My birthday is rapidly approaching this month.  That’s right, I was a Christmas baby, born on the fifteenth, only ten days before the largest holiday of the year. Having a birthday ten days before Christmas entails everything that you think it would: birthday presents wrapped in Christmas paper, combined birthday and Christmas gifts and difficulty planning a party that people will have time to attend.

My mom started dealing with these issues long before I did. When I became of school age and wanted to have birthday parties, she often had trouble scheduling my party. It always conflicted with holiday parties or some school function. One year, she moved my birthday party to January so more people would attend, but that only upset the mothers of January babies.

My most memorable childhood birthday par...

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