History Main / PerenniallyOvershadowedBirthday

* The blog Ask a Manager [[https://www.askamanager.org/2018/01/i-paid-for-fake-references-is-it-rude-to-shush-someone-and-more.html once told the story of an employee]] who works at a company that gives perks on your birthday, including a day off and a bonus. However, one employee's birthday is Leap Day, which means she only gets the perks once every four years. She doesn't even get to have her name put on the monthly birthday cake!

* ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'': All Whispered were born within a three-minute time span on Christmas Eve (or very early Christmas Day, depending on time zones). One sign that Sousuke is thawing out from his perpetual ChildSoldier mentality and his growing relationship with Kaname in "A Dancing Very Merry Christmas" is that he gives her a birthday present early in the book, and then a Christmas present at the end of it.

* The Music/SpikeJones song "My Birthday Comes On Christmas" is about a kid lamenting that he only gets one set of presents a year because of this.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'', where Star's birthday is revealed to be on Stump Day (Mewni's equivalent of Christmas), but rather than be unhappy about this, she ''actually wants'' people to celebrate Stump Day instead while her birthday is celebrated on a different day, to the point where she gets annoyed at Marco for throwing her a party on the same day anyway. This is because she believes the Stump won't be happy if its day is not celebrated properly, which no one else believes... Until everyone gets into a fight and the Stump comes for them, [[ProperlyParanoid proving Star right]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Not only does Ezra's birthday fall on Empire Day, a day celebrating the founding of the Empire he is rebelling against, but it is also the day he lost his parents. Who were taken away ''by'' the Empire and left him a street orphan.

-->'''Jesus:''' Tomorrow is my birthday. Yet all is not right.
-->'''Stan:''' Your birthday is on Christmas? That sucks, dude.

* In ''Manga/BlueExorcist,'' Rin and Yukio's birthday is December 27, and growing up, their father celebrated it together with Christmas. They don't seem to mind; in an anime-only episode, however, this leads to a gag where Rin tries to make Izumo a birthday cake and makes [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInJapan a Christmas cake]] instead. The others have to show him and Yukio a picture before they realize that there's a difference.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark:'' The first ChristmasEpisode includes a mid-credits scene where Jesus is having a OnePersonBirthdayParty in his studio.
** Also alluded to in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpiritOfChristmas:''

* An omake of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' shows Urahara and Yoruichi celebrating their birthdays together but alone from everyone else. The reason for this is because their birthdays are December 31 and January 1, thus all of their friends are celebrating New Year's Eve and New Year somewhere else at the time. According from their dialogue, this happens ''every year''.

* The Creator/SpikeJones song "My Birthday Comes On Christmas" is about a kid lamenting that he only gets one set of presents a year because of this.

Compare ForgottenBirthday. May lead to OnePersonBirthdayParty or NotSoForgottenBirthday. For birthdays on which personal tragedy strikes, see ABirthdayNotABreak. See BirthdayBuddies for when two characters share the same birthday and end up resentful or in competition with each other because of that.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Ezra's birthday is the very day the Galactic Empire, which he despises, was first established.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Ezra's birthday happens to not only be the day that commemorates the creation of the Empire that he despises every year, but he was also born in the exact same year when it was first established.

Not so for these folk. Unlucky for them, their birthdays just so happen to coincide with larger, widely celebrated occurrences like national holidays and annual events. Think you'd get double the presents for a [[UsefulNotes/{{Christmas}} Dec. 25th birthday]]? Think again, you're more likely to get just one to cover both occasions. Maybe you thought you'd at least get a party. Not so if you have a New Year's Eve birthday; your celebration is likely rolled into larger celebrations for the coming year, if not [[ForgottenBirthday forgotten entirely]]. God forbid your birthday is on a day of remembrance for a national tragedy, and let's not forget about those poor sad saps born on UsefulNotes/LeapDay, whose birthdays technically don't even exist 75% of the time. In extreme cases, the character may NeverHadABirthdayParty since their friends and family choose to prioritize the holiday.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'': In the HalloweenEpisode "For Real", Bianca's birthday is revealed to be on Halloween and nobody wants to celebrate it. Her younger cousins decided to share their Halloween candy with her.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Ezra's birthday happens to not only the day that commemorates the creation of the Empire that he despises every year, but he was also born in the exact the same year when it was first established.

** ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'': In "[[Recap/WhatsNewScoobyDooS2E5AScoobyDooHalloween A Scooby Doo Halloween]]", it is revealed that Marcy's Birthday is on Halloween, but it is overshadowed by her parents' annual Halloween party. She decides to frighten everyone in revenge. After explaining her motive upon being unmasked, her parents feel guilty putting the holiday over their own daughter.

In sum, if birthdays are days where you're meant to feel special, these characters rarely if ever get that chance due to their days being consistently overshadowed by other widely celebrated annual occurrences and they aren't too happy about it. This includes general sadness, frustration, resentment, and anger directed at the situation broadly or to their friends and family for not considering their feelings more about it. This sometimes leads to them becoming a BirthdayHater, but more often than not, their hate will be directed at the holiday or event that lands on the same day, a la TheGrinch or ValentinesDayVitriol.

Not so for these folk. Unlucky for them, their birthdays just so happen to coincide with larger, widely celebrated occurrences like national holidays and annual events. Think you'd get double the presents for a [[UsefulNotes/{{Christmas}} Dec. 25th birthday]]? Think again, you're more likely to get just one to cover both occasions. Maybe you thought you'd at least get a party. Not so if you have a New Year's Eve birthday; your celebration is likely rolled into larger celebrations for the coming year, if not [[ForgottenBirthday forgotten entirely]]. God forbid your birthday is on a day of remembrance for a national tragedy and let's not forget about those poor sad saps born on UsefulNotes/LeapDay, whose birthdays technically don't even exist 75% of the time. In extreme cases, the character may NeverHadABirthdayParty since their friends and family choose to prioritize the holiday.

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* ''Series/ModernFamily'': In "Fizbo", Phil and Claire say that Luke's birthday gets lost in the holiday shuffle since it falls so close to Thanksgiving. They had actually forgotten his birthday the previous year and had to improvise with a cake made of stuffing.

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* Creator/RobertLouisStevenson once heard of a girl named Annie Ide, whose own birthday fell on Christmas and she was upset at having no separate celebration, so [[https://seamussweeney.net/2018/05/04/robert-louis-stevenson-bequeaths-his-birthday-to-annie-ide/ he gave her his own birthday as a present]], claiming it's not nearly as pleasurable for him as it would be for her.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BeCoolScoobyDoo'' episode "Scary Christmas," it's revealed that Daphne's birthday is on December 25, which means it always gets overshadowed by Christmas. In the episode, she tries to get the others to celebrate her birthday instead of Christmas.

* ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'': In "[[Recap/WhatsNewScoobyDooS2E5AScoobyDooHalloween A Scooby Doo Halloween]]", it is revealed that Marcy's Birthday is on Halloween, but it is overshadowed by her parents' annual Halloween party. She decides to frighten everyone in revenge. After explaining her motive upon being unmasked, her parents feel guilty putting the holiday over their own daughter.

* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': All five members of the student council have birthdays that happen to fall on holidays, though the only one that it is actually relevant for is Kaguya. Since she was born on New Year's Day, she spends every year at the family home in Kyoto and has never once had a birthday party. When she turns 17 roughly halfway through the series, she notes that the only family member who actually wished her a happy birthday was her [[TheGhost ever unseen]] sister-in-law, [[spoiler:though Shirogane did get her a necklace as a birthday present to commemorate their recent RelationshipUpgrade.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'': In the HalloweenEpisode "For Real", Bianca's birthday is revealed to be on Halloween and nobody wants to celebrate it. Her younger cousins decided to share their Halloween candy to her.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Ezra's birthday happens to be not only the day every year to celebrate the creation of the Empire that he despises, he was also born in the exact the same year when it was first established.

Not so for these folk. Unlucky for them, their birthdays just so happen to coincide with larger, widely celebrated occurrences like national holidays and annual events. Think you'd get double the presents for a [[UsefulNotes/{{Christmas}} Dec. 25th birthday]]? Think again, you're more likely to get just one to cover both occasions. Maybe you thought you'd at least get a party. Not so if you have a New Year's Eve birthday; your celebration is likely rolled into larger celebrations for the coming year, if not [[ForgottenBirthday forgotten entirely]]. God forbid your birthday is on a day of remembrance for a national tragedy and let's not forget about those poor sad saps born on UsefulNotes/LeapDay, whose birthdays technically don't even exist 75% of the time.