Birthday party woes of a January baby

By Camilla

So this year, Blue Monday falls on Monday 16th January. My birthday. Everyone will be bleating on about how depressed they feel; they’ve already broken their ‘dry January’ pledge and not yet shed a stone having gone 15 days with no brie. Recruiters will be overwhelmed with people firing over their CV and there will be a surge in the price of coffee as demand peaks to a 12 month high.

But spare a thought for those of us whose birthday falls in January.

Our co-founder Johnny’s son Leo turns six on 13th January. With his dad being a children’s party entertainer, he probably won’t suffer the rubbishness of being a January child for a while yet. But having endured nearly 35 of them, I thought I’d enlighten him on what’s in store:

1. No-one EVER wants to celebrate with you – enjoy your school years because after the age of about 14, you will party solo. Everyone is either: detoxing, broke, revising (when at uni) or just generally recuperating from New Year’s eve. It’s rubbish.
2. All presents will be bought in the sale – you are likely to get more in terms of volume but often less in value. You’ve normally bagged everything you’d like/need for Christmas.
3. No-one really knows what to buy you – the Christmas gloss has worn off, you’re mid-way through seasons and people are at a loss about what buy a January baby. Expect plenty of generic ‘stuff’ that you don’t need (ref point 2).
4. You occasionally get something wrapped in crumpled Christmas wrapping paper (although I would expect December babies to experience this phenomenon more).
5. You have to wait 11 months in between having gifts. Yes this does sound rather consumerist, but who doesn’t enjoy receiving gifts? One upside of becoming a parent is that Mother’s/Father’s Day gives you a mid-point to at least get a card.
6. Joining December-born folk, you only ever get combined presents (so either Christmas or birthday will be baron on the gifts front).
7. You hesitate to shop in the sales…knowing that you might get some presents so will feel like you’re being greedy.
8. You forever down-play your birthday…”what, celebrate the magical day that I entered the world? Nooooo, it’s no biggy, I don’t really like birthdays”, you forever lie.
9. You’ll develop deep-rooted jealousy toward friends that have birthdays in the Autumn or Spring. Every year they’re able to plot what sort of marvellous bash they’re going to put on whilst you cry inwardly, knowing that you won’t ever have that luxury.

So I am sorry Leo, you have all of this to come. I’d love to say that it gets better with age, but it doesn’t. And this year I have the double whammy that my birthday actually falls on so-called Blue Monday. Oh joy.

If anyone reading this has a January child, do them a favour a organise a party. It doesn’t have to be an Adventure Team party (which would of course be epic). But just something that marks their special day. Because the window for celebrating is small and your child really will thank you for it one day.

About Camilla:

Mummy to Wilf (5) & Gilby (3), Camilla is the COO Superhero of The Adventure Team. Which means she does everything except parties (terrible actress!).