When it was noted that Summer McKinny's birthday was June 21, I found it very interesting, considering that she's the first American Girl doll since Kirsten all the way back in 1986 to have a birthday in June. But when Summer's journal revealed her sister Holly's birthday - December 21 - it had me realize something.
There is no American Girl doll with a birthday in December.
There's a ton of April and May birthdays, some September and October birthdays, a few summer birthdays, and a few winter birthdays as well. But there's not a single birthday in December. Why is that?
My theory is that because of the original American Girl story structure, this is the case. From 1986 to 2014, the Historical Character stories were structured like this: a Meet story (takes place around the summer), a Learns a Lesson story (takes place around the start of the school year) a Surprise story (takes place during the December holidays), a birthday story (usually in the spring or summer), a Saves the Day story (takes place in the summer) and a Changes For story (takes place in the fall or winter).
Because American Girl's stories usually are focused on the holidays during the holiday season, all the way up to the most recent historicals, Isabel and Nicki, who's story took place during the Hanukkah/Christmas/New Year's season of 1999, and more recently, the Girl of the Year stories have been taking place during the fall/winter seasons of their year (with the only one involving a birthday was Kavi, who's September 30th birthday kicked off her story's plot), that's probably why we've never seen a December birthday for an American Girl doll.
But hey, we once never had a January birthday, and then Melody came out. And we once never had a July birthday, and then Evette came out.
So never say never?