Birthdays

With December 25th developing as a possible birth date, I began to ponder on what birthdays may be like on Christmas, and whether or not it’s the worst birthday you can have. It’s awesome for us, but is it for her? Sure, we all like to share with others, but deep down many of us want something that is just for ourselves. Sharing a birthday with Jesus means you’ll always be the second banana. (Yes, I know many people debate the actual birthday of Jesus, but that’s neither here nor there. In this country, we change presidents’ birthdays to give us three day weekends.) However, I don’t believe that Christmas is the worst birthday. Here’s the countdown of the worst birthdays as determined by me.

10. Someday in January/February – You know the one I’m talking about, it’s that one day that’s super cold and yucky. Not the worst, because it changes every year.

9. Ash Wednesday – The day after one of the best birthdays (Fat Tuesday), Ash Wednesday is the day you go to work/school, head to church, give up something for lent, and by the way, Happy Birthday! This also changes every year.

8. First Day of Winter – The shortest day of the year. You want your birthday on the longest day of the year (First Day of Summer).

7. Halloween – The creepy overtones, the fact that all your friends want to go trick or treating, I’m guessing most October 31st birthdays are celebrated on a different day.

5. Summer Birthday – Let’s be honest. Birthdays in elementary school are 10x more important that adult birthdays. Adults don’t mention theirs, or sometimes pretend they don’t happen. Kids don’t do that. They go to school with their invitations (at least I did, I don’t know what goes on anymore, they probably tweet the invites now), and they get excited about them. The summer birthday often conflicts with the summer vacation schedule, so many of their friends can’t make it. Steph can attest to the fact that it stinks.

5. Valentine’s Day – This is the worst adult birthday. For guys, you’ve lost the day where it is completely ok to be selfish about everything. For girls, two events where you can expect dinner and flowers have been merged into one.

4. Christmas – As stated above

3. First Day of School – This is a moving target, but I kept this one high. My brother had this multiple times, and it is merging your fun day with your crummy day.

2. September 11th – No need to explain this one. Well, one explanation. The reason I have it #2 as opposed to #1 is because I don’t have December 7th on the list. December 7th is Pearl Harbor Day, and just as that day drifts into a cliff note, so shall the 11th.

1. Leap Day – Wait, I only get my birthday once every four years? The other 3 I get to pick a pretend birthday?

Why end on a down note. Let’s do the top 5 birthdays!

5. Fat Tuesday – It’s a party and everyone’s invited!

4. First Day of Summer – As noted above, the longest day of the year

3. July/Aug Birthday – You get to be the oldest in your class, you’re more mature, which gives you an advantage in athletics (for more info on that, read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers(link)), and you never have to worry about snow on your birthday.

2. January 1st – My list, so I’ll put my choice here. Sure, it’s cold, but A) I have the day off, B) There is football all day long, and C) The math is easy (you don’t have to figure out if I’ve had my birthday yet when subtracting birth year from current year).

1. Your birthday – Ok, slight cop out, but #1 is your birthday because in the end, it doesn’t matter when it is, birthdays are always special.