I am a firm believer that birthdays should always be a time of celebration. What could be more worth celebrating than having lived another full year of life and having made new memories, overcome new challenges and grown physically, mentally and emotionally? Sure, some people may argue that big birthday bashes are slightly conceited, but I never thought anything was wrong with celebrating yourself in a little bit of an over-the-top manner, especially if it is only once a year. Because, quite frankly, you're awesome, so why shouldn't everyone want to celebrate another year of you being on earth? Clearly, every year you have been here you have made it better.

If your friends are anything like mine, when their birthdays come around, they are sure to let everyone know. Birth"days" tend to become birthday weekends, or weeks, or even celebrations spanned over the course of a month between the parties, or nights spent going out, or dinners, or presents, and so on and so forth. I am 100 percent OK with this, as I have said, and I am for going all out and celebrating yourself. In fact, I'd like to adopt a similar approach.

Yet I've always been faced with a little something that overshadowed my birthday month of December. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's a little thing called Christmas.

If you are a December baby, you probably can relate when I tell you that when people hear my birthday is in December, they sometimes flat out say "I feel so bad for you." The problem with December birthdays is that this is definitely the busiest time of the year. So it's easy for family and friends to let your birthday slip under the radar as they prepare for the holidays, or even travel out of town to visit relatives. You're far less likely to have big elaborate outings planned for your birthday, because, let's face it, Christmas shopping has left everyone broke. And if your birthday is in December, you have probably fallen victim to receiving presents that serve as your Christmas and your birthday present (oh the horror!).

While everyone is out mistletoeing-it up and fa-la-laing along, you and your birthday just never seem to be at the top of the list.

OK, maybe this is a little bit petty of me, but I cannot help that as a child (and if I'm being honest, sometimes as an adult) I felt this way. So I decided that I had to change my outlook on it. Let me set the record straight: I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year, and I am by no means a grinch. So rather than feel like Christmas was stealing my shine, I just embraced it. I let my excitement for Christmas and my birthday join together as one big bundle of awesomeness. My birthday month includes all these awesome things, like decorating trees and a never-ending environment of sparkly string-lights. And it's pretty cool to say that I share a birthday month with Jesus.

Even though my birthday will never be the first thing people think of when they think of December, I wouldn't want to have been born any other month. The world seems happier and a bit more magical all throughout December, and that makes sharing the celebrations of my birthday and Christmas completely worth it. So Happy Birthday to all my fellow December babies out there. If you've caught the December Birthday blues, I hope this can help you realize you're not alone, but also help you gain a positive perspective about how our month of the year is the best! To everyone else, happy holidays and warm wishes for the new year!