It's my birthday. We are on vacation though, spending a brief week with my folks before we all move in in Kotzebue, so this is a pre-scheduled post.
I remember having a conversation with my cousin years ago about how we felt about when our birthdays were. She had a birthday right before Christmas, and she hated it. Too many people rolled the two holidays into one, and she felt like she didn't get a special day for herself. (I have two great grandfathers who had birthdays ON Christmas day, and I remember years of making sure to send two separate cards--a birthday card and a christmas card--so that the birthday wouldn't be forgotten in the holiday hubbub.)
In high school, I had a friend whose birthday was just a few days before mine--in July. She told me that she hated having a summer birthday. Many of her friends would get balloons at school, or decorated lockers, or cupcakes in class on their birthdays, and she was sad that her birthday was not during the school year and that she never got to have those things. I remember being shocked, because one of my favorite things about having a summer birthday what that I didn't have to do any school work--that the day was mine to do with as I pleased!
For myself, I've always liked having a summer birthday. I like that it's about half a year between my birthday and Christmas, no matter which way you look. I like that (theoretically) the weather will be nice and we can be outside or go somewhere interesting. I like that some of my favorite foods are in season and available for my birthday dinner. (In fact, for many years of our youth, I always requested artichokes for my birthday dinner, not because I liked them much, but because my sister liked them, but couldn't have them at her January birthday dinner.) I don't particularly like that sometimes my birthday gets lost (or has to be 'rescheduled') for the sake of camping trips or other summer busy-ness, but in the long run I do like the summertime birthday.
How about you? When is your birthday? How do you like it? Would you change it if you could? When would your ideal birthday be?
7 comments:
I'm a Christmas baby myself (as in ON Christmas Day), and I actually love it. When I was born, my parents vowed that I would always get a birthday no matter what. None of this "Oh, this is your Christmas AND birthday present" from my family. Not very many people have done that to me, actually.
What else I love about my birthday is that my husband has no reason to forget it. I have worried about how to do my birthday with kids, but my husband has promised that he will still make it special for me.
Mine is 2 weeks before Christmas and always seems to fall on the ward Christmas party (it did 3 years in a row when I was a teen). It kind of sucks when you get a brand new sled for your birthday (woohoo!) and then your siblings all get the same sled at Christmas 2 weeks later. No, they ,. technically didn't combine my birthday and Christmas, but it was pretty much the same. My siblings in July (all of them except my March brother) would get bikes and roller blades and fun summer toys. I would get sleds that they got 2 weeks later. It wasn't really that great. And then in college, it always fell on the week of finals. Or when my husband had a really bad cold (because of the stress of finals!). I think it will be better now that I'm not in a cold winter climate. I hope so, at least.
But I have a very understanding husband- his birthday is 2 weeks after Christmas, so we are kind of in the same boat present-wise.
I'm a May baby and mostly I loved it growing up. I love the spring time and it almost felt like the world was waking up to party with me. The only down point was that my birthday falls on Mothers Day some years and that's not a fun one to share... In fact my Sweet 16 was on Mothers Day and that really sucked..lol
Now my birthday is in our families busy month for us with 8 family birthday's, wedding anniversary mother's and father's day so it gets crazy! I mostly look at it as a day to spend out with my family and I don't really worry about the gifts or the number so mostly I love it best when we go out and have a fun day in the spring sun... What more could I ask for?
For Christmas and other too near the holiday birthdays I suggest having small family celebrations on the actual birthday and then having an UNbirthday party at the six month mark with friends and so on. We have five birthdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it was hard to do everyone justice but by putting off the partying til later in the year we still had lots of fun. Also much less stressful to plan those parties in May than around Christmas!
My birthday's in February, right around President's Day and I love it! I often get a three day weekend out of the deal:-)
I'm a New Year's baby so I never got the cupcakes or balloons, either, which was a bummer. It never really bothered me except in two ways: 1) Someone was ALWAYS sick. and 2)If a present didn't arrive for Christmas, or was forgotten (every. year. this happened) it became a birthday gift. Same thing happened to my sister, who was born on January 5th. Then again, we don't do big shindigs for birthdays, so it's not like we miss out on "loot", but it does make going somewhere fun in the dead of rainy, foggy winter, on a holiday less than easy to do.
Oh, I should decide if I want to do something special for my 30th and start planning it.
My birthday is Valentine's Day, and to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of it. I don't really buy into Valentine's Day in general (I think that it's better all throughout the year, and that giving something that will die no matter how hard you work at keeping it alive -aka cut flowers- isn't a fantastic symbol of love).
I missed out on the cupcakes and all that too as "special for me" because everyone else brought in treats and other stuff to celebrate. I never really got to go out to dinner on my birthday because the restaurants were full (which was my family's tradition). I got to wait a day or two, and then go.
I don't mind the time of the year that it is, but there are times that I wish I could celebrate on my birthday and not have to contend with mushy-gushy stuff. Then again, my favorite is when I tell people when my birthday is, and their first reaction is "Oh! Did you know that's Valentine's Day?"
My response? No. I thought the world dressed up in red and pink and exchanged flowers and cards just for me. /sarcasm ;-)
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