Being a Christmas baby really sucks. Obviously, I can’t talk for Jesus, but I am referring to every other poor soul that was born on or around his birthday.
I came kicking and screaming into the world one week before Christmas Day and while my parents rejoiced, we had no idea that hence forth my birthday would always be swallowed up in the festive season.
One of the recurring themes of having a December birthday is the ‘joint Christmas and Birthday present’. You then have the dilemma of opening the present on your actual birthday and then having nothing for Christmas, or vice versa.
No-one does that in July, do they? Just imagine, all you lucky Cancerians what it would be like if your friend gave you a box of chocolates in July but made you wait until December to open it. Not cool.
Then there’s the fact that nobody will go out and celebrate with you. It’s not that they don’t want to, but most people are generally skint from buying Christmas presents, hibernating from the horrible weather, or busy visiting relatives or attending work Christmas parties.
And if you do manage to get a date in the diary to celebrate your birthday, you can forget going to most restaurants unless you want a Christmas menu. Personally, my birthday meal of choice does not involve turkey, stuffing and paper hats.
Still, it could be worse. One of my friends has her birthday on Boxing Day, which is officially the day that time forgot. Everyone, without fail is in a post-Christmas coma and can never even remember her birthday. That really sucks.
Before I get too maudlin though, there was one year that I managed to get everyone to agree to come out for my birthday. It was my 40th, and we’d hired a hall, booked a band, and had a big birthday cake made. Everyone had RSVP’d to say they were coming, and I was really excited to finally be celebrating a birthday in style.
Then it started snowing.
The snow didn’t stop.
People started ringing to say they couldn’t make it, the band got stuck in a snowdrift halfway there, and in the end, we had to postpone the whole party. I was absolutely gutted that yet again my birthday had been thwarted.
Still, on the plus side, my hubby and I got to eat a three-tiered cake all to ourselves, so it wasn’t all bad I suppose.
Sherry x
