My parents were good about keeping Christmas and birthday separate. I did get parties but that close to Christmas, a lot of people are out of town or busy with family things.
I have a friend whose birthday is the 26th. His wife would roll her eyes and leave the room a lot in December as we’d bitch about the joys of having crappy Christmas birthdays. High on the list were the dreaded combination gifts and how TV always sucked in the days before cable.
We used to argue over who had the worse birthday. I had to concede it to him when he said the traditional reaction to his birthday was, “Well, at least that’s all over. Oh, crap! Phil’s birthday! Dammit.”