Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The only time I have ever heard of it is to host the main party in a different season, eg. a winter baby having a swimming party. But I've never heard if 2 full celebrations. I also know someone who has a birthday on Christmas Day who celebrates it in the summer instead, and always has.
Never heard of it. I've heard kids mention their half-birthdays but only as a piece of trivia , or a time when they can technically say they are now "almost" the next age... I've never heard of anyone having a party or actually celebrating it.
My kids were always very aware of their 1/2 birthdays, but we certainly didn't hold a party or do anything special for it. I think they remembered it, and reminded me, because they were "hoping" it might mean dessert that night.
Kindergarten and first grade classes sometimes celebrate half birthdays for children born in the summer.
It may seen silly to others but for some children & young adults with summer birthdays celebrating a half birthday instead of the real birthday has some practicality & validity.
A different perspective here for sure. My middle son was born the week between Christmas and New Years.
He always wanted a summer pool party. We did not celebrate half birthdays, but had a party for him and his friends in the summer anyway. We just didn't do the cake and gifts part.
I was a summer baby, but I liked it, even without the school celebration. It seemed by August everyone was bored with being home, and wanted to come to see their friends.
Kindergarten and first grade classes sometimes celebrate half birthdays for children born in the summer.
My daughter's schools did not do that (20 years ago) and she always felt that she "didn't matter as much" because of her summer birthday. No classmates singing Happy Birthday to you, no day when you were line leader because of your birthday, no day when the principal called you down to their office and gave you a Happy Birthday pencil., etc., etc.
When she tried to give Birthday Parties in the summer many parents & children either forget or had vacations or other plans. The year she turned five we invited her whole K-4 class to a picnic in the park (normally we wouldn't invite so many kids but it was her first year in a new, not neighborhood, school and she didn't know who would be in her next years class). She gave out 25 invitations the last week of school and when she had her party three weeks later two children came. Her kindergarten year, she invited 10 girls and we called and reminded them, etc. I think only 2 or 3 were in town. Now when she attended parties during the school year she found out that there usually there was 100% or almost 100% attendance. So we sometimes switched from having birthday parties to half birthday parties but didn't have both.
She was in a sorority in college. The sorority made a huge production out of everyone's birthday. There was a large committee just for birthdays. They decorated the birthday girl's door, gave handmade, personalized cards & small gifts each day for a full week, planned a special birthday outing, had a huge birthday cake & party on the actual birthday, and many more things. Guess what they did for the sorority girls whose birthdays were in summer? Nothing, absolutely nothing----not even one birthday card, not even an email with birthday wishes send to the sorority sister.
My daughter asked them why they did such a huge amount for the sisters whose birthdays were during the school year and nothing for summer birthdays. The response was that during summer they expected the family & hometown friends to do things for the birthday girl and during the school year they "took the place of family" so they would "over do" the birthdays as the girls were often lonely and missed their families at that time.
Perhaps that worked in some cases but our daughter and others stayed in the college town all summer (far away from family & hometown friends) and even one card from the sorority would have meant a lot to her & other girls with summer birthday. It probably wouldn't have bothered our daughter so much if the sorority did not do such an excessive amount for each and every birthday from late August until the end of May and then nothing, not even a card, for the June, July & early August birthdays. BTW the two years she was in the sorority all of the officers & everyone on the birthday planning committee had birthdays during the school year. Yes, it is a First World problem, but it was something that still seemed pretty unfair to some of the people with summer birthdays.
It may seen silly to others but for some children & young adults with summer birthdays celebrating a half birthday instead of the real birthday has some practicality & validity.
We do not celebrate half birthdays. We will also not be purchasing the "birthday elf on the shelf" available in stores now. I completely get kids with summer birthdays having it acknowledged in school, etc. or birthdays near holidays being celebrated at other times. But a half birthday? Please.
Eh, I do a half-birthday for my eldest, as her "real" birthday is a couple days before Xmas. Starting at age 5, we started holding her "birthday" party on the weekend following the last day of school. This stopped all the "combo" gifts and gave her celebration something other than an also-ran designation.
It's a pretty cool tradition that she and her friends look forward to as a "end of school" and "birthday" celebration.
Now, I'll just need to do something to solve the two kids born 7 years apart on the same date conundrum...
My four year old is obsessed enough about her birthday (she has been planning for June since last August), she would go nuts if we also let her have a half birthday party or made any sort of fuss about it. I do though love the idea of schools doing something at the end of the school year to celebrate the summer birthdays as everyone still deserves equal fuss even if it can't be on their actual day and has to be shared.
As to the daughter in the sorority, while I understand what they mean about making up for being away from home, they also sound really self-centered that they can't be bothered to do anything at all for the girls with summer birthdays. If I were in charge, I would at least send a reminder email shortly beforehand with contact info for the birthday girl so people could send a card, email, text, call, etc. I thought they were supposed to be about sisterhood but it doesn't sound like it to me. (Also I can sympathize about the low party attendance, my birthday is early June and it was always tough to plan as in grade school that is right at the end of the year when things are crazy, as you get older graduations are coming up, and in college everyone has already gone home and most of my grade school friends were scattered so there weren't too many folks at home to do anything with. At least as you get into adulthood it doesn't matter so much.)
My daughter's pre-K this year actually skipped the usual holiday party in-class as there were so many birthdays around mid to late December. I love this as that way those kids got just as much fuss as those with birthdays the rest of the year, especially as some sometimes feel shortchanged being mixed in with the holiday rush. Also do four and five year olds really need sugar from a holiday party on top of birthdays???
My neighbor was over today and mentioned that a lot would be going on at his house this weekend because his granddaughter's "Half-Birthday Party" was being held at his place. I've never heard that term before and asked what he meant. He said not only are his grand-kids given birthday parties, but also a second one six months later. In other words, two events per year where the child is treated to a special event including guests and gifts. When I said I'd never heard of such a thing, he insisted that Half-Birthdays are all the rage the these days. He's not the kind of person to make something like that up, so what gives?
Is this some kind of regional trend? Parents, do you celebrate your children's half-birthdays? To me, not being a parent, it seems like a lot of pressure to plan a party for each one of your kids every year. Now you're supposed to do it twice?
I know one family that celebrates the half birthday...but their kids still only get one birthday party a year. They kids are born in early August - so hard to include school chums and right after Christmas - impossible time of the year for many to fit in another party.
So, they celebrate their 1/2 instead. And it's not really a new thing (maybe the two party thing is) but my great-grandmother and her twin celebrated their half birthdays from childhood. I guess it started that there was some event their father would be away for every year (he was a railroad conductor, so no clue what that could be) but they celebrated their 1/2 every year.
We never did halfsies really - though some years if I remembered I'd make her favortie dinner and get a few cupcakes (sweets were pretty rare in our house)....but that was it - no party or presents.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
