Merry Birthday (Almost) to a Hypocrite!

My birthday is next week and I need to tell you being a December baby sucks! Well, it did when I cared about presents. Now it’s no big deal. If you were born in the last month of the year you know what I’m talking about. Birthday/Christmas combo presents, UGH!

Now to be fair, most parents who combine birthday and Christmas presents have every intention of it being a larger gift, to equal what they would have spent on the two separate occasions. It doesn’t always work out but the effort is there. Other family members though? Forget about it. To the others like me out there, how many times has your uncle or aunt, maybe grandparent bought you a combo gift that was maybe a few bucks more than your non December born siblings’ birthday gift and then they still give them a good Christmas gift for them? The numbers rarely add up to the same amount. And we all know how important it is that there is equality between siblings.

I don’t know if people mean to undercut Christmas kids or if it’s because they’ve already spent so much on gifts for so many people at once, but us December babies always feel the injustice keenly. It doesn’t help when our brothers, sisters, or cousins snicker and gloat over it either.

These days I’m lucky, I don’t care about Christmas presents too much. Don’t get me wrong, gifts are great but at this time of year I’m more interested in spending time with my family then getting stuff. If there is something I really want I will get it myself.

I am a sucker for birthday cards though. For me I think it’s about the thought behind the gift or card rather than the value that matters. I hope someday my kids feel the same. Right now if I were to spend two dollars more on one of them, the rest would have a fit. We bought the youngest a new phone for her birthday in September and I’m waiting for the reminders to start rolling in.

So, what’s the point of all this? If you know someone who has a birthday near Christmas don’t give them combo gifts, ever. Unless they grumble about it. If they complain they can suffer the consequences because that’s against Christmas baby code to actually complain to a gift giver . Therefore I’m complaining for all.

That said, Justin, if you read this, I really want to sign up for that class. What a great Birthday/Christmas gift idea. right?