Imagine growing up, and always having to celebrate your birthday two weeks after it actually happened. Imagine turning 16 and having to wait an extra couple of days to get your driver’s license. Imagine turning 21 and having no one be free to help you celebrate properly. These are just a few of the struggles that people with holiday birthdays have to endure. It may seem like it’s not that big of a deal, but trust me, from someone whose birthday falls on or around Thanksgiving every year, it gets super old the older you get.
I’ll admit, as a child it wasn’t so bad. I associated Thanksgiving with presents instead of turkey and called it a done deal. Now that I’m older, however, I’m beyond tired of spending my big day traveling, being annoyed by all of my baby cousins, or the worst, shopping on Black Friday (large crowds in tiny stores = my biggest nightmare). Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with my family and eating far too many helpings of mashed potatoes, but I’d also like to have the chance to celebrate with my friends doing something that I actually want to be doing. With all that being said, I will give my 3 points of evidence below as to why I believe having your birthday on a holiday can be maddening.
1. People forget.
Thanks to Facebook, this doesn’t happen as often anymore, but I have still had some of my good friends and family forget my birthday in the past because they are so caught up in their holiday festivities. I understand that the holiday season creates large amounts of stress for many individuals because they don’t want to let the family down with their party hosting and chestnut roasting events, but I’m tired of being forgotten.
2. You have next to no say in what you get to do.
Every year, the same thing happens. I hope and pray that I have the opportunity to pick what I do on my birthday, and every year, my hopes and dreams get squashed. I feel as though I’m not asking for much, to simply choose where or what we eat would even suffice, but unfortunately, that is hardly ever the case. Holiday birthdays don’t allow for much choice, anyways. Certain locations are closed or have different hours than their usual schedule, so sometimes what I really want, just isn’t available.
Birthdays are a big deal. They are the one day of the year that someone can feel as if they are important and remember that they were brought into this world for a reason. Holidays get in the way of this celebration. Sure, your parents will probably still get you a gift and sing you happy birthday, but as the social beings that we humans are, we care about the actions of more than just two people. When my friends and extended family fail to celebrate with me, it doesn’t go unnoticed. I want to feel as if I’m special to them. I understand that my birthday falls at an inconvenient time of the year, but it would be nice if, just for once, something could be different.
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