Happy birthday, Darrin Horn

You know those car commercials out now where older actors reminisce about their best Christmas gifts? (A pony, a big wheel, an early video game system). Well, Darrin Horn’s holiday gift season was a bit different.

You see, the South Carolina coach was born on Dec. 24. So on this Christmas Eve, while not only scrambling to wrap gifts for his wife and two kids, he’s also celebrating his 36th birthday. As for Horn himself, and what it’s been like to go through life with a Christmas Eve birthday …

“You get shorted on your presents of course,” Horn said this week, smiling. “Nothing to look forward to during the year. I don’t know. It’s kind of like anything else, when you don’t know any different it’s just what it is.”

Those of us lucky to be born smack in the middle of the year (May 22, to be exact), would naturally assume that parents would double-up. Then that creates the problem of making the siblings jealous that young Darrin was getting, say, two big wheels while everyone else got one.

Horn said his parents didn’t double-up much, but he doesn’t appear scarred for life. The biggest drawback was not having the proper space between gift opportunities.

“I never wanted for anything, but I think the one true negative was if you had that big thing you wanted, like maybe a bike or something like that, most people said, ‘Oh wait for your birthday.’ Well my birthday was at the other time that something good was coming,” Horn said. “So that would probably be the only thing. But all in all it’s not too bad.”

Last year I imagine Horn asked Santa for a high-major coaching job.

So this year, I’d think he asked the North Pole to deliver a five-star big man.

In this economy, maybe Santa can only make it a four-star. I’m sure Horn would take it.

Happy birthday, Darrin. And to everyone, a merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, and all that.