One year old and Christmas Birthday

[STACEY IN CALIF]

I'm in a dilemma. Isabella was born the day after Christmas. I don't know what to do for a party, nor when to have it for that matter. Every Saturday in December is booked. Dh will probably not want anything big, although we have big families. He thinks at age one it is a party for the parents :( Anyways, I'm looking for creative ideas and suggestions. What should we do for a cake or in place of a cake? We will all be so tired of all the sweets surrounding Christmas.

I also thought of doing a party designed specifically for a few crawling one year olds and the other kids, but couldn't really come up with anything.

I'm just looking for any and all suggestions on keeping her birthday separate from Christmas.

TIA!

[candied]

I have a birthday 6 days before Christmas and it can be hard. Shopping for all the gifts and getting everything ready I don't want to do anything else.

One of our friends has a birthday on Christmas day - she celebrates her birthday on June 25. Maybe something like that? I don't know how it would work for her when she gets to elementary age though.

[Admin Jorelanu]

My birthday is 3 days after Christmas. I had one birthday party as a kid and hardly anyone came... just not a great time of year.

How about a party in January? Everyone's lives will have calmed down a bit by then.

DH thinks I am crazy, but I've had my October baby's Bday party in Nov. a couple times now and it's nice. She was TERRIFIED of all Halloween decorations so trying to have a party right before Halloween was basically impossible so I started a Nov. one.

Jore

[MomMeg]

I say wait until January! Our DDs birthday is two weeks before Christmas. If it was any closer to Christmas I would do it afterwards.

Publix has a special little mini birthday cake they give you for free as part of their baby club. Both of mine had that for their birthdays. I think at one the party is for the parents. We basically invited our families and friends - I think there were 3 or 4 kids there. Our little guy's first year was quite tumultous so it was a celebration of survival for all of us!! DDs first was similar but there were probably a few more kids at hers.

Megan

[CU82]

I have a cousin who's DD is a Christmas baby and they also do half birthday parties in June. So every year they tell her happy birthday and get her a small gift in Dec, but have a party with a majority of the gifts and guests and whatnot at a 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 birthday party in June. Works well for them.

[Alli~cat]

Isabella and I share a birthday :D. I never had parties growing up, but my parents always made sure that my birthday was a separate event. We always had a cake, with whatever family was around. It wasn't a big deal, but it was still special b/c it WASN'T about Christmas.

I have a friend who's DD was born Christmas day, and they have her party the weekend before Christmas. If your weekends are already booked, I would just do the first one in January that is open. She won't remember, and you might find that it's a little less stressful, giving you and extra week or two to recover from Christmas and work on her party.

[Cyndi_Psych]

I noticed several people suggested waiting until Jan. If you do that, you might want to wait until later in Jan. My birthday is Jan. 6 (12 days after Christmas), and people are just so OVER the holidays and ready to get back to normal life that they really don't get excited about a birthday early in the month. They're tired of going to parties, eating junk food, and spending money on presents. My boss, who tries to provide a cake on everyone's birthday, asked me a couple of years ago: "You don't really want me to get you a cake, do you?"

But by the time several weeks have passed since the holidays, say a month after Christmas, I think people may be more ready to have another "occasion" to celebrate.

[HanksMom]

my birthday is 3 weeks after christmas, and I still feel some of that!! I dont know though - since this is the first birthday, i'd personally want to have photos of her on the actual day - in a party hat, tearing into the cake etc. I'd just have a party on her actual bday - at least this year.. those who want to come can come but no pressure for everyone else.

[84ChicSeashells]

My birthday is right before July 4th and it was always celebrated as part of that holiday when I was a kid. It sucked. Now it's not as big of a deal because my friends and I can hang out, go out, but when you're a kid you have to hang out with your family those days.

I know she's young now- but as she's older, keep it as normal as possible and treat it like you would a birthday any other day of the year. Maybe not do parties as your family traditions for birthdays- we always went out to eat at a nice restaurant instead of doing parties and invited a close friend or two. But since it's your first- I would just have it on her birthday and whoever comes comes- it's about you and her anyway!

[Admin shilton]

DS has a Birthday on Dec. 20th. We have always had a seperate party but usually not big. If nothing else, just an easy dinner with cake and ice cream. I have always felt it was important to have a separate Birthday than Christmas because if he had been born any other time he would have.