Over the past couple of weeks I have worked on a cute little story for our Christmas Eve edition about people who were born on Christmas.
As I celebrated my 22nd birthday on Dec. 15, I found an abundant amount of similarities in these people’s stories to my own life. Being born so close to Christmas, or any major holiday, has downsides.
If we December babies want to go anywhere on our birthdays, we usually have to wear a coat. If we want to have a party, it has to be held indoors, and everyone is busy with holiday activities, so it’s impossible to get all your friends together. When I was a child, our house would be filled with five to seven fully decorated Christmas trees. Celebrating your birthday with full-on Christmas décor happens to no one else besides people who were born in December.
My mom likes to tell me we are going to rent out the city pool for my birthday, and one year I was totally on board. But then I realized it was really only an option if A, the pool was even open, and B, if I wanted to give all my guests hypothermia.
The other classic issue I ran into was people giving me combination presents. “Here, this is for your birthday and Christmas,” they would say. Which I guess isn’t as bad as getting nothing, but you don’t say that to someone whose birthday is in June. They’ll simultaneously wish me happy birthday and ask me my plans for Christmas. No: This is my day, leave Christ out of this.
By far the worst thing was getting a birthday present wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. That was the end-all. Nope, nope, nope. I’m going to wrap your presents in Christmas paper for your July birthday, punk!
Some years I will ask my parents for a big gift that will count as my birthday and Christmas gift, but my parents have always tried to make my birthday a special thing. Which I will forever be grateful for.
Don’t get me wrong though, there is still a plus side to having a birthday around a holiday: being able to see extended family. I probably get wished happy birthday more times because I simply get to see more people during my birthday month.
As I age, maybe I’ll become even more cynical about my December birthday, or I may grow to love it, but one thing I know for sure is that I love attention and Jesus will always get more of it than me every year without fail.
