Holiday birthdays

Okay. Let's be real. Holiday birthdays are not all they are cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong. There are positives.

1. LOTS of candy/treats/cake/ice cream all on the same day. I have a diagnosable sweet tooth, so I love this part. 
2. Everyone loves the day that is coincidentally your birthday already! 
3. When your birthday is on Halloween, you totally have the means to believe that you will legitimately gain magical powers at some point. Though conflicting reports on the magical age confused me (16 for Sabrina the Teenage Witch and 11 for Harry Potter) I think I probably finally figured things out by 6th grade. Or junior high. 9th grade at least. 

             Or?

But there are definite negatives. 

1. Since everyone loves that day so much already, having a party on your actual birthday means you have to have the social clout to compete with the other holiday parties/festivities/tom-foolery. I have never possessed this social clout. So much in fact that the only time I had a sizable amount of people at my birthday party was that one time my bishop announced my birthday party over the pulpit. Intense embarrassment ensued. Sure a lot of people came, but they all came at the same time, then left after pretending to know me and eating some of my food and flirting with people in the ward who also didn't know me. Cool. 
2. The downside to the tons of sweets (I can almost even use this in the literal sense, having a Halloween birthday) is that you feel like you need to eat it all or at least a lot of it. The older I get, the less fun this is/the less ability I have in this endeavor. Dang maturity. 
3. The bad jokes. This is inevitable, especially around old and/or "punny" people. 
4. Getting forgotten because even though you have an easily remembered birthday, you are not bigger than your holiday. Especially Christmas. 
5. Getting jipped on presents (more prominent with gift-giving holidays...but getting holiday-themed presents that you can only use at this time of year almost counts as no gift at all, generally). 

And finally. 

What if you don't actually like the holiday being celebrated on your particular day of birth? While for my childhood having a Halloween birthday was pretty sweet action, as I got older I realized how little of Halloween I really liked. I don't really like dressing up. I refuse to go to haunted houses. And I don't like being frightened. As far as I can tell that's basically Halloween. But each year I am expected to love the holiday of my birth. I only recently admitted to my mom that I don't like Halloween. Funny story, she doesn't either! But when she had me on Halloween she apparently told herself "I better start liking it now" and began to give me Halloween themed presents each year. Clearly I should have let her in on the secret sooner.

One of many Halloween decorations I have been given. 

But just imagine it. A Thanksgiving baby that doesn't like turkey. A Valentines baby that hates pink.  An independence day baby that hates fireworks. You people don't understand our plight. 

Well actually I don't understand the plight of the Valentines baby either. You people should know my feelings on Valentines Day.