What the heck is a "half birthday?"

[Ember]

I have a student telling me all last week her "half birthday" is coming up. I smiled and said things like, "That's nice..." with about the same amount of attention I pay when children tell me about how their mommy shaves her big toe (and, yes, they tell us those things! Lol). Then mom comes in and asks if she can bring in cupcakes cut in half for the half birthday. When I said "no" mom then asked if I could hand out the half birthday invitations... When did this get to be a thing?! Since when do we have a formal celebration for being half a year older??

 

[justhat]

I've only see that for summer birthday kids, but maybe in this case it is a Christmas baby so they celebrate now? We have always done my son's half birthday in school cause his real birthday is in August and his teachers usually ask for half birthdays instead of cramming all the summer birthdays in during the last 3 weeks of school. We have his party by his actual birthday though.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I have a student telling me all last week her "half birthday" is coming up. I smiled and said things like, "That's nice..." with about the same amount of attention I pay when children tell me about how their mommy shaves her big toe (and, yes, they tell us those things! Lol). Then mom comes in and asks if she can bring in cupcakes cut in half for the half birthday. When I said "no" mom then asked if I could hand out the half birthday invitations... When did this get to be a thing?! Since when do we have a formal celebration for being half a year older??

Some people with December birthdays chose to celebrate a "half birthday" in June instead of their actual birthday because it is very hard to get anyone to attend a birthday party in December and it kind of stinks to get all of your gifts at the same time (Christmas and Birthday).

My kids both have birthdays Christmas week and people are always suggesting that we celebrate their half birthdays in June instead. They prefer to celebrate the real thing though.

(well, mostly--DS14 never had a party with his friends this year, no one was here and we were not either; he is throwing a big BBQ in a few weeks to have all his friends over, but he is not labeling it a "half birthday" or thinking of gifts or anything, just wants to have all his friends over for a big bash and I told him I'd spend the $$ that would have gone to a birthday party for it. This is the first time we have done anything like that though).

 

[NHdisneylover]

I want to add that this was pretty common when I was teaching even 20 years ago--it is not new

 

[Disneyland1084]

I think half birthdays are just an excuse to eat cake. Hmm..Maybe I should start celebrating half birthdays.

 

[S. C.]

I think half birthdays are just an excuse to eat cake. Hmm..Maybe I should start celebrating half birthdays.

Maybe you should bake us a cake! Now I'm wanting cake.

 

[Disneyland1084]

Maybe you should bake us a cake! Now I'm wanting cake.

Better yet, I'll buy a white cake from Costco. We had one for DD's birthday in April, and it was delicious!!! Or maybe I can make a two layer chocolate cake. I did that last year for DD's kindergarten graduation.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I've been known to make 1/2 birthday cakes here - not as a party, but just a dessert with dinner type thing. I'll either make a small round cake, cut it in half, and stack it into "half" of a two-layer cake, or make a rectangle and just frost half. It's not a big celebration, just a slightly less ordinary day.

I've observed lots of little kids, though, over the years, to whom that 1/2 is very important when you ask their age.

 

[Schmeck]

Our precious snowflakes need these parties, of course. They need kindergarten 'graduation' parties, half birthday parties, elementary school graduation parties, middle school graduation parties...

I'd rather save all that money and plan another Disney trip! (Which is want we did when my kids were younger)

 

[DonaldnDaisy5]

I've only see that for summer birthday kids, but maybe in this case it is a Christmas baby so they celebrate now? We have always done my son's half birthday in school cause his real birthday is in August and his teachers usually ask for half birthdays instead of cramming all the summer birthdays in during the last 3 weeks of school. We have his party by his actual birthday though.

This is the only time I've heard of them being celebrated as well...my dd bday is June 23, so we pick a fake bday because poor kid even a hokey half bday won't work for her!

 

[Christine]

I have a Dec 30 birthday and my mom always asked me (when I was a kid a LOOONNNGGG time ago), if I wanted to celebrate my birthday in the summer. Having a birthday on December 30 meant never having a "friend" party because most people were off celebrating Christmas. I never did it though--I was much too introverted!!

However, I don't think it's "snowflakey" if someone does it.

Now, if they are actually celebrating two birthdays a year, well, that's different.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I think half birthdays are just an excuse to eat cake. Hmm..Maybe I should start celebrating half birthdays.

You never need an excuse to eat cake.

 

[Colleen27]

I know two types of kids who celebrate half-birthdays - summer babies who feel left out because they never get to do the treat at school or have all their friends at their party, and Christmas babies whose actual birthdays get sort of overlooked because of the holiday season.

I have two summer babies but have never done half-birthdays for them; I don't think they need one more class cupcake party and they've never expressed feeling left out because they aren't with their classmates for their birthdays. But my cousin, who was born on Christmas eve, always had a half-birthday party when we were growing up and I think that's brilliant. Much better than trying to plan a birthday party over Christmas break when everyone is traveling and focused on family.

 

[eliza61]

I have a student telling me all last week her "half birthday" is coming up. I smiled and said things like, "That's nice..." with about the same amount of attention I pay when children tell me about how their mommy shaves her big toe (and, yes, they tell us those things! Lol). Then mom comes in and asks if she can bring in cupcakes cut in half for the half birthday. When I said "no" mom then asked if I could hand out the half birthday invitations... When did this get to be a thing?! Since when do we have a formal celebration for being half a year older??

When we adopted this new policy that every thing a kid does should be celebrated on the same scale as finding a cure for cancer.

Just another excuse to celebrate mediocracy.

 

[eliza61]

I know two types of kids who celebrate half-birthdays - summer babies who feel left out because they never get to do the treat at school or have all their friends at their party, and Christmas babies whose actual birthdays get sort of overlooked because of the holiday season.

.

I don't know Coll, My birthday is Jan 1st, my sons birthday is 12/26. Never would we even entertain some thing as silly (IMO) as 1/2 birthdays.

Now my son is the eternal optimist! LOL. for the first 6 years of his life he swore all the lights and trees and party's in our family were because it was his birthday. We also always made it a point to seperate the two celebrations.
I always enjoyed having my bd on the first, of course I milked it on NY's eve. I can't tell you how many dinners & drinks I was brought when my fellow night clubbers found out it was my bd the next day

I guess I'm just a grinch when it comes to all these "celebrations". My township now has 5 "graduations" between kindergarden and h.s. when did it stop becoming simply getting promoted to now 4th grade graduation???

 

[PebblesMK]

My daughter's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, she wanted to do a 1/2 birthday party. However, she wants to do it because in the winter there isn't much to do and she wants to swim. We'll do a swim party but won't have presents or anything. Then again, we're into June and we're at a whopping 48 degrees so this pool may never be warm enough to swim. My friends and I used to celebrate our half birthdays but that's because we were always doing ridiculous stuff that was fun.

 

[FayeW]

When my kids were small they always watched "Arthur" (children's cartoon popular in Canada, not sure if it's on in the US markets). One of the characters celebrated her "half birthday". Ever since then I acknowledge it, but we don't celebrate it. At some point during the day I will sing "Happy half a birthday to you".

 

[pyrxtc]

I've done the half birthday thing for my daughter since her birthday falls sometimes during Christmas break.

 

[Ginny Favers]

It's funny that all year long, my kids barely got any party invites, but just recently, they've gotten a slew of them, like 20. I don't think it's that all of these people have birthdays now, it's that they all want to celebrate their birthday now. If it's a half-birthday, I don't know about it-- we just treat it like a regular birthday party.

I think it would be ridiculous to have a half-birthday party AND a birthday party (as planning just one can put me in hysterics for most of the year), but as long as a kid is having just one party a year, who cares when they want to have it? It's not like I keep track of when these kids' birthdays are.

 

[HM]

My DD chose to have a 1/2 birthday one year because she's a July baby. She hated that every year when she planned a party most of her friends were out of town. So one year she decided that she was going to celebrate early (with our ok) and we had a party at our house in February for her. She had a ton of friends over and had a great time. When her actual birthday rolled around, we only celebrated as a family (dinner and gift).

My DD has asked teachers in the past about bringing in cupcakes or cookies on her actual 1/2 birthday (if the teacher didn't have a policy already).