Birthday presents - WWYD

kaitylin · May 2012

I'm trying to figure out what exactly to do regarding opening birthday presents and was interested in what others are doing or did.

1. Did your LO open gifts at party or after?
2. If at party, when? At the very end, part way through?
3. If you had presents for LO from you/SO or stuff mailed from OOT family did you open those at the party or separately? I was thinking of letting DD open stuff from us and relatives on her actual bday.

A lot of people have been asking what to get DD and I have been telling everyone that they really really don't need to bring anything at all because we just don't have space for more stuff and we really just want people to celebrate with us but I'm sure some people will bring things anyway and I don't want to make the people who listened and didn't bring anything to feel ackward... how do you handle that? We really don't want them to feel badly because DD honestly doesn't need a million things and we will be very grateful for them listening because we are in the middle of moving and in a tiny apartment until August and just have zero space. We just want to let her have a nice day with friends.

cassoppea · May 2012

My LO did not open gifts at the party. We had a lot of people there and it would have just been too much for her and boring for everyone to sit and watch that many gifts be opened. If I were going to do it at the party, I'd save the sent gifts and your gift for her actual birthday - that's a nice idea.

I know you don't want a lot of extra stuff but people are going to bring stuff anyway. No one wants to show up without a gift. So I would suggest small things so at least you won't be stuck with a ton of big toys. We asked for books because I feel A can never have too many books. We still got a bunch of clothes and toys too - it's jut part of a first birthday party.

Another idea is to set up a college fund and suggest that people make donations to that instead. Or you can pick a charity and have people donate to the charity in your child's honor.

jcsumm0 · May 2012

We opened presents but we only had about 15 people there. IMO if you don't have a large crowd, people like to see their presents opened, like at a shower. A friend of mine's nephew opened presents for 2 hours at his 1st birthday--that's ridiculous. If you have that many guests, I'd wait.

We did it after lunch, before cake. And she got the presents from us on her actual birthday, and presents from OOT as they were mailed.

egpitt22 · May 2012

We opened at the party; we had about 25 people there (a lot of families/couples) so it didnt' take too long, maybe 20 minutes? We did it shortly after everyone ate, before he smashed his cake. We did have some presents that were mailed ahead of time from people who couldn't make the party, we just opened those as they came in, we didn't do them at the party.

As far as people bringing things, we really didn't need anything as far as toys (we had tons of toys all still in great shape from my older son) so if people asked, I suggested outside toys, bath toys, or PJ's for summer. Do you need clothing in the next size up or fall clothes? books? bubbles? My brother and SIL bought him a larger hooded bath towel, which was nice, because I was still using the thin little baby ones that were getting way too small for him.

My MIL bought him 2 sets of these Crayola my 1st crayons, he's able to use them now (and they're nice because it keeps him from trying to eat the crayons!):

In my experience, regardless of telling people they don't need to bring anything, people WANT to bring stuff. I think they enjoy buying gifts for babies/kids, even if it's just something small.

amberpro · May 2012

1. Did your LO open gifts at party or after? At the party
2. If at party, when? At the very end, part way through? At the very end after many people had left. The ones that stayed wanted to see him open presents and see what he got.
3. If you had presents for LO from you/SO or stuff mailed from OOT family did you open those at the party or separately? Presents from OOT family and from us were opened on his actual birthday.

About not needing anything... I kept telling people that, too, but everyone wants to shop for a little one We ended up getting lots of clothes and some diapers because of my insistence he didn't need a crap-load of toys.

He also now has lots of toys, anyway. I'll probably do what I did at Christmas and put his toys on a rotation (especially the big ones). Every couple weeks, I switch out the big toys.

SarahKate31 · May 2012

DS's party will be this weekend and we will not open gifts at the party. It would take a long time and he'd never sit for it.

If any gifts are sent to our house, we will open them whenever. DH and I got DS a tricycle which is not wrapped and I guess maybe we'll give it to him tomorrow (his actual birthday).

Want a personalized experience?

Birthday presents - WWYD

Re: Birthday presents - WWYD

Choose Another Board

Search Boards