You gave birth to a baby in December, congratulations!
But now you’ve found yourself in the December Baby Conundrum. Do you celebrate the baby’s birthday in December where it’s overshadowed by Santa Claus AND Jesus simultaneously? Or do you celebrate your baby’s half birthday in June where life is significantly less busy, you’re not broke, and the weather has improved tremendously.
If this is not a dilemma you face then good for you. Might I discourage you from engaging in sexual activities with your partner during National Abstinence Month.
This will ensure the December/June birthday conundrum is a conundrum you will never be forced to face.
Ladies and gentlemen, today is my half birthday and I have celebrated my half birthday since the day I was born. I’ll wait a moment as the shock of that announcement sinks in.
My mother didn’t even send birth announcements or recognize my existence in the family until I was 6 months old.
When I turned 6 months old my father lifted me from my crib with tears in his eyes and announced to my bewildered mother, “It’s a GIRL!!!” There were cheers and tears as I was passed around the house. Cigars were shared among the men and the women took turns cooing into my face.
I was elated to finally receive the recognition I’d been pining after for 6 months and so began the rest of my life…celebrating my half birthday became a holiday I quite look forward to.
If your child was born between December 15th and December 31st I encourage you to celebrate his or her birthday in June for the following reasons:
1. In December everyone is busy spending money on their own families and will undoubtedly gift your child that extra package of socks they purchased as a gift filler.
2. Your child’s December birthday party will be added to the list of events to avoid…sandwiched betweet the annual work Christmas party and Aunt Betty’s ornament exchange.
3. If you celebrate in June, your child will not have reindeer and Happy Holidays plastered across their birthday presents. (something that never actually bothered me as I quite enjoy reindeer).
4. You will run out of gift ideas in December, but with 6 more months of planning you will have a new list of must-haves to work with in June.
5. All the clothes you gift your child in December will be too small in June and it would be a shame to make your child wait another 6 months for a pair of pants that actually reach the ground.
Lastly and most importantly, if your child plays his or her cards right, she will undoubtedly manage to force your family to celebrate her birthday twice in a year. There will be important ages you’ll want to celebrate on the actual December birth date…sweet 16 is a big one and your child will not want to wait 6 more months to drive your car. 18 will need to be celebrated because your child will not want to wait 6 months to treated like the adult she is. 21 cannot wait because there are cocktails to be had and your child will be itching to test out her ID at all the local pubs.
Six months after the 16, 18, and 21 birthdays your child might ask you what the plans are for celbrating and gift giving and you might be all, “but we celebrated your birthday in December this year remember?” Your child will smile sweetly and maybe not remember. Or maybe your child will give you puppy dog eyes and say, “but if we don’t celebrate it now in June and then skip next December to get back on track…then I’ll have waited an entire YEAR AND A HALF to have my birthday!!!” You will decide that is not fair and BAM! Your child will have managed two birthday celebrations in one year.
The only drawback is that your child will have trouble identifying where they stand on the Zodiac calendar. While technically they may be considered a Capricorn they might feel more in touch with Gemini. Other Capricorns might not accept your child because they think she’s Gemini, while Gemini’s might not accept the Capricorn in your child.
You risk a serious identity crisis as our world works to accept all signs of the Zodiac equally, but it’s worth it.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
My birthday is in two days. Remember when I celebrated it with you in Greece last year? And Pat caught me barfing in a trash can at the Parthenon (or was it the Acropolis? It’s all verrrry hazy.) Gooooood times.
June birthdays FTW.
In a year or two you’ll celebrate both then other kids will want two birthdays too, then the fights start because you favour one more than the other…….. Maybe celebrate christmas in July :)
Both of my daughters celebrate their birthday in December. Yep-didn’t learn the first time. #1 daughter’s birthday is December 30, and #2 daughter’s birthday is December 26.–Ouch-!! Both daughters are in their 20′s and have completed college. Once and only once did I celebrate their birthdays in the summer. Quickly I found out this didn’t work with these two girls. Their birthdays are celebrated on their birthday. I always told family members and boyfriends do no give them a Christmas present and say this is also for your birthday and never give them their birthday present wrapped in Christmas paper!!!
Ready for this? My daughter’s birthday is December 19th. My sister’s is Dec 22nd, and my Mom’s is on Christmas Day!! December makes me stabby. But we’ve never done the half-birthday thing.
I laughed so hard at this! What a fabulous idea for December babies! Absolutely love you & all your awesomeness!
I have this weird goal to wrap gifts in paper exclaiming a wholly different occasion. Wedding paper on birthdays, Christmas paper on anniversaries, birthday paper on graduations. I do tell my neice whose birthday is December 16th that Jesus loves her and has chosen to say MerryHappyChristBirthmas
What an idea!! My oldest daughter is in December, the 17th to be exact. She hasn’t been cheated out of presents yet, but I am not sure if this will hold true when she is an adult.
The family does often celebrate her birthday on Christmas Eve when everybody is there, but close family is here on her birthday too. They do separate her gifts so she gets birthday and Christmas gifts.
Her sister’s birthday is beginning of April so she is right there with Easter! Maybe I should celebrate both in the summer lol :)
My stepmom’s bday is Dec 30 and she’s always been combined with christmas and whatnot but she doesn’t care because she apparently always gets bigger presents in her eyes. But good idea on the half birthday celebrating.
Oh those December birthdays! Mine is the 12th. When I got pregnant with my son, I cried. He was born the 17th. My granddaughter is the 19th. My step sister 16th. Friends daughter New Years Day. Twins I used to babysit New Years Eve… the list goes on. This year at least my birthday will be on 12/12/12 Kinda cool. My son has NEVER had a real birthday in all his 18 years! I am going to have to make special note to really spoil Soup every year for her birthday.
Happy Half Birthday!!
My husband’s is Dec 18th, but he enjoys getting one really big gift to cover birthday and Christmas (and now our anniversary too, what were we thinking getting married Dec 1?) I’m glad he’s laid back about it because after Thanksgiving we have 2 late Nov birthdays, an early Dec birthday, our anniversary, his birthday, Christmas, then a late Dec birthday. It gets hectic.
hear hear for half birthdays!!! My son and I both have december birthdays.. plus.. my wedding anniversary! December is NUTS.
More info on half birthdays, for those interested.. including the half cake!
http://www.everydaycelebrating.com/2009/06/half-birthday.html
I just had a baby last December on the 22nd. My husband and I have discussed celebrating half-birthdays. I think we will celebrate her first one in December, but after that there aren’t any big ones for a while so we should be able to get away with half-birthdays.
Dude. I have two girls who’s birthdays are 12/15 and 12/27…how crappy is that? Maybe a joint half birthday this month is the way to go?!
I would like you to know that I do not have any December babies so I was about to keep true during National Abstinence Month.
When we were trying for our 2nd, I specifically avoided trying in March for that very reason. And now we have a January birthday. Success!
I also have a kid with a June birthday, which is great in many ways. But she gets gipped on the school birthday celebration. She is out of school for her birthday for summer break and out on her half birthday for Christmas break. Sadly, her birthday got forgotten this year at school. :( She never got to have the “bring a poster and tell us about yourself” event.
My daughters birthday is December 19th and last summer we did celebrate her “half” birthday! My birthday is July 9th and my son is July 31st…So we had a big bash for all 3 of us in July…. Now she is asking when her party is this summer! I think I will do her “half birthday” every other summer. I want her brother to have his own big party this year…He is turning 5!
My son’s birthday is Dec. 29th and I’m not even going to suggest a half birthday because then his sister who’s birthday is in June would be mad… plus we have too many June birthdays in the family as it is. :)
Kat I think you wrote this post just for me. The husband and I are wanting to start trying in March and with luck we would have a December baby. The reason for a December baby would be hopefully I would deliver end of December since I’ll be on winter break from school and I would have a few weeks to spend with Baby. (of course I know that it wont happen like clockwork, but one can dream)
Thinking of all that you said maybe we should start trying a little sooner, but then I could potentially have the kid in the middle of the semester. hmmmm…To many adult decisions here! I need wine! ;)
December is always a wild ride around here! My birthday is December 23, my sister’s is December 21, my Aunt’s is December 20, I have a very dear friend whose birthday is December 25, and just last year my youngest daughter was born on December 19! (Not to mention, my parents’ anniversary is on December 1…) Of course, as a child my birthday was always forgotten by classmates, I rarely had a party because people were either out of town or spending their precious time with their own precious families (how selfish!) and ah yes, the Birthday/Christmas gift combo from a select few… My parents never made that mistake, though, and my husband better not if he knows what’s good for him! ;)
As a December baby, with a son born the DAY BEFORE mine, I decided that, since I’m not saying what my age is anymore, I’m not celebrating any more either. It’s all about my son. Which means, the year I turned 40, I got to celebrate in a Bounce House. I’m ok with it, I’ve had plenty, and he can have a turn now. It’s like telling the Grandmothers to stick a sock in it on Mother’s Day and let the newbies have a turn. Enough is enough.
As far as my son is concerned, he gets to have a bigger party than anyone else, because we also throw our Christmas party at the same time, and have an amazing turn out. Because, lets face it, you are blowing off two birthdays and a major holiday if you give it a miss.
Cady keeps wanting to celebrate her half birthday (real birthday is 12/15). The only problem is that she doesn’t want to give up her real birthday celebration. Stinker. Or has she been talking to you….
Haha I’ve never thought about that. And dang I just barely made the cut with December 16th! My dad still to this day gets pissed if someone tries to combine my Christmas and birthday, he thinks equally I should have my own holiday as well. This totally gives me a reason to whine for presents in June though!
One year my sister gave my brother one shoe on his b-day (12/21) and one on Christmas day. Luckily they were a matching pair.
My son’s birthday is December 29 and luckily, we don’t celebrate Christmas.
Oh wait, we don’t really do birthdays either. My poor kids!
My daughter’s birthday is June 20. It pretty much always falls on a baseball or softball night (often both), once on Father’s Day, and we always have plans A, B and C, contingent upon the weather (waterpark or bowling, etc.), and game on or game cancelled due to storms. It is too close to call before lunch every. year. We might start celebrating her half birthday. ;-)
So glad you feel this way! I vowed to never have a baby in December…& then I did. Whoops. My daughter’s birthday is on December 30th, right smack in the middle of Christmas & New Years. When I was pregnant with her I decided we would celebrate her birthday with immediate family on her birthday & then celebrate her half birthday with extended family & friends. We’ll be throwing her 2.5 party on Saturday & it’s worked well so far. It’s just…the looks…When I tell people about our celebration plans, they look at me like I just told them we eat children as snacks. One woman told me we weren’t being fair to my daughter, that she would be upset with us for making her celebrate 2 birthdays instead of one. Um, what?
I’m so glad you’ve been celebrating both milestones & have not been scarred for life. LOL.
Here’s a post I wrote about my daughter’s 1/2 birthday: http://letterstomylittlelove.blogspot.com/2012/06/birthday-party-for-little-loves-garden.html
I have a December baby, December 3. I always promised if I had a December baby I would never give one gift for both Christmas and birthday..and I havent. However my busy season begins in November, my MIL’s birthday is November 20, thanksgiving, my Mom is November 27 and hen my princess. If I don’t start planning in September I usually have limited funds by her birthday. I will surely ask my now 11 year old if she would like to celebrate her birthday in June
Would have been a perfect idea for school when I was a kid. The only time I felt my birthday was unimportant was when other kids got to celebrate theirs with a party in the classroom. I never did because, being born on December 21, school was always out for what was then known as “Christmas vacation.” By the time my kids started school, teachers had wised up and all the kids whose birthdays were during vacations go to pick another day — it was their “Un-birthday” celebration so they still got to bring cupcakes, wear the crown, etc.
At home, it was a different story. There was a clear distinction between my birthday and Xmas, although my mother did always hide my birthday presents under the tree which I thought I pretty cool.
To this day, however, if someone sends me a Xmas card that says “P.S. — Happy birthday, too” I am done with them. My real friends would never do such a thing and I am too old to trifle with phony hangers-on. I have wonderful, lifelong friends who show up to celebrate my birthday with me even though they are busy with the holiday season and they are the ones who count!
My birthday is the 15th. My mother purposefully made my birthday separate from Christmas. She never let anyone give me a gift for my birthday and say it was my Christmas one, too. We also always had parties on my birthday and they were creative and fun. I never felt left out at school either because we always played the dreidel game at school and for some reason, I won every year and got a prize!
I’ve come to love the month of my birth. I love having a birthday surrounded with Christmas music and lights and decorations. I guess that would also be because I love Christmas!
My son was due on July 4, 1999 – he was born on July 2 because we had to have a scheduled C-Section. We’ve tried to have birthday parties in June, or even August, so kids could come – unfortunately people are always at the lake.
So now our thing is – take a weekend trip somewhere and bring one friend.
That’s our birthday present to CJ every year :) A trip somewhere (affordable and road-trip-able) that we’ve never been. This year it’s a little different, we’re going to visit family in St Louis – we haven’t been on our own vacation yet (me, fiance, CJ), so this is great!!
Wow I have a 13 year old as of this coming Monday… ack!
I had a baby on Dec 1st. We always made his day special and the rule was–no Christmas until after the birthday. It always worked well and I have always felt the year he was born was my very favorite Christmas because it made me think of the Christ Child and not so much about the Santa side of Christmas.
My daughter’s Bday is Jan 9th. We’re doing half-birthday this weekend b/c it’s fun. Love the post.
Happy birthday! We move birthdays around all the time over here so I don’t find any of it odd. My friend lost her nephew in February, close to her birthday. So we don’t celebrate her February date anymore. She officially has a July bday now.