Birthdays are important!

I Love Christmas.  Not the light-up-my-house, craft-til-I-drop, wear-ugly-Christmas-sweaters kind of love. Nope. This kind of love has me planning and scheming all year, listening to little tidbits from my loved ones, and using my ninja skills to surprise them with the absolute perfect gift.

But.

While all of that planning and scheming is occurring in my head, we do not let Christmas in ahead of Thanksgiving, and we do not even let Christmas in the weekend after Thanksgiving, as was often the case when I was growing up.  I miss it, but my kid has a December birthday.

Before my son was born, I never considered those born in December, and what they go through.  I don’t think I had any close friends or family members born in December, so I just wasn’t aware.  When my son was born, I could suddenly see the unfairness of it all.  The fewer gifts, the lack of proper attention, the inability to ever have a pool party… Oh, the utter discrimination and injustice!

And so.  We tend to put up our tree but wait to decorate it until after The Boy’s birthday (thank goodness, his is the second week of December, and not any later!).  If we do decorate it before, we definitely don’t put any presents under the tree until after his birthday.  We follow the proper order of things to give every holiday its due.  Birthdays really are a celebration of the individual and all of his/her uniqueness, and I wouldn’t ever want The Boy’s to be overshadowed, because his personhood, his individuality, and his uniqueness really do deserve all the celebration we can muster.

Besides, I can always listen to the Vince Guaraldi Trio (A Charlie Brown Christmas) in my car after I’ve dropped him off to school : )