Shared Birthday party what to do about presents

Millie's_Mum

This year i am sharing my Daughters 6th birthday party with the mum of a boy in her class as their birthdays are only a couple of weeks apart and it means we can invite the whole class and it will still work out cheaper than the bouncy castle party she had last year.:money:

But what to do about presents, there are 3 girls in their class who usually share a party and they usually put in the invite we don't want presents but if you want to bring one (instead of 3) we'll share them out.

We'd like to do something similar but its complicated by the party being shared by a boy and a girl, does anyone have any clever ideas for what we can do? so far the suggestions are

= No presents (I like this one but people always ignore it)

= No need to send a present but if you want to please buy for the boy in half the invites and please buy for the girl in the others

= No need to send a present but if you want to could boys buy for the boy and girls buy for the girl

Thanks in advance

Knub

"No need to send a present, but cash donations are accepted:

Your Bank Account Details".

Job done?

kindofagilr

Oh thats a toughie, the only problem with putting boys buy for boys and girls for girls or putting that in the intives is that 10 people might buy for the boy and only 5 for the girl, then the girl might get upset cos she only has 5?

The only way around that would be for the parents of the childnre to give the presnets to the parents of the birthday couple so that they can give them to their kids when they get home so they dont see how many each other gets?

Does that make sense?

ktb03

Is it a case of they dont mind not having presents but people always want to bring one? Could you ask the parents to bring a Small pressie about £2 Suitable for both boys and girls? and put them in a big birthday bucket and each child takes one out at hometime as a partybag type thing?

I guess you may need to get a couple of spare?

MrsAnnie

I would not put anything on the invitations regarding presents. Leave it up to the parents to decide if they are going to buy a gift or not. If any of the mums/dads ask you about presents then say, give a suggestion that is insxpensive so that they can afford two gifts.

In my daughters class, a girl and boy share a party each year, and most children bring along a gift for each of them. I usually buy two gifts aswell but they are much cheaper than what I usually spend for just an individual party.

I am sure your daughter would rather receive a little present from her friends than no presents. Guest, especially children, like choosing and taking presents to parties - its part of the fun.

pretzelnut

Dont mention anything about presents on the invite.

You will always get some parents who send presents regardless of the ''NO presents rule''

Besides getting presents is part of the fun of a party. Even if its just 1.

Ok so it might not work out exactly even 1 child might get more presents than the other but this is a fact of life and down to how popular a child is. But i would have thought that most parents would make both feel the same as if it were there child they wouldnt like the unfairness of it.

Millie's_Mum

Knub - I love your idea but i don't think it would be too popular somehow!

kindofagilr - Yes we thought it might work out 'not fair' that way but we only ever do pressies when the kids are at home so they probably wouldn't see each others but then they are going to be six and I guess they probably would talk to each other about that sort of thing now?

MrsAnnie - Yes we could do that I guess I am trying to avoid my whole house being taken over by pressies, I couldn't believe how generous people were last year with the presents she got at her party and if we do invite the whole class, friends from swimming/dancing/ rainbows there will be about 45 kids there so thats a lot of presents ( I guess we could donate them to a toy appeal at christmas/hospital/refuge if she gets far too much)

ktb03 - I like that idea, I will have a chat to the little boys mum and see what she thinks cos that could save us a bob or two as well, this might work out to be a very mse birthday!

KellyWelly

What a lot of the mums in my kids' classes tend to do is all put £5 in and we buy one big thing from all of them. Not everyone likes doing that though and we usually work it out between ourselves rather than the mum of the birthday child doing it - but if you are close to one or two of the other mums maybe you could ask them to arrange it?
It's better imo because there's less £1 shop tat which ends up in the bin broken (not ungrateful, just the reality of it) and the child gets something they really want that otherwise wouldn't be affordable.

Millie's_Mum

Kellywelly, I'd really like to do that, but i wonder if people would think it was cheeky? I might see if i can think of something specific that she wants as suggesting they club together to buy something particular might not seem so bad.

Mumto2

Personally, I would leave people to their own ideas. In theory, you could have been doing seperate parties, so people may have bought 2 presents anyway.

When I did a shared party for my DD, we did lovely party bags (imho ), as we were aware we were getting a cut price party.

I hate getting instructions on what/how to bring for presents. My all time 'favourite' was being asked to give the receipt with any presents bought :rolleyes:

But, I guess a lot of it depends on local party traditions.

Have fun!

Millie's_Mum

Mumto2- I don't like giving instructions either but I want to put something on about presents no being necessary as I know at least one mum in the class turns down all invites because of the cost of presents (she has 3 other kids so I guess it gets expensive) and I would really like as many kids as possible there after all the hire of the venue and entertainer is the same whether its 20 or 50 kids.

just noticed your sig - congratulations!