Baby Showers
karomel0828
member
Opening gifts at a your shower
karomel0828
member
in Baby Showers
So this weekend, I went to two showers. At the first one, when the mother to be was opening the gifts, no one was really paying attention.
The second one, we ran out of time at the restaurant to open gifts, but everyone seemed almost relieved that they didn't have to sit through that.
I personally think it's so boring to watch someone open gifts as well, is this really necessary to do?
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Re: Opening gifts at a your shower
Also, if you're worried about your guests being bored (most of them will not be) you could ask the hostess to cut/serve the cake while you open...gives them a little something to munch on while you open presents.
Just try not to be delicate when opening...open them up quickly, say thank you and move on.
This.
I'm one of those people that feel relieved! haha.
What my friend did towards the end of her shower this weekend was thank everyone for coming and invited those her wanted to stay for the gift opening to stay. I think it worked out well. Some of the people, who had to go, had an out. And the older ladies stayed to ohh and ahh.
I think it really depends on your crowd.
Opening gifts is pretty much all that goes on in the showers I've been too, so I can't imagine what you would do with all that time if not for opening gifts. Like a PP said, your hostess could announce that you're going to open them if people would like to stay, and that gives people an out that don't want to watch. But, personally, I like watching people open gifts.
Yes, exactly! Baby Bingo is the way to go if you want to keep people engaged in the process.
It is polite to open your gifts while your guests are there and impolite not to. I've never been to a shower (and I've been to probably 30 of them in my life) where the guests were bored with the gift opening. Obviously there are a couple people, sometimes, that have to leave early and will ask the mom-to-be to open their gift first (which is fine IMO) but I've never heard anyone say they were bored and didn't want to sit through the gift opening. As for opening them as people come...I think a lot of guests (especially older ones...which I put myself in this category) would be disappointed they didn't get to see all the gifts opened.
Seriously, some of the comments I hear on here from some moms-to-be make them sound like they would just as soon have no actual "shower" and just make a registry and have people send the gift to their home unwrapped to save them time and energy. They don't like games, they don't like opening gifts, and they don't want to watch people open gifts either. If that is the case why even bother with a shower. They should just skip it and buy all the stuff on the registry themselves.
Personally, I think that not opening your gifts at a shower is actually a bigger breach of etiquette than throwing a shower for yourself.
The whole purpose of the party is for you to be showered with gifts, and to give your guests the chance to be involved in the baby prep process. It doesn't have to be a huge show - serve cake or desserts or drinks, encourage people to chat, play baby-bingo or some silly game and make it fast, but you do have to do so.
Yes!!! I love to play gift baby bingo and I am only 27!!!!