“When I was younger, I really used to hate having a Christmas birthday,” says Grace, 23. “I used to get really jealous of the people who could come into school and you’d get to sit on a special birthday cushion and give everyone sweets. But I never used to get that because my birthday was in the Christmas holidays.”

Now, she says she’s made her peace with it. “I obviously can’t change my birthday, but I have found that over the last few years especially, my celebrations have always been cancelled due to both Covid and working in retail at the time.”

Kirsty, who’s birthday falls on Christmas Eve, says that she actually enjoys being a Christmas baby. “I actually really like it,” she tells Stylist. “Pre-Covid, my whole family would always be getting together around my birthday, whereas my sister who has her birthday in the summer never got to share it with them too.”

Kirsty says that her family keeps her birthday and Christmas very separate, so she never feels like it’s merged or she’s missing out. “Though when I was younger, I used to hate having to wait a whole year to ask for things,” she adds.

Festive birthdays: how to celebrate when you feel overshadowed by Christmas and New Year’s Eve