It’s time for another Tell Us About! Last month, our prompt was Poetry, which sent me rummaging through old things and unexpectedly rediscovering a poem I’d had published sixteen years ago. This month, we’re going in a completely different direction with something that’s rather close to home for me: Birthday. And, as it happens, I have a bit of a complicated relationship with my birthday. Because I was almost a Christmas baby.
Nearly a Christmas baby
Yep. I very nearly arrived on Christmas Day. Thankfully, I managed to stay put until Boxing Day instead. Which, as it turns out, isn’t necessarily the brilliant birthday loophole you might imagine.
Fifty years ago, on Christmas Day 1975, my mum went into labour while my parents were watching a film. And apparently my dad really, really wanted to watch that film. The film in question was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which I find quite amusing. I mean, I suppose if your wife has gone into labour on Christmas Day, you probably shouldn’t be too invested in finishing a film… but I think he actually got to watch all of it! And then, sometime on Boxing Day, I finally decided to make my entrance into the world.
I have to admit, I’ve never been particularly thrilled about having my birthday the day after Christmas.
When I was little, my parents always made a real effort to make sure my birthday was separate from Christmas. I had Christmas presents and then birthday presents, and they made sure I knew that my birthday was its own special occasion. Other people, however, didn’t always get the memo. There were plenty of occasions when someone would hand me one present and say, “This is for Christmas and your birthday.” Oh, that used to drive me absolutely nuts! I mean… everyone else got a Christmas present AND a birthday present. Why should I have to make do with one?! It seemed terribly unfair. And yes, I realise this sounds incredibly childish now. But when you’re a kid watching everyone else open two lots of presents while you’re holding one, it feels like a genuine injustice.
The problem with Boxing Day
As I got older, though, it stopped being about the presents. It’s the actual birthday celebration that can be tricky, because Boxing Day is still very much part of Christmas for many families. Christmas Day is over, but the festivities aren’t. People are still visiting relatives, eating leftovers, drinking, playing games, watching telly and generally making merry. It’s another day of Christmas, really. And that makes it surprisingly difficult to get people together for a birthday celebration.
Especially when you don’t have your family living in the same country. For many years, I had no family here in Portugal apart from my dad, and there was even a period when he moved back to the UK. Michael’s parents were no longer with us either, so there wasn’t really anyone nearby to gather together for my birthday. And that can be a real bummer, to be honest. You spend all of December watching everyone getting excited about Christmas and New Year, and then your own little day comes along and… everyone is still eating Christmas dinner leftovers. Or they’re recovering from Christmas dinner. Or they’re visiting Auntie Somebody. Or they’re still in their pyjamas. Or the restaurants are shut. It’s not exactly ideal birthday territory!
So we started going away
Before we started building our beautiful house, we came up with a rather good solution: go away over Christmas. And I think that was probably the best thing we could have done. Instead of sitting around wondering who might actually be available on Boxing Day, we’d make the whole Christmas period into a holiday.
One of my favourite trips was when we actually flew to the States on my birthday. Which meant my birthday was several hours longer than usual! That’s one of the great things about travelling west, isn’t it? You get to steal a few extra hours from the day. And when your birthday is already suffering from being squeezed between Christmas and New Year, I’ll take every extra hour I can get.
I think that might have been the trip when we went to Boston and then drove a little further north and west. It was absolutely fabulous… although OMG, was it cold! Very, very cold. But I loved it. There was something rather lovely about celebrating my birthday somewhere completely removed from all the usual Christmas chaos. It actually felt like my birthday was allowed to be its own thing.
Birthday pizza and the Boxing Day sales
Over the last few years, though, we’ve mostly stayed at home. And I’m actually quite happy with that now. I’m very lucky that my best pal has been able to join me for lunch at least, which makes a huge difference. We’ll usually go out for a little bit of shopping because, of course, the Boxing Day sales are a pretty good consolation prize! Then we’ll find somewhere for lunch. Maybe a pizza. Nothing too fancy.
Although even that can require a bit of planning because the other problem with having a Boxing Day birthday is that loads of restaurants are closed over the festive period. So your birthday restaurant options can be somewhat… limited. “Where shall we go for my birthday?” “Anywhere that’s actually open.” “Great. How about that lovely restaurant?” “Closed.” “What about that one?” “Closed.” “Pizza?” “Probably!” And so pizza it is. And honestly? I’m quite happy with that.
Because as I’ve got older, I’ve realised that birthdays aren’t really about presents or huge celebrations anyway. They’re about spending time with people you love and having somebody make a little bit of a fuss of you. Even if that fuss involves pizza.
Would I change it?
I don’t think I would. There have definitely been times when I’ve wished my birthday was at another time of year. A summer birthday sounds rather lovely, doesn’t it? Imagine having a garden party for your birthday instead of wondering whether everywhere is open and whether you’ve still got enough leftover roast potatoes in the fridge.
But being a Boxing Day baby is part of who I am now. And I do quite like the fact that my birthday is wedged into that strange little period between Christmas and New Year when nobody really knows what day it is anymore. Is it Tuesday? Wednesday? Who knows. Have we eaten? Probably. Are we still eating leftovers? Absolutely. And is Suzy’s birthday? YES. And please don’t give her one present and call it a Christmas-and-birthday present because she WILL remember.
So here’s to another Boxing Day birthday. I might have missed out on having the easiest birthday in the world, but at least I got a story out of it. And somewhere, fifty years ago, my mum was in labour while my dad was desperately trying to finish Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I wonder if he remembers which one he was more excited about…
What is Tell Us About?
Tell Us About is a monthly blogging challenge where a group of bloggers from around the world respond to the same prompt. Each month, one of us chooses a word or theme, and we all interpret it in our own way. There aren’t really any rules about how we tackle it. It could be an opinion, a personal story, memories, photographs, a poem, a short story or anything else that takes our fancy. That’s what I love about it. We can all be given exactly the same word and somehow come up with completely different posts. And if you’d like to join in, you can! Just choose the prompt, write your own post and link up with one of us.
My Tell Us About co-hosts
Leslie is sharing the birth-days of the 2 babies that made her mommy – Once Upon a Time, Happily Ever After Again
Sally considers birthdays and unbirthdays from the perspective of a December girl – Within a World of My Own
Marsha. As Marsha contemplates a milestone birthday, she writes about memorable past birthdays as well as her plans for the next year – Marsha in the Middle
Debbie seems to be attending a lot of birthday parties lately! – Deb’s World
Cat doesn’t celebrate birthdays, so she had to drag out some ooold memories – Cat’s Wire
Amy loves celebrating birthdays of family and friends and wants to design her own perfect day! – Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa
Don’t forget to join the link-up!
