There are two times in the year when a person thinks “it’s the most wonderful time of the year”- the Holidays, and their birthdays (sorry to not include Staples’ back-to-school period for those who might argue that to be a third time).
For most people, these feelings have time to diminish and resurface, give you something to look forward to during the dull months of the year. But what about those that celebrate their birthdays the SAME time as the holidays?
As if there isn’t enough chaos during the holidays, try adding on another day of celebration. For those who can relate to the tragic incident of your parents’ terrible planning of childbirth dates, you can all probably agree that, for the most part, it sucks to share your birthday with the ongoing Holiday fun.
Before I indulge in the negatives, it’s important to point out some positives. First, your family is usually around during this time of year. It makes it convenient to have everyone around and let’s not forget the extra birthday card with $20 inside that your siblings usually will never see. Second, there’s usually enough events going on that it’s easy to plan a fun birthday doing something more exciting than the typical dinner and drinks. However, that’s only okay if you’re willing to have your fancy birthday get-up to go unnoticed as most people will be looking just as nice.
Those are truthfully the only two positives I could muster.
Now for the worst parts:
Your family may be around but more than likely your friends will not be. They often have family commitments, which is totally understandable and won’t be around to celebrate. This leads to the rescheduling of your birthday to come at a later date. Also, let’s not forget that your friends are more broke than normal, and may not have the means to do anything exciting during this time of year. Another damper on “your day” is the realization that every year growing up, everyone doubled up on your Christmas presents being your birthday presents. Reality sinks in when you realize another year passes where your birthday was an afterthought. Another cherry on top was never having your school or sports practices make the day all about you. My elementary school used to do birthday announcements every day of the school year, and not ONCE did my name get to be blasted across the speakers. And let’s not forget about the weather. Yes, it may be saddening to not have a white Christmas, but how about not having it ALWAYS be -30 outside on your birthday. It makes it pretty inconvenient to not be able to wear the LBD you bought just for your day without ruining it with some tights. I’m sure that other people who have experienced these same pains could add more to the list, but these were definitely some of the drawbacks for myself.
For me, I deeply enjoy the holidays, but having my birthday hit right after Christmas and before New Year has led to me not wanting to celebrate or do anything special. All my friends are often more wrapped up in having to hit the malls than celebrating with me which has led to the past few years of neglect on a day that’s supposed to inflict the opposite feeling.
This isn’t a cry for attention or to make everyone pity me, it’s for the other holiday babies that feel the same way. I want you to know that I see you, I hear you, and I feel you. We are in this together.