Birthday and Christmas

My family all lives 4+ hours away from us, so they don't get to see us on a regular basis. The girls birthday is December 17th and I'm struggling with how to balance their birthday celebration and Christmas. Also, I'm thinking of having a birthday 'get-together' and inviting the nurses (who we still keep in touch with and whom the girls will be dressing up as for Halloween) and doctors who spent so much time with us during our 3 months in the hospital. Then, I would do something separate for the family.

If your kids have a birthday around the holidays, how do you (or how do you plan to) keep it balanced?

 

I was just talking to my mom about this. The babies bday is Jan 9th. Right after the holiday let down and everyone is broke and tired and gone home. We weren't sure what to do either?

 

I am fortunate that I don't do the holidays with family. My older son was born Dec. 7th. I invited family to the first birthday but they haven't been to another birthday since. I keep Christmas to myself because it is the one holiday I want to be in my own house. As my son gets older this works great because Santa always knows where to find us. So my advice is choose the one you want to celebrate with family and go with that one.

 

No advice here i'm afraid. We have birthdays on New Years Eve which is nice that everyone will be in the party spirit but ido worry that the girls will get overlooked. Another HUGE concern of mine is having to be the one that throws the party for the rest of our lives lol i am not much of a hostess tbh and nor am i particularly close to our HUGE family yikes! I think i had better start planning too!

 

Mine are towards the end of Jan so I don't have much advice. We did end up doing a little family gathering and even that wore out the kids so having a couple different parties rather then one really big one might be a better idea. Good luck!

 

My oldest daughter's birthday is December 16th. When she was little, I went out of my way to have her birthday separate from Christmas. I wouldn't even put the tree up until after her birthday so that it wouldn't be so Christmassy around the house. The worst part, as they get older, is that they get all of their presents for the year in December, then they are done for the rest of the year. Poor things, that's a long wait! Now that she's older, we usually celebrate her birthday with her friends in November, then on her actual birthday, we just take her out to eat.

 

Yeah I'm in the same boat. I already told my family that I am going to make it seperate and am big on it. Theirs is Dec 10th. I forget who told my husband, but someone that has a Dec birthday and they said that they really liked the idea that their parents didn't put up any decorations until after their birthday. I am going to follow that rule so that they feel like it is seperate and not over looked. My mom said she would always take some of our toys that we got for birthday/holidays and hide them on us. She said we never noticed since she said most kids are overwhelmed by all the toys and would pull them out throughout the year when we started to get tired of our toys so I plan on doing that as well for as long as it works

 

As someone who has a dec 20th birthday myself, I will go ahead and tell you to keep it seperate. Maybe not a big deal when they are so young, but as they get older. I love Tina's idea of doing a party in november, I sure wish my parents had thought of doing that! I rarely had a party because everyone was so busy with christmas parties/pageants/shopping/decorating...etc. And it was very disappointing to get a "birthday/christmas" gift from someone! People who have birthday's in july don't get "birthday/christmas" gifts so why should someone who was born in december?!

Just a thought from someone who's been there!

 

My oldest daughters b-day is Christmas day and we usually try to celebrate it a week or 2 before Christmas or even after.

 

My boys were born on Dec 5th. I do the no holiday decorations until after their birthday. I also get their invitations out before Thanksgiving since people are starting to go to holiday parties and I want them to leave a day open for them.

We also celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas so December is crazy busy and lots of gifts. I do put away some gifts for later since right now they dont have any idea and I still do that for my 4YO. And I am also toying with the idea of doing a half birthday in June for them and doing a party at that time. I am still just thinking about it. HTH!

 

Danielle - I am so glad you posted this. Since our girls were born the day before yours I have been wondering the same thing. I guess we should have spent some of that time we both spent in the hospital coming up with some solutions...lol! I am sure we will try to do a big party for the girls. We might try to do it at a location so we don't have to deal with the Christmas decoration issue.

 

My twins were born Jan. 3. I think we will celebrate Christmas as usual, and then have a party for them on the 3rd with family. Most of my family lives within 45 minutes of me, so I think this will work. I don't think I want to do a huge bash with tons of people, though.

I hope to have a mini-party for them on their half birthday in July. We did this this year for their 6 month birthday.

 

We have a family full of December birthdays both growing up and my family now. Mine is the 13th, my sisters is the 4th, DH is the 2nd and the boys are the 3rd. Of course now our birthdays don't matter and theirs is a little earlier than you are dealing with, so it's easier to keep them separate.

Growing up though my mom did 1) No decorations in the house till after my birthday or party which ever was later 2) No combined presents unless old enough to ask for it (in the teen years I loved the bigger presents I could get by combining them!) 3) Even if the family celebration is when everyone is there for Christmas a separate cake, etc was always made and it was like a small party. At this point though they are too little to know or care, so you can do it however it works for you!

If you can have their party the week before their birthday, then you can do something just with your family that special day. We also live very far from family and for their first birthday, both grandmothers came to our house and for Christmas we made the trip home. We do and most likely will continue to make the trip home for Christmas each year.

 

My two year old's birthday is Dec. 18! We usually have a family and friend get together at the house, the weekend or two BEFORE her actual birthday. This way it is at least two to three weeks prior to Christmas, which helps alleviate some of the financial stress due to the holiday. We then give her a special "day" in May (six months from b-day) where she gets to do something special that day.

I also make sure I don't decorate anything CHRISTMAS-Y until after her birthday. I don't want to detract or devalue her celebration.

Of course this doesn't really help when you are two....and you get presents on your birthday party, then we have early christmas presents at the inlaws....and then ACTUAL christmas presents....then presents at the grandparents after christmast.....My daughter thinks the whole month is just one long birthday party with presents!