If you've had/been to a 1st Birthday Party

SBMBride406

did they open presents during the party?

I really would rather not do this at Marino's party. We already have 65 people coming (possibly a few more) and my plan for the party is to just let him do what he wants: play, sleep, eat, cuddle. I want to limit the amount of things I "make" him do at the party (the only thing I'm planning on making a production out of is the cake smashing). I figure if I'm forcing him to sit still or open presents, a melt-down is more likely (the party is from noon until people go home).

What do you think? Will people expect us to do this or be disappointed if we don't?

kcswifey

My girlfriend didn't have her daughter open gifts on her 1st or 2nd birthdays.  If anyone asks for you to open their's you can do it somewhere secluded so that the other guests don't assume that he's going to open all of his presents. 

Mommy2Gav

yes we did. I hate that part of parties but that is how my family does it. 

*KatieH*

I didn't intend to have Brendan open the gifts either but everyone wanted him to. He opened 1 I did the rest.?

2BWEDN2007

We didn't. Normally our family does and we got a few comments about skipping it, but it was my son's party and I make the rules.

Not to mention he was 12 months actual when we had his party and only 8.5 months adjusted. It was a pretty long day and he hadn't had a nap yet. He was starting to have a meltdown so we put him down about two hours into the party and people started leaving shortly after. We just took lots of pics of him eating cake (or should I say frosting) with his party hat on and that was all I was hoping to get out of the day!

mrsmikey

We did, but it wasn't an organized event.  And we let a couple of his older cousins help.  We just made sure we knew who everything came from.  DS was actually not very interested in the presents, he kept doing his thing while the older kids ripped into them.  It worked out pretty well.

clyoungsey

We did, but I never thought of not doing it.  I think that is actually a good idea, especially with that many people coming.  meltdown likely AND if you have kids coming, talk about overstimulation for your LO!  They were all over him trying to help or see

ijack

We didn't People just hung out and ate, then gathered around for cake  

mhop

We did b/c I knew my family would want to see us open their presents.  But we had the older kids sit in a semi-circle in front of C and they took turns coming up to "help" her open the presents.  It went much faster that way and the kids really enjoyed it.

Mommy2Gav

I should have mentioned ds had nothing to do with it. He was being entertained by his aunts and uncles.

RubyRed7

I would try to avoid it with that many people! And like pp said, if someone asks I would set aside to open their gift with them. But now that you mention it, I'm not sure what we're going to do!  I think I'm going to have 20 adults at mine, so I'm pretty sure I will be forced to open presents LOL

Aidge

Sam's party was totally more for the adults than it was for him. ?It wasn't scheduled at all re: cake and presents- we did this when he seemed happy and alert. When he was tired, he went down for a nap. ?We did open presents, but we only had about 30 people there, so it wasn't too bad. As for cake, we did this right after presents. ?But for us, it was pretty much just like an adult gathering to celebrate Sam.?

NotJustAnAuntie

I wasn't planning on opening them (we had about 30 people) but they started asking, so we ended up opening them... it took forEVER!