In our house a birthday is a week long.
I’d tell him his actual day, and let him know today that you’re celebrating early. Why lie?

Anonymous wrote:Ha, my younger kid’s birthday is just after Christmas, so this year, we were still visiting family. So on her actual bday, each set of grandparents gave her a gift, and there was cake. Then we celebrated at preschool, then she had a party with friends (her first one ever). My husband was calling it the birthday month. But they aren’t little for long, and she had fun, so I don’t see the big deal.

My Nephews birthday is New Years Eve, his parents took to hosting his kid party at the mid year. The family celebrated on his birthday but the party with friends was sometime in June. He enjoyed it because it gave him fresh presents in the middle of the year.

We always do something on the actual day, if that's not the day that we have the party or other "big" celebration, but it's pretty low-key. I make her favorite meal for dinner, we give her the presents from us and her grandparents, we sing happy birthday, and she blows out a candle on a cupcake. I think it's okay to "celebrate" more than once, but the size and elaborateness of the celebrations should be keep in perspective. I hate when adults think people should be celebrating their "birthday week" or whatever, so I don't want to encourage that in my kid.

Ha, my younger kid’s birthday is just after Christmas, so this year, we were still visiting family. So on her actual bday, each set of grandparents gave her a gift, and there was cake. Then we celebrated at preschool, then she had a party with friends (her first one ever). My husband was calling it the birthday month. But they aren’t little for long, and she had fun, so I don’t see the big deal.

Anonymous wrote:My oldest celebrated 4 times last year - at the beach 1 week early with grandparents, on his actual birthday with us at home, with other grandparents the following weekend and at school. It was a bit drawn out. The only downside is that at the end of it he was convinced he was 5 because he “already turned 4”.

LOL

In our family...on your actual day you get to pick dinner.,,might be a little upgraded but would not include balloons and cake. The celebration was usually on a different day.

My oldest celebrated 4 times last year - at the beach 1 week early with grandparents, on his actual birthday with us at home, with other grandparents the following weekend and at school. It was a bit drawn out. The only downside is that at the end of it he was convinced he was 5 because he “already turned 4”.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha I always deal with this bc DS has a birthday that is clear we to a long weekend, so my parents always want to celebrate before, and then there’s the day of, and then there’s the weekend birthday party. I think it’s too much but sometimes that’s how it shakes out. If they WANT to celebrate tonight just do it, but don’t push for it just bc you are having cake.

He won’t know if today is really his birthday or not. So at 3 don’t know if he’ll really understand that we are celebrating on different days. So if I do the banner and balloons today with the cake, we’ll sorta ignore his actual day

Just know that on the actual day you will want to do something! You say you’ll ignore it but you’ll see! You will want to honor it and celebrate it.

Anonymous wrote:Ha I always deal with this bc DS has a birthday that is clear we to a long weekend, so my parents always want to celebrate before, and then there’s the day of, and then there’s the weekend birthday party. I think it’s too much but sometimes that’s how it shakes out. If they WANT to celebrate tonight just do it, but don’t push for it just bc you are having cake.

He won’t know if today is really his birthday or not. So at 3 don’t know if he’ll really understand that we are celebrating on different days. So if I do the banner and balloons today with the cake, we’ll sorta ignore his actual day

My son is six. For his 6th birthday we brough a treat to school, celebrated on his birthday, and had a party with 10 of his friends. That is three celebrations. He enjoyed each and every one of them. Each one included a different group of people. I don’t have a problem with it but I do think that the birthday needs to be celebrated on their birthday. We gave DS his presents on his actual birthday. He chooses a place to eat or a special meal we make.

It was worse in preschool/daycare because he has a birthday twin. So neither family brought anything in on the day and one brought something in the day before and the other the day after. That way each kid was able to celebrate their birthday. Both families were actually fine with sharing the day but the day care wanted to split it, proably because extra treats for the other kids. Their last year we did split it by buying pizza for lunch and bringing in cup cakes.

Ha I always deal with this bc DS has a birthday that is clear we to a long weekend, so my parents always want to celebrate before, and then there’s the day of, and then there’s the weekend birthday party. I think it’s too much but sometimes that’s how it shakes out. If they WANT to celebrate tonight just do it, but don’t push for it just bc you are having cake.

DS’s 3yo Birthday in the next 10 days.

No kid party
Family (4 people) coming in to go to dinner and have cake tonight. Bringing cupcakes to day care, but can’t bring them in on his birthday due to another school event. So a few days after.

Should we treat today like it’s his birthday since we are having cake (on leftover paper birthday plates) and get some balloons and put up the banner. Or should we do that (balloons and banner) on his actual birthday? If we do that, he essentially will celebrate 3 times (today, day of and at day care).