Memorable Birthdays

My birthday is December 31, and it’s always been both a blessing and a curse.

As a child, I often felt disappointed that some of my gifts were for both Christmas and birthday, in one. When you are a kid this is a pretty big deal! Then as I got older, I felt that my special day was blurred into the bigger festivity that is New Year’s Eve. Even though my birthday always ended with fireworks, it was always an addition to the day’s events, not a highlight like ones on other days of the year.

Looking back though, my birthdays were pretty special, and it was all thanks to my Mother. Each year she came up with some unique way to make it entirely special. For instance, I always had the biggest and best sleepovers. They were very popular, since it gave my friends’ parents the whole night off for New Year’s Eve. What a bonus, right? Bless my Mother!

Fastforward to today; I have three girls including twin daughters. Years from now, I don’t want the twins to have any disappointments about having to share their special day with their sister. While we all do share our birthday with many people in this world, they share their day with someone in the same house.

Taking a page from my Mother and knowing how easy it is for kids to feel left out – my goal every year is to make it special for each of them. As individuals.

Most years we have 2 cakes for the twins, we sing twice so that each gets to blow out their own candles. Plus, I try not to buy them shared gifts. This might mean that I have to purchase a couple of duplicate items, or different ones according to their individual wants.

A little girl sitting on a table

It might get tricky in the upcoming years when they have different friends (as they will be in separate classes) and I’m sure the year will come when they want a different theme or party location. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, yet making the day special for each of them will always be my goal.

A birthday comes but once a year and regardless of age, when that day comes we all feel like kids again. We all hope to have a piece of cake and feel pampered. I am in my 30s now, but it always makes my heart swell to hear my older sister singing to me on my answering machine once a year.

Tell me about your Memorable Birthdays! How do you make it a very special day for your kids?

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Disclosure: This post was brought to you by OREO Birthday Cake Frozen Treat via Mode Media Canada. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of OREO Birthday Cake Frozen Treat.

51 Comments

  1. It’s really wonderful that you take the time to make each girl feel special. I think I failed on that the year my daughter turned 9. We were flying on the day before, crossed the date line and her birthday never happened. (In reality we visited family all over the US, and everyone felt bad for her and made her a cake.).

    1. Awe, I can imagine how you felt but you made the most of it and I’m sure she loved the unique birthday – especially that it was drawn out! lol

  2. My birthday is December 6th & my Dad’s is December 19th. I totally understand how you feel!

  3. My birthday is not on a special day, but it is special because of me 🙂 I would love to try these new oreo’s though…

  4. Those are some great ideas, it must be a challenge to make each of them feel special. I love that you make separate cakes etc.. Will you do two separate parties when they have different friends in different classes?

    1. Ahhh, that is the million dollar question! A fellow twin mom and I were talking about that – definitely for her, even with her twins at 6 since they are boy/girl and different classes. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see for us.

  5. I love that you make sure they each have a special birthday! We have friends who are twins and I always make a point of giving separate gifts! My mom always made sure my birthday was super special and I think part of it was because hers is dec 27 th and often got lost in the celebration of Christmas!

    1. Good for you! So funny how you know about the twin/gifting issue plus the birthday being close to Christmas. I guess it takes knowing or being in both situations to understand.

  6. I think birthday celebrations are so important! I remember when I was 16 my mom took me to NYC for a Broadway show with a few friends- it wasn’t a blowout bash, but I will never forget it!
    My brothers are twins and we still make a point (they’re 21) at celebrating them as individuals!

  7. I bet that is a challenge to make them each feel special, but it sounds like you’re really on top of it 🙂

  8. I always feel badly for the folks with December birthdays.
    But for our 4 year old son, this is the first year we asked what he wanted for his birthday and obliged him with a party at his favorite play space.

    1. As a kid, yes, it was a little of a letdown, yet just recognizing as a Mom, to go that extra mile – makes a huge difference!

  9. My sister had twins. And she did the same thing. Each kid got their own cake so they felt special and the presents were equal. it worked well making them each feel special.

  10. My birthday is on Dec.11 and, even though it is 2 weeks before Christmas, I still got a lot of shared presents. Besides that though, my parents always made my birthdays special. My daughter has only had one so far, and we did all of her favorite things but not really a party. Next year, I hope to have family come visit.

  11. My daughter’s birthday is a week from Christmas, so it was hard separating it from the Christmas season sometimes. It’s great that you try to make the birthdays special for the twins as individuals.

  12. That’s awesome that you go out of your way to make sure each of their girls feels singled out and special on their birthday. I’m sure that will always mean a lot to them!

  13. My birthday is January 1st, and it never feels really special. My kids though, we always go all out!

  14. In the family there are 3 boys(one of which is my son) difference ages born on May 4th. With 19 grandchildren on my
    husbands side it makes it easier to remember at least some of the birthdays.
    Great idea to give the girls difference cakes and gifts. It their day and all about what they like.

  15. Aww, what a good mommy you are! You’re so thoughtful with how you celebrate that I know your girls will always have wonderful memories of how special their birthdays were.

  16. I agree, I try hard to make my son’s birthday parties memorable. So far, we gather some friends and do a fun activity, and he is happy. This year it was 4 friends at the X Men movie, and Chinese food afterwards. The boys had a blast and my son was thrilled to be the host, mission accomplished!

  17. My daughter was due Christmas Day, but came early on the 11th. Her first bday is this year, and I plan in making it special. No Christmas birthdays for her.

  18. MY SIL has a December birthday- when she was little she told her parents how unfair it was and she was told okay well if you want to change it you need to go convince each member of the family that’s a good idea. So she went around to all her aunts and uncles and petitioned to get her birthday changed to June. Of course now she is an adult bit still so funny! I love that you have taken the time to try hard to build each twin’s birthday experience as an individual and unique event. Two cakes is a lot of work!!

  19. Birthday parties when I was a kid were always simple affairs..My kids have holiday birthdays which make them hard to do with lots of friends. Your pics are adorable!

  20. Good for you to make sure they have their special day! Even though their twins, they’re still individuals!

  21. I always thought a New Year’s birthday was pretty cool. The whole world is celebrating with you!

  22. I’ll never forget my mom telling me about her birthday experience growing up. She was born on Dec 16 and never once had a party 🙁 which makes me so sad. She passed away a few years ago with many birthday parties under her belt thank goodness!

  23. Wow awesome cakes and your a awesome Mom as well 🙂 your Girls are precious 🙂

  24. I appreciate the challenge of trying to make each birthday special. In our family May is the big month: my son May 2, my husband May 3, me May 10, my grand daughter May 13, my other grand daughter May 18 and my oldest daughter May 26!!!! Our family is really close, live close together so we have lots of BBQs and birthday cake in May!

  25. I have a sister who was born on December 25 and I think she always felt cheated as a child. I don’t remember a birthday cake on Christmas day as we were busy celebrating Christmas. I think she feels better about it now. Being born on Christmas is very special in itself.

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