Having a December birthday, I've developed some quirky traditions, peeves and habits about celebrating birthdays and Christmas in the same month. For one thing, I never decorate for Christmas until after my birthday. Birthday celebrations just come first. So now with B also having a December birthday, and her birthday being just 5 days after mine, we waited until this weekend to decorate. I think that will become a tradition as well. Good news is, the decorations are up. Bad news is, I'm going allergy/sinus crazy from all of the dust unearthed in the process.
A peeve I have about December birthday gifts is getting things that are Christmas related for your birthday. I just think that is poor taste. If you get something that is Christmas related for someone's birthday (in general) they have just a few weeks to enjoy it and then its packed away. Chances are the next year it won't fit, will be broken, will be lost or will be forgotten among all of the other holiday fare. This happened to me ALL of the time as a kid, Christmas clothes, jewelry, toys, movies, music...etc. My grandma is still doing this today for my niece and B. So I will not buy anything related to Christmas for a birthday...EVER. It is not that the gifts were not lovely, and of course the thought is what counts, but I just choose to buy something that will be able to be enjoyed longer-term and not just one month or less out of the year. It is hard enough as a kid to wait until one month out of the year to get anything nice/new and then find that half of those gifts must be put away with the christmas stuff. Sucks. So dear readers, if you buy for a child whose birthday is in December, please consider these things before you buy.
I also find it harder to focus on Christmas shopping before the birthday shopping is done. I don't know why, and I should probably maxmize my shopping time and do both at once, but I usually don't.
I've rambled on enough today. I'm sure we all have better things to do than dwell on such trivial things as this post.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm glad you shared your thoughts. We're actually trying to figure out how to deal with this since Matthew's birthday is this week. We have decorated - I love Christmas decorations & would hate to only have them out 1-2 weeks, but I think we will leave the Santa visit until after the birthday, and try to do as much birthday talk as possible until his birthday, THEN talk about Christmas. I don't know.
But it makes so much sense not to buy Christmas items for birthdays! Our goal is to treat his birthday just like we would if it was any other time.
Us kids born just *after* christmas feel the same way. Since my bday is Jan. 5th I would always end up with gifts wrapped in left over christmas paper and sometimes the things I wanted were all sold out. My sons birthday is Jan. 3rd so I make sure to buy his birthday gift way in advance before I even think about Christmas shopping and I always wrap it in BDay paper. We also always make sure the tree and decorations are down by his birthday.
Jen
Can't agree with you more there! My birthday is the day AFTER Christmas so I always get gifts wrapped in Christmas paper or 'combined' gifts. My parents were always so good about not doing that but other relatives and friends were not. I once asked my parents what the difference was between Christmas and my birthday. So my mom had to have a talk with the other family members.
Why do you think I wanted until April to TTC? I wanted to avoid a Christmas bday (but I know that can't always be planned like that).
But I think December birthdays are special - it's such a festive time of the year - I love it!
So hope you and Brooklynn had wonderful birthdays!
Post a Comment