Christmas Birthday Wishes

Ask anyone born on December 25 and they’ll tell you the same thing: the presents come wrapped in Christmas paper, the card says “Merry Christmas and happy birthday”, and the cake competes with the pudding. A Christmas birthday is a lovely thing, but it’s easily swallowed by the holiday. The messages below put the birthday first. Some wish both at once, for when one card is all you have; most keep the birthday in the spotlight, where it belongs. All of them were written for this page.

Christmas birthday wishes that put the birthday first

For anyone whose birthday falls right at Christmas.

• Happy birthday! Before anyone mentions the tree, the turkey or the carols: today, you’re the main event.
• The whole world is celebrating today, but I’m celebrating you. Happy birthday.
• You were the best thing to arrive that Christmas, and you still are. Happy birthday.
• This card has no holly on it, no reindeer and no tinsel. Just birthday wishes, all for you.
• Of all the gifts under the tree, you’re the one we unwrapped first. Happy birthday, love.
• Happy birthday to the person who shares the date with the biggest party of the year, and still outshines it.
• Your birthday has never been a side dish to Christmas. It’s the reason we start celebrating early.
• May your birthday get its own candles, its own song and its own moment of silence before you blow them out.

For someone born on Christmas Day

For the true December 25 babies.

• Happy birthday to our Christmas miracle. We’ve been grateful for you every December since.
• You arrived on Christmas morning and turned the best day of the year into an even better one.
• Born on Christmas Day, which explains the glow, the generosity and the fondness for chocolate.
• Merry Christmas to everyone else. Happy birthday to you, first and loudest.
• You must be the only person whose birthday gets carols. Happy birthday, star of the show.
• Every year the house fills up for Christmas Day, and every year I think: they’re really all here for you.
• We light the birthday candles before the Christmas ones in this family. That’s how it has always been, and how it always will be.

Christmas Eve birthdays

For birthdays on December 24, when the house is already buzzing.

• Happy birthday! The world is waiting for Christmas, and we get to spend the waiting with you.
• Your birthday is the best part of Christmas Eve, and that’s saying something.
• May tonight hold two celebrations: one for the season, and a bigger one for you.
• Happy Christmas Eve birthday. The stockings can wait until you’ve blown out your candles.

Birthdays on December 26

For birthdays on the day after Christmas, Boxing Day in Britain and St. Stephen’s Day in Ireland.

• Happy birthday! Christmas is over, and now the real celebration begins.
• The leftovers can wait. Today is your day, and we’re starting fresh.
• Just when everyone thought the presents were finished, here comes the most important day of the week. Happy birthday.
• Happy birthday to the person who keeps the holidays going long after the wrapping paper is in the recycling.
• Everyone else is having a quiet day on the sofa. You’re having a birthday. Happy birthday, and let’s make some noise.

For a birthday close to Christmas

For mid- and late-December birthdays that tend to get lost in the rush.

• I know your birthday sits in the busiest week of the year, so I’ve written this card first. Happy birthday.
• No matter how many Christmas parties are on the calendar, yours is the one I wouldn’t miss.
• Happy birthday! Let’s celebrate before the tree goes up, so you have the whole house to yourself.
• You deserve a birthday that gets as much fuss as Christmas. Here’s the start of it.
• May your birthday arrive before the holiday rush and stay with you all the way through it.
• Your birthday comes once a year, just like Christmas, and in our house it gets exactly the same fuss.

For children born at Christmas

For little ones who want their birthday to feel nothing like December 25.

• Happy birthday! This is a birthday present, so it’s in birthday paper. We checked.
• To our Christmas birthday girl: you get two days of magic, and the first one is all yours.
• Happy birthday, little one. Santa told us to say he’s very proud you share his busiest week.
• You’re one year older and one stocking bigger. Happy birthday from all of us.
• To our birthday boy: no carols allowed until you’ve had your cake.

Merry Christmas and happy birthday in one card

When a single card is all you can send, give the birthday the first line and the bigger share.

• Happy birthday, first and foremost! And a merry Christmas to you too, while we’re at it.
• Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, and a Christmas almost as wonderful as you are.
• Happy birthday and merry Christmas. You’re the only person I know who gets both in one day, and you deserve them both.
• First the cake, then the carols. Happy birthday, and merry Christmas when you’re ready for it.
• To the person who makes this whole week worth celebrating: a very happy birthday, and a peaceful Christmas after it.

Funny Christmas birthday wishes

For people who’ve heard every joke about their birthday, and still laugh.

• Happy birthday! I promise this present is not also your Christmas present. Probably.
• Born on Christmas, so you’ve never had to wonder whether anyone remembered your birthday. They just remembered it was Christmas.
• Congratulations on being the only person whose birthday gets a public holiday every year.
• Happy birthday to the original Christmas present. Sorry, no gift receipt.

Make it personal

Use two cards. If you can, send the birthday card and the Christmas card separately, even a day apart. People born at Christmas notice, and remember.

Never “combine” without saying so. If one gift has to cover both, wrap it in birthday paper and say in the card what it’s for.

Write about them, not the date. “You were born on Christmas Day” is a fact they already know; one line about who they are is the real gift.

Mind the order. Birthday first, Christmas second, in the card and on the day.

For birthdays later in the winter, from January to February, our page of wishes for the cold-weather birthdays has many more. For the Christmas card that goes out separately, there’s a wide choice in our collection of Christmas card messages.

Questions

Should you say “Merry Christmas” in a Christmas birthday card?

You can, but put it second. Open with happy birthday and keep most of the message about them; a short “and merry Christmas too” at the end is enough.

Is it all right to give one present for both?

Many people born at Christmas would rather you didn’t. If you do, make it clear it covers both, and wrap it in birthday paper rather than Christmas paper.

What do you write for a birthday close to Christmas?

Acknowledge that it’s a busy time, then make it clear the birthday comes first: “I know December is full, but today is all about you.” Then add a wish and a memory, as you would for any birthday.

Cards for a Christmas birthday

A Cake by the Window is a birthday card with no Christmas in it at all: a cake with eight lit candles on a frosted windowsill, a tabby cat asleep beside it, and snow falling outside. Touch the card and the candles go out, one after another, then light again a few seconds later for the next wish. You can choose the day it arrives, so it reaches them on the birthday itself. See all our birthday cards for the winter months.

For the Christmas card that follows, our cosy classics include The Christmas Cottage, a thatched stone cottage at twilight with a candlelit tree in the garden.