Tuesday 13 December 2016

Serendipity Sunday - Generations of Birthdays


Update: 13 Dec 2016

 Mom has passed now and is with her mother and grandmother looking down on me as I celebrate yet another birthday. My Mom always made birthdays special, not just for us but even for strangers I would bring home that had no family close by. That is a gift I gave to my children as they are doing now for theirs!


I came across some old birthday books, and it just happens to be my birthday!

I love birthdays! They are always a celebration in our family, as they were in my parents', grandparents' and great-grandparents' families!

Mom getting kisses from her great grandchildren on her 90th birthday, 2015


Granny getting kisses from her great-grandchildren on her 90th birthday, 1984

My great-grandmother with her grown children on her 75th birthday, 1942

I sure hope I am around to get kisses from my great-grandchildren on my 90th birthday!

I have one daughter that was born Christmas Day.  I made sure her birthday was separate from Christmas, with a celebration at lunch with balloons and birthday-paper-wrapped gifts.  She liked having a Christmas birthday, just don't ever send her a Christmas/Birthday card (which we all did for her 30th hehehe!).

My grandmother never forgot an anniversary or a birthday.  She always bought her greeting cards ahead of time and kept them in her Birthday Organizer.  It was a book of envelopes in which she could place the cards for each month and write on the line for the right day the names of people having birthdays or anniversaries.
Something like this....



Every year I got a greeting card from my Granny and Grampa in the mail, and when I was young the card always had $2 tuck in it. When we went to my grandparents' for their birthday, my Granny always made a birthday cake with waxed-paper-wrapped money baked in it. Some nickles and dimes and one quarter. That was fun for us kids! Who would get the quarter?

In the 1800's to early 1900's it was popular to give someone a Birthday Book.  Some of these books had sayings or poems from famous writers, some had birthdays of famous people entered. There were lines to add the birthdays of family and friends.

From Astrological Birthday Book, 1915

I guess I am old enough to have seen some of the movies made by the actors in the Actor Birthday Book. Or, I just like old movies.

How do you celebrate birthdays differently, or the same, as your ancestors?




Relevant Links


Actor Birthday Book, 1908

Past and Present Birthday Book, 1899

The Comic Birthday Book, c1900's

The Canadian Birthday Book, English and French, 1887

Astrological Birthday Book, 1915



Related post:  The Day Granny King Turned 75
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1 comment:

  1. Unknown13 December 2015 at 10:57

    I have a book similar to your grandmother's problem is it was always away somewhere so it is in the give away box and will find a good home with someone that will use it :D Have two grandchildren born close to Christmas and like you will not use Christmas wrapping or cards. One advantage they do have though is if they want something expensive such as a series of books a gift may be able to be spite between their birthday and Christmas, which we have done with both of the boys.

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