A typical birthday is celebrated with a cake, presents and time spent with family and friends. Although, for very few DGS students, there’s an added element to their special day–a holiday. Whether it’s Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Leap Day, few students share their yearly celebrations with an extra layer of excitement.
Senior Gabby Ruchniewicz shares her birthday every few years with Thanksgiving-as the date for the holiday varies each year. She shares how she enjoys the ability to have a few years without her birthday on the holiday, and some years sharing it with the holiday.
“I think it’s really cool to share my birthday with Thanksgiving every few years…I like that it’s not on a holiday every year, and I get some variety and can look forward to certain years,” Ruchniewicz said.
Ruchniewicz’s birthday celebrations look slightly different when her special day is shared with Thanksgiving since her family mixes her birthday with typical Thanksgiving day traditions.
“When my birthday lands on Thanksgiving, my family usually celebrates both at the same time. We do our typical Thanksgiving traditions and see our family, but we also add in a few birthday celebrations, like eating cake so both are addressed,” Ruchniewicz said.
Guilt follows Ruchniewicz when her birthday is shared with Thanksgiving. She doesn’t want to take any sort of attention away from the holiday celebration at hand.
“Sometimes I feel a bit guilty for getting attention on a holiday dedicated to gratefulness and appreciation, so I don’t like to take attention away from the meaning of the holiday,” Ruchniewicz said.
Junior Sarah Born was literally “Born” on Feb. 29, also known as Leap Day. Although Born is technically four years old, she enjoys the uniqueness of her birth date.
“I don’t think it’s too crazy because I haven’t really known anything different, but it’s cool to have such a unique birthday,” Born said.
Since Leap Day happens every four years, Born cannot celebrate her true birthday annually, so her family celebrates on either Feb. 28, or Mar. 1 each year.
“We usually celebrate my birthday as normal, even if it’s not a Leap Year and it’s usually a pretty average birthday celebration with cake and family,” Born said.
Born explains the pro’s and con’s she has experienced with having a distinctive birthday. She deals with some technical difficulties due to her birthday only happening every four years.
“One of the best parts about having a birthday on Leap Day is that when your birthday doesn’t land on the actual day, you get to choose when you want to celebrate based on what works for you…some cons are that people think that you’re lying about your birthday, sometimes putting my birthday in for websites and apps is invalid because it’s unique,” Born said.
According to USA Today, the most uncommon birthday is Feb. 29, since the date only happens every four years. Because of this, there is a one in 1,461 chance of being born on that day. The second rarest birth date lands on Dec. 25, which is Christmas day.
Christmas is typically celebrated by families on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Senior Jaxon Flakus experiences the Christmas cheer on his birthday, which is Dec. 24.
“Sharing a birthday with Christmas has never really bothered me and people always ask me if it sucks, but it really doesn’t. I never have to go to school on my birthday and I still get the same amount of gifts,” Flakus said.
Families’ Christmas celebrations may vary on what day they celebrate. Flakus’s family celebrates his birthday and Christmas on the same day.
“My mom’s side of the family usually gets together to celebrate on my birthday, we celebrate both equally with gifts and cake,” Flakus said.
Flakus feels as though as he gets older, his birthday spotlight is being taken away and his special day is becoming more focused on the celebration of Christmas instead. He expresses his feelings towards this shift.
“I’ve noticed that the focus at my family party is mostly towards Christmas and as I have gotten older it has definitely shown, which kind of makes me sad,” Flakus said.
Senior Isa Araujo Rincon was born on Dec. 25, which is Christmas day. She does not celebrate her birthday due to most people being busy doing Christmas activities.
“I usually don’t celebrate my birthday since it’s a special date, so most people are busy spending time with family and most places are closed, which makes it really hard to do anything,” Araujo Rincon said.
Despite this, Araujo Rincon enjoys being able to get double the presents and spending time with family.
“I get double the presents…Christmas gifts on one hand and birthday gifts on the other, so I always end up with a lot of presents,” Araujo Rincon said.
She also mentions how it’s difficult to bring attention to her birthday because it lands on such a popular holiday.
“The biggest disadvantage for me is that I can barely celebrate my birthday on the actual day, so I can rarely spend my actual birthday with my friends, as most of them are either traveling or simply dedicating the day to their families,” Araujo Rincon said.
The chances of sharing a birthday with a holiday are rare and unique. This quality adds to what makes these students themselves as unique individuals.
