December Birthday Dilemma

I have one. My husband has one. We have sisters, brothers, grandmas, nieces, nephews, uncles, friends and neighbors all with December birthdays. And the closer they are to Christmas, the harder it becomes to make the birthday special, or to shift gears from holiday prep to give birthday the attention it deserves. Two of my sisters and I all have birthdays with in one week of each other, this time of year. No wonder my mother nearly had a nervous breakdown every December! What do we do with December birthdays???

Play up the Season
You don't want a Dec. birthday party to turn into a Christmas party, usually, but if you are having a hard time getting into birthday mode because of your focus on the holidays, you might consider one of these seasonally appropriate birthday party themes:

• Candyland (See my previous post).
• Toyland--Think the movie "Babes in Toyland"--old school toys, wooden soldiers, toy drums, etc.
• Winter "One-derland"--For a first birthday. This is where I first saw this party theme (Thanks, Michelle! I looked on your site, but somehow missed it! Sorry!) If you do this theme, do me a favor and copy this idea from Setting the Mood. Real cotton candy snow (white, of course) on the tree branches. Your kids will be in heaven!
• Nutcracker/ballet--A little ballerina would love dressing up and dancing around to Tchaikovsky for this kind of party. Serve "Sugar plums." If you have a little man, you could still do a Nutcracker theme, with the focus on the nutcrackers (not the ballet, so much). As long as swords are involved, he will be happy!
• Winter sports (ice skating, skiing, sledding, etc.)--Take advantage of the season to participate in a favorite activity. Ice Skating and hot cocoa, for example.
• Baking/Cookie Decorating Party--My children love to bake and help in the kitchen. You could do an entire party of baking cookies or cupcakes (not too much prep involved since the guests are going to do all of the work, right???). You could give each guest a personalized apron/hat as a favor.

"Big Summer Birthday" approach
If all of this still sounds like too much work (I know, I'm overextended, too, right now!), you could do what my sister has done with her son, whose birthday is in Dec. On the actual birthday they might do something small to commemorate the day (a present, or dinner out), but wait until his 6 mo. birthday to have a "big summer birthday," with the party, cake, treasure hunt, etc.

I did this one year for my husband, who has a Dec. birthday. We had gone to his Uncle's birthday party (Uncle was born on Christmas Day!) on hubby's b-day, and had never had a chance to really celebrate his birthday. I felt like a schmuck, but began planning for a surprise "big summer birthday" for the following June. Let me tell you, it is much easier to surprise someone when it isn't anywhere near their birthday. He was clueless about the whole thing! It actually took a few minutes and some explanation, for him to really realize what was going on when he arrived at the party, but he had a great Secret Agent, summer birthday. (Note to self, must post details about this party sometime!)

Last year I was able to do something really fun for his birthday that wasn't too stressful and he really enjoyed.

What solutions have you come up with for juggling the stress of December birthdays?

P.S. Happy 101st birthday to my Grandma today!