What's it like having your baby born around Christmas?

[Willow]

DD was actually due on Christmas Day! Thankfully, she decided to wait it out and arrived on 4 January! And yes, I got heaps of annoying comments while I was prg, that week or so of xmas and new year was one of the longest weeks of my life!! LOL.

To be honest the only problems I've come across are:

• She gets all her gifts/parties/excitement etc during those few weeks of the year then has to wait a whole year for it all to come around again. We've actually started putting things away for her so we can get them out in the middle of the year, otherwise she just gets bored with everything and has nothing new to play with.
  
  
• It can get a bit overwhelming for her - we noticed in particular this year, now that she is a bit older and understands, that she was getting so many presents, every time someone came over she'd say "ooooh, a present for me?!' LOL!
  
  
• She will always miss out on having a bday cake at playgroup, preschool etc because it falls in the school holidays. For the same reason, it can be tricky organising her bday parties because a lot of people are away or I worry they'll be completely over the silly season by then.

Because she didn't arrive till Jan, we'll send her to school the year she turns 5.

But hey, that's her bday, that's who she is and we wouldn't have changed it or waited if we'd known this was how it would work out.

[~Trish~]

Hey Renee, I know this will sound weird, but I was thinking of you today and thought "Renee could end up with a December baby, I wonder what that would be like?" LOL!

My step-bro was born on boxing day and he usually gets one combined pressie, but he is older and doesn't really care. I think your child would just be used to it and I'm sure you and your DH would make a big deal of him or her if you do end up with a Christmas baby!

[Nicambhar]

My DS was born on Christmas Eve. I was so depressed being in hospital over christmas and especially since my birthday is boxing day. I had a c/s so was stuck in hospital while all my family continued their christmas celebrations.
My DS gets left out every year and always gets a combined gift from my family and usually gets forgotten by dinner time when everyone is full of alcohol. My family celebrates christmas on christmas eve so you can see my peeve here. Then when it comes to my birthday, everyone is so tired that they forget it too. I had my first birthday party ever on my 30th, even though it had to be two weeks before my actual birthday so people could come.

In saying all that, it's what you make of it really. I let my mum's tradition over rule my son's birthday for years and as of last christmas I have decided that my son's birthday is more important and it's his day so we celebrate his birthday now ourselves and my family have their christmas.
We ended up keeping my son back and doing an extra year of pre school because he wasn't ready to move ahead. Best thing we did for him because he just wouldn't have kept up.

[aussienic]

I was due the 16th Dec... I got all the oooo Xmas baby things but due to having a c.s I wouldn't have had her then anyways. She was meant to come on the 3rd but came in November on the 20th..

anyways.. It was nice.. Olivia was around 5 weeks at Xmas time. and I think thats a good age to have a newborn at such a busy time..

We were organized though and had all the presents ect bought well before December ( Well most of them)

I didn't find Olivia got any more presents, If anything she didn't really meet any of the family till Xmas day and thats when they gave over thier baby gifts

[pansy]

My sister always said as a child that she felt sorry for kids who were born around christmas...why I have no idea..But when she fell pregnant,you guessed it she was due 13th Dacember..She was ok about it as it wasnt too close to christmas..Well her DD decided she would arrive on the 23rd December and my sister had to stay in hospital over christmas....

She had her first birthday last yr and they had a party for her and made sure it was a big deal..She has had some family members on her DH's side say they would buy 1 present and combine birthday and christmas and she has made it quite clear that the 2 are to be kept seperate..

[morgan78]

Its definately a bit of a pain, My DP is on the 28th and my DD decided that she was his birthday pressie and my DS is 5th Jan (what was i thinking ) so basically we have to save all year just to afford xmas and birthdays which is made even harder as DP is a subbie so doesn't work for the 2 weeks over xmas & ny. But we always make an effort to separate xmas and birthdays. parties for the kids can be a little bit of a let down as yes lots of people are away or have other commitments. Not sure about the school thing yet still got a couple of years to think about it.

[Muppity]

DH's birthday is on 28th and so is his nephew.

DH says that it used to worry him because although his family turned it into a special day for him when he was younger it meant that he could never have a birthday party with his friends because they were never around.

Last year was the first time I have experienced both Christmas and Birthday with his nephew and it was so over the top. In an effort to compensate for having Christmas and Birthday so close together there were about a million presents and the poor little guy didn't know where to turn. It was just extraordinary the amount of stuff that he got.

I told Dh that night that from now on he isn't getting more than a card from us for the next few years and we will give him something special some other time because we are far too generous but I can't be bothered curbing that so at least he will know who it is from and be able to focus on whatever it is for at least a moment.

[melham74]

I have December full of b'days. DS on th 10th DH on the 16th FIL 18th nephew on the 21st and DS1 on the 29th and then my freinds son on the 30th. My DS wa due on the 21st same as my nephew, but I was induced on the 29th they wanted to induce me new yrs eve but that would have been the change over to 2000 and I wasnt going into all that hype LOL. I find Christmas we tend to have my family Christmas about 2 weeks before christmas at the beach mainly because we are all with partners ect and my sisters kids go to their dad every second christmas we all celebrate my sisters birthday and my nephews then as well. With DS1 we have a small party just us and my best friend and her children. DS2 in actually the 19 th JAn their is 13mnths between them so we pick a date between the end of Dec and the 19th Jan and have a party for the two of them where all the family come ect then on the 19th we again have a small party for DS2. I found with school that we werent going to keep him back another year and sent him to grade 1 but after the first term he wasnt coping and we put him back to preschool, my freind also did the same with her Dec bub, the preschool teacher told us that was more common for boys born late in the year as girls seem to cope alright.