Born on the big day
The joy of meeting up with friends, making up with foes and kissing under the mistletoe reaches such a peak of silliness and fun that it is enough to make some people wear the worst jumpers known to humanity or burst into song at the drop of a silly hat.
The day itself is all about the children, of course, and the pleasure they get from opening their presents, removing the actual toy that cost Santa a bomb and spending the day playing with the boxes.
But Santa and Jesus weren’t the only people born on December 25. Babies who have been stuck in a womb for the best part of 48 weeks are not particularly interested in the fact that the turkey is basted and ready to go in the oven. If it’s time for them to move, it’s time to move; even if the priest is in the middle of his message for Christmas at midnight mass.
“My mum and dad were in at midnight mass on Christmas Eve in Cork,” says Stephen Murray. “That’s when my mum kind of thought that something was up. And the priest had to unlock the doors to let her out because they were locked to keep drunk people out. And she was rushed to hospital.”
Stephen, who is the son of RTÉ Radio 1 presenter John Murray and journalist Miriam Donohoe, was born the same day and this year he will be celebrating his 22nd birthday on Christmas Day.
“It’s nice, I suppose it’s a bit of a novelty,” he says with a chuckle.
“It doesn’t really bother me any more about the presents or the parties I might be missing out on. And in fact on the day itself I actually get quite a lot of attention because no one tends to forget me.”
Murray says his parents would usually throw some kind of party to mark the event either before or after the Christmas holidays and he is pretty sure his birthday was not unduly neglected. In fact, Murray feels sorrier for his sister Catherine who is 19.
“Well, my sister has a similar kind of problem in that she was born on December 29,” he says with a hint of glee that only a sibling can have. “And I’d say that Catherine loses out more than I do in terms of people remembering. On Christmas Day you get to see the relatives anyway so they don’t forget, but a few days later ... she wouldn’t get as many birthday wishes.”
It also means that he does not have to do the washing-up on Christmas Day — although publication of this article may well change that.
There is, however, a far more nuanced and unexpected advantage to be being born on Christmas Day.
“As much as it’s embarrassing to admit, it’s not the worst chat up line in the world,” says Stephen, a sports management student at University College Dublin. “Particularly around Christmas time. I suppose it goes back to the novelty factor.”
Rossa Brown from Foxrock in Dublin will be 26 on December 25th. A digital marketing advisor by profession, he is fairly stoical when it comes to his birthday.
“It didn’t really occur to me that much because obviously it’s my birthday,” he says. “But from other people’s point of view they might have thought ‘God that’s a bit unlucky’. The first thing people asked, especially when I was a kid, and actually they kind of still ask, is ‘Do you not feel you’re getting robbed at Christmas?’”
Brown says that when he was younger he did have parties but that they gradually “just faded out” due to the fact that it was hard to organise everyone and people had so many other things on. He says he is the type of person who does not really like much of a fuss being made over him anyway.
“I can’t even remember the last time I had a celebration for it,” he says with no hint of emotion. “Well, obviously with the family on Christmas Day, but in terms of a party, I never bothered with a 21st or an 18th. It’s just one of those things I’ve never put a huge amount of thought into.”
According to Brown, his mother is determined to have some sort of shindig for him this year and he says that both his parents and many of his aunts and uncles often went to great lengths to make sure his birthday was not forgotten. His two older brothers, Colin (35) and Grant (30), have never let him forget it either.
“I think my two older brothers hated me slightly for the first few months because I wrecked Christmas,” he says.
“I think Mum went into labour on Christmas Eve and I was born in the early hours of Christmas morning. I don’t think Dad was very prepared for Christmas Day so the two lads often slag me because of it.”
For Kildare native Eoin Byrne, people’s first question is the same every time.
“I think the first thing that comes to people’s minds is the fear of only getting one present instead of two,” he says. “And in fairness it wasn’t like that for me. My parents always made a big deal of them being separate.”
Byrne, who will be 33 on Christmas Day ) is the eldest of four.
He agrees with Stephen Murray that relations were quicker to remember his birthday than those of his siblings but the downside for him was the lack of parties.
“I actually never had a party,” he says. “That was the worst thing about it. On your birthday in school you got treated a little bit better but I never had that because of the holiday.
“But people have this impression of poor little Oliver Twist at home and it wasn’t like that.
“I’m definitely happy about it. It’ll always be a topic of conversation throughout your life.”
Have for yourself a very merry… eh… birthday? Well-known people born on Christmas Day include:
Well, this is the person all the fuss is about, but nobody is actually sure when Jesus was born (except people who ‘just know’, of course). In fact, we are not even sure when Christmas started, although there was a Roman festival called the Saturnalia, which took place in December and also involved people being nice to each other.
This prophet was most certainly born on Christmas Day, 1957 and it is his song Fairytale of New York that we will more than likely be belting out as we ramble home on Christmas Eve, babe.
Who? Well, yes indeed. But little Zac was delivered in Santa’s sack to Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, when he was born to his surrogate mother in California on Christmas Day last year. Could you imagine hearing that story rolled out every year over Christmas dinner?
The great man was born in 1899 in the Big Apple. You can almost imagine him popping out, looking up at his mother and saying ‘of all the days to be born, she had to choose this one’.
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