Gift opening

PnJ Mooney

My mom is in the process of planning my shower and would like ideas on opening gifts.  After asking around, some seem to like the gift opening part while other say they are bored out of their mind.  Any happy medium or alternatives to opening all the gifts? TIA

mrsekins

I think it's rather boring - even if I'm the one opening the gifts.  I've been to a shower (more of an open house style) where the mom-to-be just opened the gifts upon the guests arrival.  It was more personal, not rushed, and the focus was taken off the gift opening.

ilenegrace

I always have the cake served while opening gifts so people have something to do while watching!  

MrsEditorJax

Having the guests eating either food or cake would help. I personally think it looks bad to not open the gifts in front of the guests because they most likely want to see you open what they bought you, especially if they put a lot of time and effort into it, i.e. something homemade.

At1stsight

MrsEditorJax:

Having the guests eating either food or cake would help. I personally think it looks bad to not open the gifts in front of the guests because they most likely want to see you open what they bought you, especially if they put a lot of time and effort into it, i.e. something homemade.

Exactly. At a shower, the guests want to see your face light up when you open their gift. Serve food during it or have them do a 'baby bingo' game where they mark what gifts you get on a bingo card the hostess creates ahead of time (you can either use generic things that you're pretty certain you'll get like clothes, blanket, bottle, etc. or she can check your registry the day before and see what's been purchased and use those items as the spaces). The person to bingo first wins some small shower prize!

Mrs_mam

At my shower we had an empty chair next to mine. Whoever's gift I was opening would sit in the chair next to me and someone would take our picture when I opened their present. We only had about 10 people though so it wasn't like an hour of present opening or musical chairs. But it was fun to see the photos of everyone sitting with me and their gift- beats writing it all down!
You can also pass around the paper sheet you are using to keep track of presents and let people write their own names/present/something nice on it.
And cake definitely helps.

alaskabride2be

Opening gifts is part of the shower as most people want to see you open the gift they gave you. At my shower we served the cake just before I started to open, and they also were playing gift bingo so that kept everyone busy. We had mine at a restaurant so they all were still seated at the table and could eat/play the game very easy.

Employee of the Month

Serve cake right before gift opening so that people can eat their cake while the gifts are being opened.

groovygrl

Definitely eating & also maybe arranging seating so that ppl feel comfortable sitting & chatting- I think the gift opening is super boring & ppl tend to want to talk to the people they know, so if it is set up condicive to that, it might help. It probably depends on the # of people you're having though- if youre having like 50+ people you might want to consider other options too...

kmkaull

Eat cake, send the gifts around and have random prizes to get people involved.  We did one where we took the due date--the 18th of the month, and then the giver of the 18th gift, won a prize. 

JennifernKevin4ever

I would just have cake served and have Bingo being played while opening gifts. That will keep the guests busy and most of the time they will sit and talk to each other during gift opening anyways.

Stellar1

We had a huge couples shower and I didn't want people to feel like they had to watch us open gifts. Before dh and I started opening them the hosts told people that we were gonna start opening gifts and those who wanted to watch did and those who didn't- didn't.

Mrs.Veldy

I third Registry Bingo! I am not a fan of shower games but bingo keeps people entertained- especially when they fill out their own game piece.  My friends start pushing their gifts at the honoree when they get close to winning!

Lucky428

Can someone explain what registry bingo is?

Thanks!

EastCoastBride

Also, be relatively quick about the gift opening.  I have one friend who was SOOOO slow about it. Being dainty w/ the paper, would stop opening a gift if the person started talking  - etc.  THAT was mind numbingly boring.  I know I wasn't the only person sitting there thinking "HURRY up. Please.".

But when I go to showers where the bride or mom to be are quick about it - I dont' mind the gift opening as much.  I'm not talking rushing through it, but being effiecient about it, showing the gift, thanking the giver, then moving on to the next gift. 

beckys96

Maybe serve cake during or play gift bingo - that keeps people paying attention. 

Jennifer2008

I agree about being quick about it. One thing that really, really helps is to have scissors - just cut right through tape, ribbons, etc. and it makes a big difference in time.

?

jolis_petits_bijoux

Ditto PP that mentioned cake should be served while presents are opened. 

If you are having a large shower (say, more than 40 guests), the present opening can be very tedious and boring.  If this is the case, it's best to start opening presents while everyone is eating (sorry, guest of honor will have to eat later ), or to start an activity while the present opening is going on... like decorating fabric squares for a quilt for baby, or something along those lines.

Kelli2507

i think it's boring, but at my shower thankfully my MIL and mom had a TON of games planned so the people who wanted to watch me open gifts were welcomed to but if people were bored, they were playing games and winning prizes. it turned out great!

northtamarack

At1stsight:

 

Exactly. At a shower, the guests want to see your face light up when you open their gift.

Meh, I don't need to see this. 

There are things that you can do to speed up the process of gift opening.  Have one friend/sister/mom sit and record gifts that are given to you.  Have another friend/sister/mom sit on the other side and get and give gifts for you to open up.  This is a very effecient way to open up gifts so it doesn't take forever.  Like others have mentioned, serving cake or playing bingo are a good distractions.

krstokes

ilenegrace:

I always have the cake served while opening gifts so people have something to do while watching!  

This... I wish we would have done this at my shower. Everyone tends to get bored after the second or third gift! 

groovygrl

northtamarack:

At1stsight:

 

Exactly. At a shower, the guests want to see your face light up when you open their gift.

Meh, I don't need to see this. 

There are things that you can do to speed up the process of gift opening.  Have one friend/sister/mom sit and record gifts that are given to you.  Have another friend/sister/mom sit on the other side and get and give gifts for you to open up.  This is a very effecient way to open up gifts so it doesn't take forever.  Like others have mentioned, serving cake or playing bingo are a good distractions.

Also, I forgot to mention, this is good at bridal showers too but get a friend to actually cut ribbons & stuff that might be hard for you before it gets to you so you really just have to pull things out of the bag or tear off the wrapping & not mess around w/ it...and being all gentle w/ wrapping just slows things down. One shower I went to, the one mom was in charge of displaying everything on a big table after it was opened, which I thought was kind of nice bc you could go over there afterward & kind of look at stuff without feeling like you had to totally pay attention during the whole opening of gifts.