Released On 14 January 2025
Sioux's blog: Why I Have Two Birthdays
No, I am not a member of royalty but yes, I do have 2 birthdays. My actual birthday is the 5th of January – a particularly miserable time of year that was always the first day back at school or work with no bank holidays in sight, payday still a mile away and all the festive cheer over. To call it the doom and gloom period of the year I think would be accurate hence why Brew Monday (originally Blue Monday) took off as a reminder to consider your mental health during this tricky part of the year.
So how did I end up with 2 birthdays? I go back to when I first started dating my husband and that first birthday we celebrated together in January. It was nice but we were both on health kicks so didn’t fancy eating out or scoffing cake and there were no burning present ideas on the list either as Christmas had sorted that.
So, my husband had the radical idea to simply move my birthday to a better time of the year. Pick a month and a day that would work better for us and so we did just that. I picked 5th of May because it’s a lovely time of year, it often coincides with the bank holiday and none of our family have birthdays in or around then either. It’s perfect. As far as he is concerned, my Jan date is not anything to celebrate between us, not even a card. But my family still celebrates in January (they found the idea of moving my birthday a bit baffling) so I really do get 2 birthdays. And it is great!
We knew we couldn’t control the day I was born but we could control when we celebrated it so taking the decision was, excuse the pun, a piece of cake. How long do we think before my son (still only 2 now) understands what we’re doing and asks for a second birthday too…!
If you have a January birthday, do consider what my husband and I have done but most importantly, celebrate in the way that you want to with who you want to and enjoy!
Sioux lives in a village outside Milton Keynes with her husband, young son, 3 cats and 2 dogs. When not managing the chaos of home, she works for a large housing association looking after health, wellbeing and engagement.
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