Why I moved my December Birthday

A bit of a random post here – but when people ask me how old I am now, I have to think which age I should give – as this year I decided to move my December Birthday, “officially” (You know, change DOB on facebook)….!

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21st December

My birthday is the 21st December – 4 days before Christmas. This is great, for some reasons, and crap for many more; Let me explain…..

Good things about a December Birthday:

• “Joint” gifts – you can effectively get double the worth of presents if you’re willing to combine them, and open them all on christmas day (that was my deal). New bike? No worries, have it as a “Joint” present for both celebrations. Games console? Sure – get the game on the 21st, wait 4 days, get the console, BOOM.
  
• It’s non stop euphoria – Honestly, December was THE month for me, Birthday, school ending (or work closing as I got older), Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, all in the space of 2 weeks. Enjoyment overload, maybe
  
• When I was younger, because school had broken up, there was never any reason not to see my mates on the big day.
  
• SNOW – Not recently, but in years gone by, I remember waking up to a dusting of snow on my birthday and buzzing about it. I still do this when it snows now, too.

But, the cons FAR outweigh the pros….

Bad things about a December Birthday:

• People forget. Trust me, every year. Because “It’s so close to Christmas, I’ve been so busy” etc etc blah blah 😉
  
• “HAPPY BIRTHMAS!” – Oh please.

• Try planning a few beers with your mates to celebrate, 4 days before Christmas! Every one is busy with family things, work parties and so on…and….
  
• Try booking a meal out that ISN’T the set Christmas meal. Good luck!
  
• Although the euphoria of that week is ace – you have to wait another 12 months for a reason to celebrate. That’s a long time 😉
  
• SNOW! As if, right? How can snow be bad? Well, my memory of the snow on my birthday came the same year that I got a new bike. And bikes and snow don’t go hand in hand. So yeah, I had snow, but I couldn’t use my birthday present! God damn it! Yes, 12 year old Mark was high maintenance ok?

The Solution

There’s only one solution to this – and that’s to move your December birthday. Let’s be honest, family excluded (some of which forget anyway), no one really knows when your birthday is! So, this year, I decided to move my birthday to June 21st.

Of course, at the time, I didn’t realise we’d have a global pandemic and that I wouldn’t be able to see anyone on my birthday again, or the following months, but hey, you have to live with these things 😉 So without much thought, I just changed my birthday on everyones personal birthday reminder service, Facebook. Needless to say, not one person questioned the change (obviously I told most people)

What it did mean, though, is that I had something in the middle of summer to look forward to (not that I don’t have things, but you know what I mean) – and it means, hopefully, next year, I can organise a weekend meetup with the Uni Crew and we can have a few beers in the summer sun, maybe get a boat out for the day, or have a BBQ. Maybe even hire in a trampoline, we’ve not that for a few years (yes, 36 going on 10).

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The only issue I had was deciding which age to tell people – do I tell people I’m 37 now, although I’m not until the December Birthday, or stick with 36 until June 2021? I think I know my preference 😉

The image on this post is from our wedding day – with my top dogs – hopefully we’ll all get to meet up again soon and celebrate a years worth of missed birthdays!