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xkcd: December 25th

This is such bullshit. And I say that as someone whose birthday falls on the 26th of December. (Nickname: The Afterchrist.) 

The myth is that people double-up on gifts. The reality is that everyone remembers your birthday. (Which is awesome as a kid, but less so as one ages.) Extended relatives whom one would never see during the course of the regular year always bring a second gift, thereby doubling your haul. This works with friends, too. No one wants to be seen as cheap. It’s kind of embarrassing.

The real downside is the partying. There’s one week on the calendar where no one wants to have a major celebration of any kind, and that’s the stretch between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. If your birthday falls in that dead zone, good luck rallying the troops.