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.