Christmas birthdays!

[PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt]

Dilemma!

I adore christmas and the atmosphere etc etc etc and usually get the decs up 2 weeks before as I find that any later and I feel that I've been HORRIBLY short changed. DD will be 1 this year on the 21st Dec and currently blissfully unaware of her birthday and its proximity to christmas. This will clearly not always be the case and I was wondering how you would handle this??

ds1 birthday is dec 11th (he will be 4) so we put decs up after then. My birthday is 24th Dec and the decs we up (of course) but nothing Christmassy was done on my birthday and we had two trees. A 'Christmas' tree in the lounge for Christmas presents and a 'Birthday' tree in the dining room.

Right, until she is in her teens and is requesting bigger and more expensive presents always buy separate presents! Buy card earlier in the year as most of the birthday card stock is cleared away in December. Never wrap present in Christmas wrapping paper. Do not be too busy doing Christmas stuff to be able to give her a party!

Once she is older, she may well appreciate being able to ask for a much larger joint present. But in the meantime don't scrimp on her birthday present. As I never tire of saying "my birthday may be near Christmas, but it's the same date every year - it's not a surprise - buy my present in July if you want!"

BTW, my birthday is also Dec 21st.

Hope this helps!

DS's birthday is 22 December - he'll be 4 this year. It's so close you can't put Christmas off till after it. tbh, for him, it's just the way it is - I suspect we may get some complaints when he's older, but a work colleague reminded me of the potential for bigger presents that can be offered by a birthday so close to Christmas - once they're old enough to complain about it, remind them of the joint present possibilities, if they so choose. (obviously wouldn't combine presents unless they specifically asked for something and were old enough to understand it all).

My dd was born on Xmas eve 2001 & my ds was born on 27th Dec 2004!

We don't turn the Xmas tree lights on on Xmas eve until evening time & we have a small family 'do' in the afternoon where it's birthday gifts only & no Xmas gifts!! She will be 6 this year

Ds will be 3 & as yet we haven't established what we will do

Gosh - thanks everyone.

I completely agree about it being birthday only on the day - that was a huge thing for my friend who's birthday was on boxing day, so I'm already trained for that one! I love the idea about possibility to go for joint big pressie in the future. Very good point indeed.

Toothyboy - how would you feel if it was christmassy before and after your birthday but strictly birthday with a party on the the actual day? Would that work??

that sounds like a good idea, toothyboy.
dds birthday is on christmas day itself, so even that's not possible for us but last year we had a party for her with friends on 22nd december (suprisingly well attended, too!) and I made sure the plates, party bags etc didn't have anything christmassy.
Had to buy the stuff in September, though, before everything in the shops was replaced with Christmas stuff!

toothyboy?! I meant putthatinyourpipe...

Yes, PTIYPASI, that would work. I actually love the whole run up to Christmas and I think that's because it means my birthday's coming as well! I feel like it's my season IYSWIM!

DS2 and DS3 will be 5 and 3 on the 17th of December (terrible planning there ) I don't allow joint presents, be it joint Christmas/birthday presents or joint birthday presents for the both of them. They may share a birthday and it may be a few days before Christmas, but it is still their special day. They even have seperate cakes (a lotta cake eating going on around Dec/Jan especially as DH is 1st Jan and DS1 is the 11th of Jan too)

I do find it quite hectic with their birthdays so close to Christmas so this yr have decided to have their party (joint party but I can get away with that one for a while) a couple of weeks early. Then on their birthdays they can have a small tea party.

Toothyboy, I do find some people 'forget' their birthdays, which is quite upsetting or they seem to think they can send/give a present at the same time as Christmas ones...normally after their birthdays. I'm talking some family members here.

DD1 bday is 16th dec,dd2 is 5th jan so should just miss them, and we put decs up last year as normal. Have said if she decides she doesnt want decorations on her birthday when she is older then we wont put them up until after. For the minute they go up.

My two quite like the tree up. We don't put their birthday presents under it though and we always have birthday banners and balloons up for their birthdays.

Our problem is where to put all the blinking cards! 4 birthdays and Christams in 3 weeks makes for a lot of cards!

That's a shame, SqirBOOdle, would it be worth having a word with those particular family members? Saying that now ds2 + 3 are becoming more aware of when their birthday's are, they might find it upsetting to think someone may have "forgotten" the date. Or would said family members not be receptive to that?!

I can remember getting cards from my grandparents through the post which had "for 21st" written in the corner of the envelope, so I knew they were birthday cards, not Christmas!

A friend does the same with the birthday cards and date

I actually sometimes feel a bit pushy and remind people (parents/sister/MIL/SIL) to sort their presents before their birthdays. I have said I don't want Christmas and their birthays to be treated as one and the same.

I actually thought I'd done everyone a favour by having them on the same date...

oh yes, good planning squirboodle

last year we got a christmas card that said at the bottom "and happy bithday to H". Bah! I crossed 'em of the Christmas card list for this year

(erm birthday and off. Bloomin' keyboard!