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As we get older, we tend to look forward to birthdays less and less, and I'm no exception. However, I've been kvetching about the day of my birth much longer than most. I am a New Year's baby, and believe me, it sucks. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some advantages to being born on New Year's Day -- such as, let's see...How about knowing exactly what age you were at any given year? But for the most part, being born the day the annual odometer clicks over is not that great. Here's why, in chronological order of suckitude:
It's too close to the winter gift-giving holidays (Ages 3-13)
When you're get older, birthdays are no longer all about the presents, but when you're a little kid, they're an excuse to get all hopped up on sugar, blow out candles and to tear open gifts.
When your birthday is a week after Christmas, it's anticlimactic. And let's not mention the folks who combine Christmas and birthday presents into one gift. Try doing that to a kid born on June 1 and see what happens.
No birthday greetings in school: it's winter break (Ages 5-21)
My high school used to include students' birthdays in the daily announcements. I, like those kids with the misfortune of being born in summer, never got that meager time in the spotlight. I remember in late December one year in high school there was a shout-out to a senior whose "birthday was never announced." My ears perked up: no dice. It was celebrating the upcoming birthday of the girl with the greater misfortune: being born on Christmas.
Everyone's too tired/hungover from partying on New Year's Eve to celebrate on your actual birthday (Age "21" - present)
Your birthday is the day after one of the biggest "amateur nights" on the party calendar. No one wants to throw down after that.
One exception to that rule is in the great city of Philadelphia, where the drunken antics of the Mummers parade--held every New Year's Day--make New Year's Eve seem like Arbor Day. Of course, trying to celebrate the anniversary of one's birth while avoiding inebriated "fancy brigades" is its own special kind of hell.
The solution, of course, is to fold your birthday party into your New Year's Eve celebration, just like a combined birthday-Christmas present.
Heather Muse was born on January 1 some time in the '70s. As the second baby born in her hometown that year, she didn't win any fabulous prizes.
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Thursday 31 December
By New Years Baby also
What are you griping about? You were born, must be healthy or you'd be complaining about that too, and if having a drink-fest on your birthday is all you want to do on January 1, I wish you had some other birthday as there are too many fools out there drinking on that date anyway. Poor dear, no birthday presents other than the load you get at Christmas. And we wonder what is wrong in this country. I am a January 1 birthday person also, and had great parents who taught me better! Oh, and I had VACATION on my birthday - who needs a school announcement!
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Thursday 31 December
By BothPartiesSuck
Oh, boo-hoo. Be glad you weren't born 2 DAYS after Christmas.
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Thursday 31 December
By pb
i am 2 days after christmas and it does stink. my sister is christmas. new years day has to be as bad
Saturday 02 January
By Lily
December 27th here too. I think we can safely say that any time between December 20 and January 5 must suck in terms of birthday timing. Everyone is so wrapped up in the frenzy of the holidays that birthdays in there seem to be a burden and an afterthought for friends and family. I've spent more than half a day with family before they remembered it was my birthday.
Thursday 31 December
By peeps1111
I am also a New Year's baby but my biggest gripe was that no one remembers because they're all exhausted from Christmas and too busy celebrating the New Year to remember. Now that I'm going to be 56, I don't care any more. Birthdays are for kids.
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Thursday 31 December
By jen
Oh boo-frickin-hoo. Stop being such a baby and be glad that you're alive and healthy. My birthday is right near Christmas too, but I've never bitched and whined as much as you are. The article states you were born in the 70's, so that makes you an adult. Act like one. Granted, when I was little, I "hated" having a winter birthday because I had always wanted a pool party, but I was over it by age 10. Grow up. No one bothers to make your birthday special enough? Maybe it's because your friends find you childish and whiny.
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Thursday 31 December
By JD
She's an idiot! I'm a New Years baby and there's nothing wrong with it at all.You get another round of presents PLUS a cake,a week after Christmas.Plus,who cares if you are on a school break when your birthday hits?Some kids had to go to school on their birthday.I had my birthday as a national Holiday.When I got a job,it was a paid day off.We also got our birthdays off with pay,so since my birthday was already a pd holiday,I got to pick another day,to use as my birthday and stay home and get paid for it.If our place of business was open that day,I worked it,because we got paid double time and a 1/2(that was TJ Maxx)The new yrs eve parties were my own celebrations as well.This so called writer must have had a crappy life,but I think my holiday birthday is great!Not to mention,my sister has her birthday on Valentines Day!
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Thursday 31 December
By Dani
In response to the post and the other comments, my birthday is ON Christmas. Not two days before, not two weeks later, but smack-dab on December 25.
I spend the entire day doing what everybody else would like to do and performing my family duties by seeing everyone, etc. The stress is through the roof, you feel compelled to see everybody and squash all your activities in two days' time- especially if you have multiple divorces within your family and the two sides both want a monopoly on your time. You can't please anybody, and inevitably, somebody ends up disappointed... and that's not even counting how YOU feel about it. You don't get to do anything you personally would like to do, you don't even get to go to a restaurant and eat a meal you'd like to eat on your birthday.
Not to knock Christmas and the spirit of giving, but these are all things that other people take for granted on their birthdays. It's not selfish to want a day you can "take off" from work or other activities, a day where you get to relax. Maybe you watch a movie you like or eat a special meal, or read a book, or your spouse takes the kids for an hour or two so you can have some peace and quiet. Maybe, just maybe, you get to sleep in late in the morning. If you're born on any other day in the year, you get to do that, and you're not considered selfish or immature for indulging.
Nope. Not on Christmas. Never on Christmas, and unlike Thanksgiving or Easter, Christmas is the same day every year. I just turned 23 and I've more or less gotten over the bitterness I had as a child. My birthday won't change, and I have a child, and Christmas is a celebration for him now.
At least you can have somebody over and demand a kiss as the ball drops. For Christmas babies, you just have to spread mistletoe around the house and hope nobody's paying attention.
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Thursday 31 December
By Stacie
Hey Dani, I am right there with ya. Smack dab on Christmas. Never a birthday party growing up, as kids are on vacation, or busy with family stuff. I still would like a little Happy Birthday of some sort. Everyone else gets a special day..why shouldn't we?? At any rate, Happy Birthday late. I hope you had a great day.
Tuesday 26 January
By maggie
I laughed all the way through your post because I too am a Christmas baby and everything you said was so bang on!!
Thursday 31 December
By dazzle1
The boo-hoo people must have summer birthdays. You know the ones where they have parties where their friends and family attend. Well two weeks after Christmas, in the deep of winter snow, and the Christmas bills are arriving isn't any better. I don't blame you a bit. Winter holiday birthdays are the pits. And frankly - I am glad and thankful that I was born. And I don't care how old I get - I would like to have my birthday recongized and celebrated.
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Thursday 31 December
By Me
Stop complaining. If all that you mentioned really happened to you, then blame your parents, relatives and friends - not the day you were born. They are the ones who forget, combine the presents, are too tired to celebrate. My brother was born two days after Christmas and has to this day, 60 years later,never complained. And that is because my parents wouldnt let it be combined with christmas or any of the other silly reasons you state you hate the date of your birthday. You must be an unemployed writer and needed something to blog about and just picked this. Because if you really feel this way, then i feel sorry for you and how you feel about your parents.
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Thursday 31 December
By lgh1231
I can completely sympathize. My birthday is New Year's EVE, not New Year's Day. It gets lost in the New Year's celebrations. And then I did something really stupid when I got married--we got married January 1! But at least my husband will never forget my birthday or our anniversary!
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Thursday 31 December
By susan
Always amazes me that people have forgotten the great writing tools of irony, overstatement, hyperbole--and HUMOUR!! Good article--and true, for those born around any major holiday. Too bad that a lot of the people commenting here take everything so seriously. . .
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Tuesday 06 December
By Mandy
I agree with Susan :p But like, you're saying boohoo to the blogger when most of you are boohooing yourselves too. She's just acknowledging the fact that this happens to the most of us who don't get this celebration on special holidays. Birthdays are a part of your childhood. I never got gifts on either Christmas or my New Years Day birthday. It's not really about the gifts, it's about the acknowledgement. What I do find funny is how any of my friends would ever forget my birthday lol.
Thursday 31 December
By TVDIVA
Oh get a grip. My brother and I were born the same day exactly two years apart. We shared birthday parties, split our day in half so that we both had our parents to ourselves. We treasure that we share something special. I even have six other friends born on the same day I celebrate with. Your birth is a gift no matter what day it is on. Find a better reason to write an article than whining about being born.
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Thursday 31 December
By lilangelluv1787
My birthday is ON Christmas also. I couldn't pick a better day to have a birthday! I never have to work never had to go to school (and before we went on winter or summer vacation in my school we would celebrate our birthdays before break.) I may not be able to see all my friends on my birthday but I don't mind celebrating the next day. I know I will always spend time with my family and friends on or during my birthday. I doubt its so horrible to have a birthday on New Years day. Imagine Fireworks and parties for you're birthday! How amazing would it be to see fireworks every year for your birthday. Some people just love to complain!
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Thursday 31 December
By Julie
I agree with you 100%... Seeing as I am also born on Christmas. The thing is people who arent born on Christmas will never understand. They dont get it. I however love being born on christmas
Thursday 31 December
By Rynn
Mine was in the summer. When the other kids had their listed on the calendar boards, or got to have a party, I never did. I even had to register a few times on my birthday which sucked. And since most didn't like me, I never had parties...ah well, that's life.
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Thursday 31 December
By KatieCouric'sNemesis
Dear Heather Muse,
Have you got any cheese for that wine (whine)?
First, if you had parents with any sense, they would have held a celebration for you, regardless. My sister was born just before Christmas Day. Her birthday was celebrated the same as the rest of ours, on the day, with the same festivities. It just required my parents to plan ahead a little.
Second, you might take a look at Elizabeth II of England, Britain's current reigning monarch. She has a birthday celebration on her natal day, but the whole country celebrates her birthday in June, at the height of the tourist season.
Third, you have life...the ultimate gift. Use it to do something creative, rather than lamenting something over which you really have no control. You could have been born in a third world country in a slum without any paperwork indicating when you entered this realm of reality.
Fouth, and most important, GROW UP. Birthdays are milestones, and nothing more.
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