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Birthday close to Christmas

15 replies

Heartburn888 · 15/04/2020 12:51

My little boys bit bday is 5rh December and even though I know Christmas is a while away I’m just curious and wanting to ask the parents on MN who’s children’s birthdays are close to or just after Christmas, how do you split the gifts??

I asked a friends who child’s birthday is may and she said anything ‘big’ she would get for Xmas and buy clothes and age appropriate toys for birthday. Problem is, her child is 7 and mine will be 1 so what do i class as big?

Any suggestions will be greatly welcomed as I don’t want to make a rod for my own Back and have my son grow up not expecting to be spoilt rotten for both

Thanks

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NuffSaidSam · 15/04/2020 13:58

I wouldn't worry about presents at all for the first couple of years. Just get whatever you want, whenever you want, he's not going to know/understand.

Once he's old enough to know then you can do whatever works best for you. I'd probably split the presents 50-50 between birthday and Christmas. Or do a big pressie from Santa plus a few smaller ones from you at Christmas and then smaller presents for birthday.

For my DC who has a December birthday, we also hold a few back for the summer. His birthday is only a few days from Christmas though so it means he gets his year's supply of presents all within a week. From when he was about 8 we did Christmas as normal, few presents on his actual birthday and then a few in the summer to break it up.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 15/04/2020 17:15

Agree that at one, he really isn't going to care what he gets, maybe get one present from you and invite some daily around for sandwiches and birthday cake at teatime. We got DC1 something like this for his first birthday.
[[https://www.elc.co.uk/wooden-toys/Early-Learning-Centre-Wooden-Toddle-Truck/p/540379
You could always get him a Santa Suit too so that you can take some sweet pictures before Christmas 

I think that one nice present from Santa and then a few little presents sounds about right too. He probably won't be much interested in the presents really. Maybe get a bath toy, a book and a very simple puzzle? ]] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fat-Brain-FA089-1-Pip-Squigz/dp/B00H4IQ3P2 These look fun too Smile

JiltedJohnsJulie · 15/04/2020 17:18

Sorry, mega link fail. The last toy was this and the toy we bought him for his first birthday was this wooden truck Blush

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hauntedvagina · 15/04/2020 17:26

I have a birthday very close to Christmas. Christmas itself was always a big affair, lots of gifts, birthday I'd get mainly smaller gifts but then in the summer my parents would always get me something big as a one off (think bike, swing set, etc...).

I'm almost 40 now and they still do the same, but now I tend to get furniture rather than a slide 🤣

HarrietM87 · 15/04/2020 17:30

My birthday is close to Christmas and the split would be the same as it was for my siblings whose birthdays were spread through the year - ie usually quite a lot of presents from Santa at Christmas plus stocking, and then one present from parents for birthday.

Relatives would get me one thing for each (again as they did with my siblings). It did mean I had to wait a long time for presents to come round but I never minded.

Soubriquet · 15/04/2020 17:32

My birthday is the 17th and my parents always made sure my birthday and Christmas were separate. Especially since my sisters was in June.

So for birthdays, spend what you would normally spend if Christmas wasn’t around the corner

BuffaloCauliflower · 15/04/2020 17:33

My birthday is the start of December and I love it! I love Christmas and I love that essentially the whole month of December is a celebration for me. I always had presents split evenly over the two events, except in the case of a very big present (a TV for Christmas one year for example) where there was obviously nothing equivalently large for my birthday. No-one ever tried to give me joint presents, though as an adult is has worked in my favour when I’ve been able to ask for contributions to something big across both and added them up. Nothing to worry about Smile

Standrewsschool · 15/04/2020 17:35

My dc birthday is 23rd December. He gets a Big present for his birthday, and a Big present for Christmas. Each event was treated as a separate entity.

DappledThings · 15/04/2020 18:09

DD is 23rd. Only 2 now but her presents are done the same as her brother's. One biggish one from us, GPs, aunts and uncles for birthday and same again for Christmas. Then stocking from Father Christmas.

PaulinePetrovaPosey · 15/04/2020 18:17

Those of you with older Christmas kids- how do you do birthday parties?

DD's is between Christmas and NY, when I can't quite imagine doing a traditional children's party.

Standrewsschool · 15/04/2020 18:22

We generally had dc’s party on the weekend before Christmas. Parents used to love it as they had 2-3 hours child-free time just before Christmas!

missyB1 · 15/04/2020 18:24

Ds is 23rd December - there seems to be a few of us on here! Smile
He has a big birthday present and a big Xmas present. The hardest thing has always been parties! It’s a bad time of year for that. Oh and hard to get Birthday cakes (I order them in advance from M&S now). And the choice of birthday cards is greatly reduced so I get that online too.

Sunshinegirl36 · 15/04/2020 18:30

My DS birthday is between Christmas and New Year we have a small celebration on the day with family (who we don’t see very often due to distance) Then he has a party with friends in the summer

NuffSaidSam · 15/04/2020 18:41

We do the party a week or so after his birthday, early/mid January, once they're back to school.

Trying to do it on his actual birthday or even near to it is impossible, no-one can/wants to come and it feels a bit cheeky even asking them too. Christmas is family time so fair enough they don't want to spend an afternoon at softplay or something!

Doing it in January is nice because it's something to look forward to once all the fun and excitement of Christmas is over.

We do a cake and small family celebration on his actual birthday.

TeaSoakedDisasterMagnet · 15/04/2020 19:08

I have a Christmas birthday. Always got roughly the same for birthdays and Christmas as a child, but once I got to teen years there were a few where I got “joint” birthday and Christmas gifts because they were expensive items. Which was nice to have the expensive item but I hate “joint” gifts. I’d try to minimise that as much as possible, keep them separate.

The other thing that my parents did was whenever I wanted something I’d be told to wait for my birthday or Christmas, which was annoying because everything came within two weeks and my siblings got their things through the year because their birthdays were months before Christmas.

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