I have read so many negative blog posts about “what to do if your child’s birthday ends up on a holiday week” and one too many of the “solutions” were to celebrate on a different day or even just celebrate their half birthdays. To me, celebrating a different day kind of defeats the point. So here’s the positive perspective for all those holiday birthday kids. Here’s to positive thoughts making your season twice as merry.

First off, they are so many benefits to appreciate, but like with everything, they're some difficult aspects too. Take the good with the bad I guess….but try to focus on the good!

While most jobs will recognize taking a personal day on your birthday, it’s normally hard to do anything with loved ones unless they can get the day off as well. However, every holiday birthday is recognized by every school and job across the country so we always have a break (normally even a few days). Now who doesn’t appreciate a few days of celebration and relaxation versus a measly few hours. I’ll take the ten days that the University of Missouri grants me...thank you very much.

Personally my family makes an effort to make the month of my birthday special and then the week of is like an excuse to celebrate twice. For some holiday birthdays you might even get double the presents, like around Christmas time. Or like for mine double the delicious food and wonderful fall weather.

To go along with the extra celebration time and spirit there's also the advantage of extended family coming together for the time that they have off. Many families will take the time and effort to travel to be together. I count myself lucky whenever I get to spend time with my cousins, aunts & uncles, and grandparents. It's always a blast to see those you don’t spend everyday with.

Having a birthday over a holiday makes it much more unique and exciting. It's not just some random Wednesday in the middle of the year it's more like the whole world is appreciating the season that you were born in. Since the holidays are hectic for everyone you get to claim just a little bit more selfishness because it's your special day. Its doubly significant for me because I was my mom’s birthday present 19 years ago. Her birthday is one day before mine and we’ve never spent it apart.

Along with the uniqueness is also the built in theme, just like summer birthdays normally being a pool party, holiday birthdays have a winter wonderland theme or fall & turkeys. I’ve definitely had a turkey on one or two of my cakes when I was little. In addition, one of my birthday presents is all the extra, delicious food. So as I turn 19 next week I’ll be appreciating all the advantages of having been born within a few days of a major holiday.