Hope he's not reading this...

10 days ahead of time, we have finished our Birthday Shopping for Mathew. We got him an elaborate Play Castle thing that you build in his bedroom and he can go in and out of it as he pleases. There’s a mini ball pond and the walls are full of educational tools and toys and trinkets. All very bright, all very expensive, and I’m disappointed that it didn’t come with a qualified construction engineer to put it together for me, because the instructions look as complicated as an attempt at a Unified Field Theory. We also got him some books and a few bits of clothing, and we’ll stick some money away in an account for him as well.
It’s hard to know how to play it when your child has a birthday 5 days before Christmas. I imagine it will change year-to-year, and as soon as he’s old enough we’ll let him make his own decisions, but for this year we’ve said we’ll make it a big, separate occasion and he can have separate presents for each.
I think it’ll be great when he’s older. If there’s something he wants on his Christmas list that’s a bit beyond our planned price range he can have it as a combined birthday/Xmas pressie. I know the downside is that he won’t have another big event to look forward to during the year, but he won’t know any different will he? As someone whose ‘big day’ is just a few weeks into the New Year (subtle hint, there) I know what it’s like to have everything crammed into a small part of the year, and for me it actually heightens everything. Hopefully it will be the same for him, and if it isn’t he can just celebrate his birthday some other time of year.

RC 10-12-20