The date and the year of Christ's birth are uncertain, but the birthdays of these modern-day Christmas babies are known for sure.
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Merry Christmas — and Happy Birthday!
Jesus may have had a star in the sky announcing his birth, but he wasn't the only person to be born on December 24th. Culture stars — singers, actors, authors, publishers — have also been Christmas babies!
Image: Imago/ITAR-TASS/V. Prokofyev
Ava Gardner, the original 'femme fatale'
Born in 1922 in North Carolina, the youngest of eight siblings portrayed a number of femmes fatales during the golden age of Hollywood in 1940s and 1950s. She enchanted millions of men, including Louis B. Mayer, the then-boss of the MGM film production company. When he saw her test shots, he said, "She can't sing, she can't act, she can't talk, She's terrific!"
Image: Imago/Hollywood Photo Archive
Michael Curtiz, the tyrannical genius
The Hungarian director was born in 1886 in Budapest and went to Hollywood in the 1920s. There he directed well over 100 movies, including the cult classic "Casablanca," for which he received an Oscar in 1944. On the set, he was considered a despot, whose problems with English made for some amusing anecdotes. Curtiz, who also created the musical romantic comedy film "White Christmas," died in 1962.
Image: Imago/Cinema Publishers Collection
Nneka Egbuna, an international Nigerian-German star
The soul singer was born in 1980 in Warri, Nigeria. As a teenager, she fled violence in her family and settled down in Hamburg. She initially lived in a house for asylum seekers and over time built a career in music. In 2010, Nneka appeared on "The Late Show" with David Letterman. She sings in Igbo, English and Nigerian Pidgin and is a protagonist of the DW series "Artists after the Escape."
Image: DW/B. Bischof
Sisi, the most miserable princess ever
Born Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie, Duchess of Bavaria, in Munich in 1837, she was nicknamed Sisi way before she became Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary by marrying to Franz Joseph I. She hated the snotty, formal Habsburg court and lived a very complicated life that has inspired a Barbara Cartland novel, a trilogy of beloved Austrian films and an entire cottage tourism industry.
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Samuel Fischer, the publisher of modernity
Fischer was born in Liptau, formerly part of Hungary, in 1859. When he was 26, he left his hometown and founded a publishing house bearing his name in Berlin. His company published books by the German poet Hermann Hesse and the novelist Thomas Mann, thus contributing to their success. In light of competition from dance, radio and cinema in the 1920s, he doubted people would continue to read.
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Lemmy Kilmister, from a roadie to a superstar
Getting his skills as a member of the Jimi Hendrix tour crew, the British musician and singer later established his own band Motörhead in 1975 and moved to Los Angeles. Known simply as "Lemmy," and a prehistoric crocodile, an asteroid and an extinct worm have been named in his honor. This connoisseur of whiskey and cigars died of cancer a few days after his 70th birthday in 2015.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Ralston
Stephenie Meyer, the blood-thirsty author
The American author is a "child of Jesus," both in the birthday and in the religious sense. She is a member of the Mormon Chuch, and its influence runs deep through "Twilight," the teen saga about vampires. Bella, the story’s teenage heroine, avoids coffee, tea, alcohol and tobacco, and she "seals" her marriage to Edward for eternity, which are all commandments of the Mormon moral codex.
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Ricky Martin, from pop singer to television star
Despite having sold more than 50 million records worldwide, the Puerto Rican pop singer born in 1971 pulled out of music and has dedicated himself to other projects. Currently, he's a judge of the Australian edition of the talent show "The Voice," and he is going to play the murderer of the Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace in the upcoming season of "American Crime Story."
Image: Imago/ITAR-TASS/V. Prokofyev
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It's confusing: scientific research indicates that Jesus Christ was probably born between the years 7 and 4 B.C. — in other words, before 0 B.C. ("Before Christ"), the point in time when we attribute Jesus to having been born. This zero year also marks the start of the Gregorian calendar system.
In the ancient world, people didn't celebrate birthdays. That includes those of the Jewish faith — and Jesus was a Jew. It can be safely assumed that the date of birth of the long-awaited savior wasn't precisely documented. And that birth took place in the most austere surroundings on the edge of society. So it comes as no surprise that Jesus' birthday wasn't recorded and cannot be clearly identified.
But because early Christians celebrated the martyrdom of their patron saints, rather reliable information does exist on the day Christ died and the Resurrection, when he rose from the dead: it was mentioned that in the year 30 A.D., meaning he was over 30 years old.
Nontheless, a person born on December 24 is often referred to as a Christmas baby in English and known as a "Christ kid" ("Christkind") in Germany. Most people know their birthdays of course, and although some may like to make themselves seem younger than they are or keep their birthdays secret, we've put together a list of a few people far more certain to have been born on that day than Jesus Christ.