December birthday but party in January?

[Raggeo]

My son's birthday is mid December. He is at school and he has asked for a whole class party (hall with bouncy castle and/or entertainment). This is the first year he has been interested in a big party instead of doing something with a few friends or family so I'm keen to do this for him. However, the 2 local halls have specific Christmas events on each weekend in December.that leaves the option of having the party 3 weeks early, 4 weeks late or mid-December but 30mins away. I was already worried about how many kids would be available for a December party, with so many families doing Christmas activities. I'm leaning towards January because there isn't much else on then, and I can organise it properly after christmas is done. DH thinks is too late and that others will find it too strange. He would prefer we just do an activity like normal on the birthday day. This is also an option but not what my son wants.
What would you do?

My youngest dc has a mid-dec birthday, and I would say Jan is the way to go for birthday parties for Christmas babies. Not only will you not be able to get a venue in the second half of December, but lots of people won't turn up to the party because they'll be busy with Christmas parties or visiting families or just frantically busy.

Do it mid-Jan, when the Christmas rush has worn off and everybody's feeling a bit fed up, and people will be queuing up to come to your party.

I’d do what DS wants rather than what his dad wants, as the point is to make your child happy and surely your DH agrees with that. I find kids’ parties pretty hellish so at least the birthday child should be happy! I wouldn’t care what anyone else thinks - tbh I couldn’t tell you exactly when most of DS’s friends’ birthdays are, just vaguely ‘April or May’ so I probably wouldn’t even realise it was ‘late’.

My birthday is mid-December and I hate it. I’ve never been able to have a ‘big’ party near my birthday as people are always busy in December, so I’ve often had a few separate things - dinner with one friend (off the Christmas menu), drinks with another, in a bar blaring Christmas music full of work groups having their Christmas do… the best birthday things I’ve done have been in January (or June - don’t underestimate the fun of the occasional half-birthday!) when it’s a lot quieter!

I also remember presents as a child tended to be a bit meh as people were spending lots on Christmas - my friend with a January birthday got great gifts as a result of the January sales!

I would also go with January. Also (this is for your DH) as kids get older and move away from whole class parties, they tend to mainly invite the ones who invited them, probably because their parents have got those parents' numbers. So it's a good idea for your DS to get in with a party now so that he ends up on other kids' invite lists later. I know at least one December child who goes to far fewer parties than their May-born sibling because of not having had parties of their own.

Definitely January.

I'd have been 'steering' dc into that, even if it weren't something that had come from him.

Nobody else (the dc nor their parents) particularly care when the birthday child's actual day is - it's just a class mate's party. Always sensible to host a party on a date that people will come. Same for August birthdays - far better to hold them a month before or after your birthday and have a full compliment of friends, rather than sticking to a day nobody can come and just having a disappointment.

Thanks for the replies. It does seem like January is the best way to go but nice to get the reassurance from others.

We had two August birthdays with parties in September. Really not a big deal. Spoil the kid on their actual birthday and tell them it’s like getting two!

My DC is mid December and we had his party in January, it was great. We had a family day out on his actual birthday. December is always a busy time for people so invariably some of his friends couldn’t come to his parties. This seems to be less of a problem in January, as everyone he invited was able to come. Venues are more easily available too.

Tbh I don’t think many people know or care when kids’ actual birthdays are. My son has been to parties which were 1-2 months after the kids’ actual birthdays. Nobody really cared and the kids were just happy to attend a party.

January is totally fine. Weekends will be very busy for everyone in December and you won’t get many who can attend. But January is fine. We did ds’s (February) birthday 6 weeks later in March last year due to venue availability. I did DD’s like 2 months late one year because we were moving house so we waited til she settled into her new school and then invited her new school friends. No one will think it’s at all weird.

My ds is end of December and we always did either after Christmas before new year or January.