Ivylad was born in early December, and as long as he can remember, he got a combo birthday/Christmas present, which means he was cheated compared to others whose birthdays were in say, May.
How did your family handle December babies? If you are married/in a serious relationship, does your SO know that having a December birthday does not absolve them of one of the gifts? What about early January babies…did you run into the same situation?
December 25th B-day here. And I want to slug people who do this. My most immediate memory is my siser giving me a combination bubble bath/soap set: The bubble bath is your Birthday present, and the soap your Christmas present.
I have a Dec. 29th baby. Well, she’s not really a baby any more. She’ll be 7 this year. But we’ve never combined her birthday/Christmas gift, and never will. We usually wait and have her birthday party the week after New Years. We still (traditional in our family) let her pick the menu for dinner on her actual birthday.
I have a nephew who was born in late Dec., and I always give him separate Christmas/birthday gifts. It helps that his parents give him a separate day for his own birthday party, even if they do host our family Christmas (they have the biggest house). Maybe as he gets older and wants more expensive gifts I will combine them, but not when he’s still very young (he’s 4).
Yes, and my B-day isn’t until early Jan. 
I get that quite a bit and my birthday is late Nov. The plus side is that I usually get one more expensive gift instead of two cheaper ones.
My sister, like Jesus, is a Capricorn. 
In my family we make a big effort to not combine her gifts. We draw for names in my family so that basically cuts out any joint gift-giving. I always give her a birthday gift, wrapped in birthday paper. Unfortunately, we never really do a birthday party for her like everyone else gets. I usually end up giving her her gift on Christmas Eve but she gets to open it before dinner.
Same here, and my birthday is January 13.
My daughter’s birthday is Dec 23. We have made it clear to our family that if they are giving her a gift she better get two. We have her birthday party on the weekend before Christmas.
Absolutely - but not from immediate family. (Definitely usually happened from extended family, though.) Everyone I know with a birthday from mid-November to mid-January has the same problem.
My mom is a December birthday (12/26), so she was very familiar with the problem and always made sure that her December babies had separate birthdays.
For my sister (12/25), that meant we had Christmas in the morning, and her birthday in the evening just like everyone else’s birthday.
We (collectively) kept threatening to have an ‘anti-birthday’ in June for all the Sagittarians and Capricorns in the family.
My birthday is near Christmas but being Jewish I never had that problem. I never really did like celebrating my birthday though. It’s impossible to say for sure if it’s the proximity to Christmas that is the reason for that.
In a previous thread about this there was a great anecdote that someone posted. The poster had a child with a Xmas bday and the poster’s sister gave the kid combined presents. One year the poster turned the tables and gave the sister’s kid a bday present wrapped in Xmas paper for her July bday and told the kid that it was her bday AND Xmas present. Sister got the hint and never did it again.
I’ve heard of some families having a “Half-Birthday” in July just to avoid the problem. I think it works nicely, in that the kidlet’s birthday isn’t lost amongst the Christmas/Hannakuh/Kwanzaa/Festivus madness.
December 23rd here.
I used to get combo b-day / Christmas presents. In most cases, it was because I wanted something expensive, so my parents would get that and it would be for both. Since it was a bigger present than I would have gotten for either ocassion, I never felt like it was unfair, even when I was little. My mother always hated it when I got birthday presents wrapped in Christmas paper, though I never minded (I probably didn’t notice).
As an adult, I don’t really get combo presents. The people that still give me birthday presents give them seperately, though I do tend to get them at Christmas parties.
An ex-girlfriend of mine was born on December 21, and threatened me with emasculation should I ever attempt the “Here’s your birthday AND Christmas present” business. So as not to bankrupt myself further during the December holidays, I started throwing her an “un-birthday” party in June. She heartily approved.
December 12th here.
I got a few combo presents, usually from aunts and uncles. My immediate family wouldn’t do this, and as a child I’d even go as far as pitch a fit if my gift was wrapped in Christmas paper.
Also my “birthday party” was always the Christmas family get-together. The plus side was growing up thinking my birthday was so special we trimmed the tree on my special day. It feels weird now putting the tree up so early on December 1st.
What was sad was my brother’s birthday on the 30th. Many times his birthday was just an afterthought.
Now I’m going to have to deal with the situation with my youngest, born on December 26th. I’ll have to make sure I have a separate celebration (NOT a take-down-the-tree party!) and separate paper. I’ve even considered doing half-birthdays. Summer birthdays are so much easier- just fill a kiddy pool and send 'em all outside!
My dad’s birthday is the 27th. I think as a kid, he got the combined presents thing - he was one of 8 and money wasn’t growing on trees for them. Now we get him a present for each. He never asks for anything in particular but usually I’ll get him something nice for Christmas and usually something small and goofy that I know he’ll like for his birthday. I got him a little Rams football antenna guy one year and boxed it up and he shook it every day trying to figure out what it was. It’s still on his rearview mirror.
Robbing little kids of their birthday kinda sucks. When you’re a kid your birthday is OMG the biggest deal ever. Combining it with a holiday that’s for everyone else takes away all the ‘specialness’ of a birthday.
My son was born on December 15th. We ask him if he wants one big present or two smaller ones. He almost always goes with the one bigger gift.
Hmm, my GF’s b-day is in December so maybe I should try that - “trust me, it’s better than somemthing I’d have gotten for you for either occasion.”
And this is why I like my birthday: June 26th. The farthest possible day from Christmas. Unless it’s a leap year, then it’s a bit closer downstream, but otherwise, presents evenly spaced all year round.
I have several friends and family members with late November through early January birthdays. They get separate gifts from me, even though several have said that I could combine them.