever happened in my life, how could that date be anything other than special? Also the birthdays of Brad Pitt, Spielberg and, ahem, Stalin so how could anyone complain about that? Congratulations!!

Ooh how lovely! WIll you be giving DC s Christmas name? Nicolas, Mary, Joseph, Gabriel, Gabriella, Christine, Holly, Ivy ...

Yanbu

Congratulations

Give the baby a lovely Xmas name like Joseph or Holly

Another good thing is you will have the baby in the winter, then you will have a few months to get your shit together, then be able to really enjoy the spring and summer when things get a bit easier, rather than newborn craziness

So another bonus

I loved my Christmas due date. Dd was early but she's still a Christmassy baby to me as the whole of December feels like Christmas.

My ds birthday is on 14th dec.

Mine is mid June. I said to him once, do you mind having to wait ALL year for your birthday aand christmas? Wouldn't it be better to have one in the summer, and one in the winter?

Are you kidding, he said, I get 2 whole weeks of presents, celebrations and fuss, I love it!

Ok so he'll be earlier than your dc, but it really is possible to make their birthdays part of christmas!

My ds gets to switch on our christmas lights, I decorate the house for/around his birthday. We make his birthday a special part of the run up to christmas.

He wouldn't have it any other way!

Congratulations and lucky, lucky you to get a snuggly baby for christmas! All the best of luck!

Plus... you buy everything present wise all at once, so it makes it easier to balance and swap things about! Buy a pile of stuff, separate into 2 piles, wrap one in christmas paper, the other in birthday paper. Job done!

You do need to stock up on birthday paper though, as it can get taken off shelves/reduced options around christmas once the decorations go on sale!

Just ignore the daft comments, Christmas is a magical time to have a baby.

In our family we have

Ds1 - 22nd Dec
DH - Xmas Eve
Ds2 - NYE

It's a very busy week long celebration.

Congratulations btw.

Ignore them.

My dd was born two weeks before Christmas and my cousin was born on the 23rd. They love it as the house is always decorated on their birthday. We always make sure that birthday presents are wrapped in birthday paper and not Christmas paper.

For dd we put up birthday banners and balloons which she loves. We also give her a couple of small presents for her birthday and get her something bigger in the summer, we do this for our other DCs too as their birthdays are just after Christmas.

It also worked out nice for DH as he ended up with a month off between paternity leave and Christmas. With our older DCs he had to go back to work after two weeks. It also helped me as I could have a lie in with dd while DH got up with the others for an extra two weeks.

Sorry OP, but my birthday is near Christmas and I hate it. But I think it is unreasonable to make negative comments on someone else's due date.

Birthdays around Christmas can easily get lost within the Christmas celebrations. You will have to learn to manage things to avoid this,

DD was a NYD baby. She really doesn't like it as it gets lost with NYE. Friends are spent up by the time her birthday comes around, but at least she ends up celebrating the day with us as she knows full well that we will celebrate it with her and won't be hung over as are her friends.

It has screwed up NYE for me for life.

However, its unreasonable for people to pass negative comments on something that you have little choice about.

You almost want to be sarcastic about it when they say stupid stuff like that:

Them: "Terrible time of year to have a baby".

You: "Oh yes. That was definitely my first feeling when we found out we were having a child, disappointment".

Them: "Well I just mean it would be better if it was later"

You: "Better for who? You? Did you want me to call you next time we plan to procreate to confirm the dates conform to your sense of the "best time" or is there some special calendar I should get, special training for changing my ovulation dates to fit with this "best time to conceive"?"

Them: "You have to admit it's going to suck to have the baby at Christmas and their birthday to be Christmas"

You: I do? Really? Are you saying my baby isn't going to be special or welcomed simply because they're born close to Christmas?"

Babies come when they come. People are just stupid sometimes (often).

My DS is a xmas baby, it was the best xmas ever and makes xmas even more special! Plus thereslotsof great things to do to celebrate! Panto! Meet Santa! Movies! Snow! (Hopeful...:)

Thing is, it's a done deal now, what is the point of people making 'oh no Xmas baby' type comments? (DD's birthday is 23 Dec)

It was one of my best Christmasses, she was still in the very newly born sleep phase (didn't last) and obligingly slept through Christmas dinner which my mum cooked. Then I retired to bed with baby for the afternoon. Blissful

DD will be 6 this year, we always consult with her about how we do the celebrations - we often don't put Christmas decs up until Christmas Eve for example.

What is it that people hate about a bday near Christmas?

I can't get my head around it tbh!

I'm due DC3 on Christmas Eve. I haven't had any negative comments, but haven't actually told many people yet. It would annoy me too. I'll be having a c-section too, so I know that the baby won't actually be born on Christmas Eve, but I'm looking forward to having a really magical Christmas anyway. I can't think of a nicer time for us to have a newborn :-). Good luck!

diddl - I know that DS has been complaining now that it's "ages" until his birthday - seems the only problems are the one big dump of gifts and then nothing all year rather than it being spread out (but all winter babies have this issue!) and money being tight because of Christmas, so they don't get the same amount as they would have got if they'd had a birthday in say, July - but again, November, January babies have a similar issue.

But as a parent, you just have to make a concious effort to still make their birthday special and are fair with the amounts you spend in total compared to other siblings with birthdays at other times of year.

My birthday is NYE and it doesn't bother me as I don't celebrate it but I can see why it is annoying for others. People already have plans or they are skint after Christmas, places are either booked months in advance or charge triple price as it's NYE and people give you joint bday/Christmas presents on the 25th.

I love the idea of a Christmas baby though. How magical.

My Xmas baby (28 dec) loves her Xmas birthday (she says it means she's like Jesus :-D). Takes a bit of organising and saving but it's a lovely time of year.

Well all birthdays are a year between as is Christmas, so really if you are organised with your money then there's no problem!

I guess you can't expect everyone else to be.

Then again in my day, no full class parties and presents were something like a box of maltesers.

Parties were in the house playing pass the parcel, squeak piggy squeak etc & the food was crisps, sandwiches, cocktail sausages, pineapple & cheese, jelly & blancmange & cake to go!!

Ahem, I am a Christmas Day baby. Its awesome most of the time and you should tell them to get lost!

Positives: You feel special when you are a kid because you get in the newspaper the very first day you were born, you never have to go to school on your birthday, no-one ever forgets your birthday, if you do what my parents did you get to have your birthday first (well after xmas socks anyway) and you can make your siblings wait in mute agony for their christmas to start while you slowly and painstakingly unwrap your birthday presents ;-)

There are some negatives, its a family day so you never get to have a birthday party with your friends on your actual birthday and when you are older it is a bit crap because you don't get a special day where you get treated, mostly I am cooking Christmas dinner on my birthday! Also when you go through something like divorce christmas day becomes an extra difficulty wanting to see your kids etc, but these are all grown up issues and might not apply anyway!

yes, we get this - dd2 is Christmas eve, and the sadness people show us... she does get a bit fed up during the year when everyone else is having parties but in the last two years we've held a small summer party for her - no presents, just a few girls coming round and having some food and games. Problem solved!