By Mary Ward
Like most other children, 11-year-old Jesse Bromley, from Cherrybrook in Sydney’s Hills District, will be up very early on Christmas Day, waiting for the parental all-clear for him and his three siblings to open the mound of presents under the tree.
At the end of the exercise, Jesse will have the most gifts. But no one minds: it is his birthday, after all.
Jesse Bromley will turn 12 on Christmas Day.Credit: Steven Siewert
Being born on Christmas Day can be a tough gig. While a birthday is usually all about the birthday person, those born on December 25 know theirs never will be. Simply finding time for a celebration, with family and friends likely already busy on the day, can be a challenge. And how to feel about those joint birthday-Christmas gifts? (Which Jesse has, thankfully, never received.)
It is all enough to make Christmas babies feel not very special, even though they are becoming increasingly rare: with more being born via elective caesarean, fewer children are being born on the public holiday.
An Australian Bureau of Statistics analysis of births from 2007 to 2016 found December 25 was the second-least common day for a baby to be born (February 29 was the rarest). The number of babies born on Christmas Day was less than half of those born on the most popular birthday, September 17.
Jesse Bromley doesn’t mind having his birthday on Christmas Day.Credit: Steven Siewert
December 26, January 1 and January 26 were the three next least common days for a birth.
In his soon-to-be 12 years of navigating it, Jesse says he is in favour of his Christmas birthday. “I think I am lucky. Some of my cousins live very far away in Darwin and I barely ever see them, but I do get to see them because it’s Christmas,” he said.
His mother, Kathryn Lammi, said she was worried about having a December 25 baby when Jesse arrived ahead of his due date, but the family has managed to strike a balance between keeping Christmas traditions and making Jesse’s birthday special.
“We do presents in the morning and then we have Christmas lunch with the family, but we try to make the afternoon and the evening Jesse’s birthday again. And if he wants to go out to dinner or have a party, we just do that on a different day because things aren’t open,” she said.
Sixty years earlier in Sydney’s northern suburbs, Dennis Channells was also born on Christmas Day.
“I was born in a private hospital, and my mother once told me I should have been a caesarean birth, but the nurses didn’t want to call up the doctor from his Christmas dinner,” the retiree, who will turn 72, said.
Dennis Channells ready for a Christmas-birthday party at Castle Hill’s Anglicare Retirement Village.Credit: Steven Siewert
Channells celebrated his birthday at a party with his retirement village neighbours earlier in the month. The amateur actor was the event’s MC.
“I’ve always felt a bit special, being born on Christmas. And I was very lucky. I certainly got the same number of presents. I had parties with friends, I always just had them close to Christmas. Then on the day it would be with family,” he said.
Many December 25 birthdays have a funny story about how the date on the calendar influenced their entry to the world.
Emma Kaye has come to see the upside of being born on December 25.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Hospital staff dressed Emma Kaye in a Santa hat when the 25-year-old ceramic artist was born.
Kaye said her family was Jewish and she dreaded her Christmas birthday as a child and asked her parents if they could move it to another date. Although, she can now see the positives.
“I love how everyone is just in the best mood: wanting to celebrate, have fun, be with friends and family and hang out at the beach,” she said.
“The only downside is that a lot of my friends are busy on the day with their own families, and also that my favourite cafes and restaurants are closed.”
On the whole, Kaye says she does not consider herself a “birthday person”, which she admits makes it ironic that hers is such a talking point.
“‘Wow, a Christmas baby,’ is the most common response when anyone new looks at my ID,” she said.
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