Friday Five: Festive Birthday

Him Outdoors has a birthday today - happy birthday to him. People often say how awful it must have been as a child to have your birthday so close to Christmas. I share this opinion, but not because of the dread of the combined birthday and Christmas present - quite frankly, if you are not religious, why are you celebrating Christmas with gift giving anyway?

No, the reason for my antipathy for the festive birthday is that I like to celebrate as many separate occasions as possible (and deliberately got married six months away from my birthday to stagger the anniversaries). We have friends whose daughter was born on Christmas Day (no, they didn't call her Holly or Carol or something equally naff) and she celebrates her birthday in the morning and Christmas in the afternoon, which seems to work for them. So, because these lists are meant to be positive, I have come up with

5 Good Things about Having a Birthday at Christmas-time:

1. You generally get the day off (particularly when you're a child and school has broken up for the holidays)
2. Most people have decided that if they haven't done it yet, they're not going to, so have relaxed and are in a good mood
3. The atmosphere in the pubs is good and lively (but not frantic and faintly desperate as it can be at New Year)
4. Chocolate, biscuits, cake, sweets, and general party food is everywhere!
5. Champagne is on special offer