I was born the day after Christmas, and for some kids, that would be the worst possible scenario for gifts! But I was pretty lucky. My parents never lumped my birthday with Christmas. In fact, we always spent the day after Christmas celebrating my birthday. We’d go out to dinner, I’d open my presents — a fact I loved to remind my sister about — and we didn’t spend it like it was a second Christmas.

Sure, this made birthday parties difficult. I was rarely able to celebrate with friends on my actual birthday, and we usually had a birthday party the week before or after my birthday. That was always less exciting, but, as a silver lining, I have never had to ... CONTINUE READING