Health & Fitness
A Christmas Birthday
Written by Cheerful Givers Volunteer -- Tara Lynn Johnson
It’s gift-giving season. Stores packed to the walls spurt out holiday shoppers one after the other. People run around finding gifts for their loved ones for the holidays. In the hustle of the season, it’s easy to forget December birthdays, especially those that fall on the 24th and 25th.
In my family, we’re getting ready for Christmas, but also purchasing presents for one of our youngest members whose birthday happens to be Christmas Eve. What a cool gift we all received the year she was born! And we take time to show her how special she is by celebrating her special day before our holiday cheer begins. We’ve always made a fuss to celebrate her birthday first and then have our traditional Christmas Eve celebration.
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Before she came along, I heard from friends who knew holiday babies that they often received combination birthday/Christmas gifts or their birthdays were overlooked completely. Birthdays, to me, are the most amazing things! Of course, we tell people we care throughout the year, but on their special day, it’s nice to celebrate them.
Remembering her birthday when the whole world seems to be focused on Christmas means a lot to her. You can see it in her face as she gets her very own ice cream cake (without Christmas decorations), balloons, and birthday song-singing celebration prior to any merry making.
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Cheerful Givers focuses on kids’ birthdays all year long, but perhaps this is an especially good time to help with their mission. We’re all in gift-giving mode anyway. And, as my family singles out and celebrates our Christmas Eve baby, it’s a good time to remember – even though it’s a holiday many people around the world celebrate, it’s also (and more importantly, I think) the day each holiday baby was born. And that’s the greatest gift of all.
( Tara Lynn Johnson, a freelance writer in the Philadelphia region, is the Great Aunt of a Christmas Eve birthday girl who turns 10 this year. Reach her at http://www.taralynnjohnson.com)
