In some ways, Erin being born on New Year’s Day is something pretty amazing. When she’s older I can’t wait to let her stay up to watch the fireworks to celebrate her birthday and I can’t wait for that to be something really special that we can do together each year. However, there are loads of reasons why having a New Year’s Day birthday really sucks!
We live in a small-ish town in North Norfolk and neither me or John drive. This means that there are very few options for things to do. For Erin’s first birthday we went into Norwich, not realising that most of the shops were shut and we couldn’t really do anything. We ended up having lunch at Five Guys, having a quick look around and coming home again. It was a complete waste of time.
Somewhere that is open is our local soft play, the place I was manager of before I went on maternity leave. I’m sure Erin would love to go here on her birthday for the next few years. However, this place is a good 30 minute walk away with no pavement for a lot of it. It means either walking around a field on a really busy road or trying to cross the field. Now, from experience of walking over this field many, many times, it will either be impossible to walk over or be muddy as hell. There’s not much point in even trying in winter. Also, if the weather is terrible then it can get really busy and with Erin being as small as she is, she would get trampled on.
Obviously, New Year’s Day is exactly a week after Christmas. So many people are really busy during the holidays and can be out visiting family or whatever on New Year’s Day. Even if we had somewhere to throw Erin a party on her birthday I’m not sure many people would be able to come. On top of people being busy, people are also skint right after Christmas. It’s hard enough for us doing two lots of presents within a week of each other so it would also be hard for other people thinking about buying gifts.
Along with other people struggling with gifts, so we do! We have to think about the presents we buy Erin lasting a whole year. At the moment, we try to buy her gifts for a whole age range and think about things she might like in 6-9 months. We know that she will get a lot at Christmas and at this age, not remember half of what she opened. We’re lucky at the moment that we can put some things away again to get out later in the year. I know that won’t be the case when Erin is older but we will still be thinking ahead all of the time, rather than being able to stagger things.
Something I never want is for Christmas and Erin’s birthday to end up being smushed into one. I want to make it very clear just how special her birthday is. The Christmas decorations will always come down before New Year’s Day and we will make a massive fuss of her, no matter what we do.
Autumn’s Mummy has written a great post about why New Year’s Birthdays Suck! Be sure to check it out.
Having a New Year’s Day baby is bloody hard.
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