All I want for Xmas is my birthday
UNLIKE most people, my Christmas celebrations don’t start in early November.
In fact, they don’t start until December 15. My Christmas tree doesn’t go up until December 15.
I don’t listen to any Christmas music until December 15. Heck, I hardly even utter the word “Christmas”, if I can help it, until December 15.
Why? Because I was born on December 14.
Having a birthday so close to Christmas has had enough drawbacks over the years that it has scarred me into refusing to acknowledge the existence of the big day until my own big day has passed.
While I know that people with a birthday closer to Christmas than 11 days before of course have it worse than me, I have still had enough incidences as a result of being a mid-December baby to leave me saying “bah humbug”. $20 slipped into a card was my greatest source of income at the time, this was a hard blow to take. As I’ve got older, my concerns about having a birthday close to Christmas have changed from receiving less presents, to finding trying to plan any birthday celebration as difficult as trying to get All I Want for Christmas Is You out of my head. Every year I plan something for my birthday, I know I’ll be contending with a barrage of Christmas parties, Christmas dinners and early family Christmases that mean finding an elusive date and time that suits more than around two of the birthday guests is like striking gold.
In recent years, I’ve taken to arranging birthday celebra- tions at obscure times such as 2pm on a Tuesday, in the pure hope that everyone who I invite will actually be able to attend.
As part of my refusal to acknowledge Christmas before my birthday, I have also never attended a Christmas party myself, as they have all always fallen on the day of or before my birthday.
So, to be fair, I don’t know what wonders I could be missing out on, and therefore can’t empathise with my friends or family who may struggle to choose between my birthday and a Christmas engagement. I swear, I do like Christmas. But when it comes to Christmas before my birthday, I’m a total scrooge.