A very merry un-birthday to you: Celebrating half birthdays

Originally printed in the pages of Simply Family Magazine’s June 2017 issue. Never miss an issue, check out SFM’s digital editions, here!  article by Rebecca Stewart When I think of celebrating half birthdays, visions of the Mad Hatter and his merry crew celebrating very merry un-birthdays dance through my head. (This would be incorrect, apparently, as un-birthdays could be celebrated on any of the 364 days of the year that aren’t your birthday, whereas we have only one half birthday). But let’s be rebels and go ahead and use these ideas interchangeably. Either way, it would seem there are some very serious feelings floating around out there.

Just a few of the headlines:

• “Celebrating half birthdays is stupid.” –Scary Mommy
• “Celebrating half birthdays proves ours is the worst generation of parents ever.” –babble
• “The half birthday trend needs to die.” –Mommyish

Okay then. Tell us how you really feel. For every negative Nellie there are probably five Pinterest boards eagerly overflowing with ideas to perfectly celebrate a half birthday. Why, you might be wondering, would one want to celebrate one’s half birthday? Is one day – the actual day of their birth – not enough celebration? Well sure, but allow me to present the logic behind the purported madness.

• December/early January birthdays. Not only are your party options limited by weather, but holiday madness, man, it’s no joke. For realsies.
• Winter birthdays in general. Winter babies dream of outdoor pool parties or any number of fun in the sun celebrations. Meanwhile…
• Summer babies just want to bring treats to school like the rest of their classmates. (Admittedly, this is actually less an issue now than when I was a kid. In my day it was more a “Sorry ‘bout your sad luck, kid,” situation).

I guess there's some truth to the saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” That said, if you’re going to go all in on the half birthday celebration, do yourself a favor, go easy on the actual birthday. Have a small family dinner, do a little cake. But to go all in for both the half and actual birthdays, well, that’s how we get those FEELINGS from above – not to mention a lot of extra work for you. Then again…Why should we care what anyone else thinks? Do you, right? Meanwhile, a very merry un-birthday to you!