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Baby Showers
samsterrr
member
Shower gifts!
samsterrr
member
in Baby Showers
My bf and I both have those HUGE Italian families. Just for shower invites there was 60 people(insane i know!!!) The shower is scheduled around lunch and i really dont want people to feel like they have to be there till 9 at night watching us open gifts. Is it rude to only open a few and just have most of the shower for other things(decorating baby clothes and writing in parenting book)?
I want to have time to put things away and clean and make sure i dont take everyone whole day away.
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Re: Shower gifts!
To answer your question, yes, its rude. It's a shower, and people expect and most of them want, to see you open their gift. While 60 guests is at the higher end for showers, if you're organized and get a few people to help (pass you gifts/write down who gave what) you should be able to open the gifts in a short enough amount of time.
You really should lurk on a board before you post something like this.
It's INCREDIBLY rude not to open your gifts. That's what showers are all about, and people like to see their gifts opened. That's half the fun of giving a gift...seeing the reaction.
Don't get precious about it. Just read the card, rip into it, thank the person, and move on.
ETA: And how, exactly, would you choose which gifts were actually opened?
All of this. How do I get to be one of the special ones who gets to see their gift opened? I come from a family where large showers are fairly common and they always make an efficient assembly line to get gifts done quickly. 1-2 people hand gifts to the MTB, scissors ready to deal with any tricky wrap jobs, MTB opens the card and gift/thanks the gift giver then passes the gift to someone to put it to the side. While that is going on someone else records the gift. Really simple.
I would much rather watch my gift be opened than decorate baby clothes you will probably never use. Honestly, I would do everything in my power to get out of decorating a onesie or bib. One activity I do enjoy is gift bingo. Every guest is given a blank bingo card and they fill in items that they think the MTB might open, while watching the gift opening they check things off on their board. When someone gets a bingo, they get a prize. This helps entertain them during gift opening.
1/12/13 DD was born
4/9/16 DS was born
9/17 CP
6/23/18 BFP EDD 3/4/19
And - try to strive for the hosts to create a party that isn't totally about sitting around and just watching you. Have background music playing, Perhaps have dessert set up so that guests can go and grab something at their leisure while you are opening, etc.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
This. Also, 60 gifts x 1 minute per gift = 1 hour. It really shouldn't take much longer than that, especially if your hostess(es) have things organized.
IVF #1-July 2011 7/9/11-Started Stims
7/20/11-ER:No eggs in 4/5 follicles. Left the 5th follie intact and converted to an IUI
8/3/11-Beta #1=BFN,
Nov, 2011 BFP #1=m/c at 7 wks 3 days
11/11-AMH .47, IVF #2 March 2012...or not!! Surprise BFP on 2/19. Beta #1=161. Beta #2 305 Our little miracle girl is on her way! Due Oct 29, 2012
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Oh gosh, can we please do activities while opening gifts? It sounds like a fairly optimistic time estimate has gift-opening at an hour. I'd love to be fabric-markering a onesie or something while that is going on. Particularly if this is one of those "no texting allowed" showers.
This is honestly the only thing I really care about at baby showers. I want to see all the cute stuff.
Well, that and eating really good cake.
Your shower is at lunch, it won't take 8 hours to open gifts, especially, if like others suggested, you have someone hand you each gift, you open it quickly and then have someone take it away. Don't read the entire card - just scan to see who the gift is from, you can read the cards at home. Most people put baby shower gifts into gift bags, at least at my shower they did. I had very few gifts wrapped in paper, so it didn't take long at all.
At my shower we did the BINGO game during the gift opening, people were also having their cupcakes at this time. Someone handed out the prizes for the BINGO and two other people helped me with the gifts, plus MH was there helping me too. I had another person recording the gifts I received. Oh and my shower had 40-some people there (MH is also from a big Italian family).
It will all work out fine, but you must open everyone's gifts - you can't pick and choose - that would be incredibly rude.
OK...first of all out of 60 invites you might get 40 show up (or maybe even less). I've hosted showers that actually had 60 in attendence. Gift opening took 1 hour. I told the MTB she had 1 minute to open each gift and it worked out well. Some gifts took a little longer because there were many items in the diaper bag (for instance) and some gifts were from a group of people. Also, make sure the hostess has someone available to hand you a gift, you read the card (actually only read who it is from...you can read the rest of it later), tell who it is from, open the gift (quickly without seeming/looking rude), acknowledge the gift (hold it up and verbally thank the giver), hand it to another person to put on a table (or pass it if your family does this). On to the next gift. Also make sure someone is writing down what the gift is and the name(s) of the giver and yet another person to take care of the wrapping paper.
A shower that size (60 people) should take about 3 hours max. Don't do a LOT of games. Keep in mind that decorating baby clothes is costly and you might want to do something else (plus many times they are gaudy and you won't put them on your baby anyway). Writing in a parenting book can be done (by passing the book) during gift opening time. Gives the guests something to do...as does "gift bingo"...and have some music playing in the background (like ECB suggested) so it isn't dead silence while you're opening gifts.
So, you will make time for your guests to do things that will benefit YOU (i.e., make cute little onesies for your baby and write you some parenting advice.) but you won't make time to open the gifts that they so generously brought you? Is it rude? Yeah, it's really rude.
I hope that you're at least planning on alternating the reveal part otherwise you'll be talking over each other. Honestly having him hand you presents would probably go just as fast and it shows your guests that you both care about the presents and aren't just ripping into them like a toddler at Christmas. You guys are really overestimating how long this is going to take.
He's the single greatest thing I've done in my life and reminds me daily of how fun (and funny) life can be. He's turned out pretty swell for having such a heartless and evil mother.