I didn’t exactly plan for my water to break in my festive footie pajamas after a big Christmas breakfast.
But then again, the due date listed on my chart was December 25, so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. At my first prenatal appointment, I actually fibbed about the date of my last period so my due date wouldn’t be Christmas. The oohs and ahhs. The what-a-perfect-gifts. The he/she-will-hate-you-forevers. But at some point I let it slip, gritted my teeth through the unsolicited comments, assuming the critter would be fashionably late anyway.
No such luck.
With the little lady’s first birthday fast approaching, people still love to tell me how much she’ll hate me for giving birth to her on Christmas. I love to tell them how she was almost born in the car on the way to the hospital, so no, hanging in there for three more hours until the 26th just wasn’t going to happen.
But 24th, 25th, 26th, whatever…I’m going to have a mess on my hands in a few years, right?
For the first couple years, I figure I should be able to lie to convince our sweet little girl that everyone’s hanging bright lights on trees and singing happy songs and wearing white beards to celebrate her birthday.
Our family isn’t religious (but also not holiday-averse), but then I’m thinking I try to convince her that she has what a lot of people around the world consider the greatest birthday of all. That sharing a birthday with Big J is cool, and that he seems like the kind of guy who would be good at sharing.
And when that stops working, I guess we’ll try to employ some of the strategies people suggest: wrapping gifts in separate birthday and Christmas paper, keeping Christmassy stuff contained by Christmas Eve and dedicating the 25th to only birthday-ness, having a big cake and hullabaloo at extended family Christmases, celebrating half birthdays…the list goes on.
But as a victim of the dreaded summer birthday (but Mooooommmm, I don’t get to bring treats to schooooool) myself, I’m thinking this is going to land me on the parental naughty list sooner or later. Maybe the South Pole makes really rockin’ birthday gifts.
Do you have a major-holiday baby? Any tips and tricks for keeping everyone jolly?
