Birthday present for 6 kids 11 September 2017 at 9:33AM edited 11 September 2017 at 9:44AM in MoneySaving mums 11 replies 4.6K views

amalis

My son is almost 3 y.o. and we have just received our first birthday invitation from his nursery friends. While it is all very exciting the invitation is for the join birthday celebration of 6 kids from his nursery group. I was a bit upset because mum’s of these kids could have contacted me and include us into the celebration. But anyway.. I want to go because 2 of these kids are my son’s buddies in the nursery and 4 others I don’t know at all. I mean my son does not play with them as far as I know. My question is what do I give as a present? Previously we’ve been only to a celebration of good friends ,so always brought good gifts. Now, even if to spend GBP 8-10 for each I am not ready to spend this much for presents. Could anyone recommend what do I do in this situation?

jenijen27

I'd get a pack of books from The Book People (about £10) and split it between them. Maybe add some stickers/pens/tat to bulk if out a bit of you're feeling generous.

thriftylass

I would treat them all the same. This will be appreciated but the 4 kids's parents your son doesn't play with and the there two will understand. I would make 6 of the same, like little party bags. Rather than one big present fill it with little stocking filler tip things, pens, little toys from Tesco or Asda. Or a little book each.

rach_k

I'd do as suggested above and get a pack of books to split between them (make sure they're not numbered in a series!). For the two children your son does play with, I would add something else to make the present similar to what you'd normally give.

Don't worry about them comparing. At every children's party I've been to in the last few years, presents have been put on a table to be taken home and unwrapped there so they won't know what others got (unless they're deliberately comparing, in which case they're rude enough that I wouldn't care what they thought!). They probably won't even remember which gift was from which friend - although I tried to keep track with my daughter's recent party, it was chaos in the end so I gave up!

Threebabes

In all the years of kids parties, weve not been to a joint party for 6, a bit excessive...

Again I would go for the ideas of a pack of books and a bag of sweets for the 2 friends. Or just buy for the 2 kids you know.

Juanita37

Coloring books and pencils are good...u can get age related book activities...if u have a poundland or Wilkos near u then it'd cost u £2 a child

Spendless

Oh this used to annoy the living daylights out of me when mine were little. Joint parties, so your child goes to one event and you get to spend 2x, 3x or in your case 6x the amount on presents! Ok there were 2 sets of triplets in my sons year and 2 sets of twins in my daughters year, so those were to be expected, but when it was 3 unrelated children just connected by the school they attend and their parents being mates. Grrrrr

What I think should happen is the invites are split between the classmates, but I can see that is an issue if by chance child 5 has a lot of attendees not show and child 3 has all his turn up.

Throwing another suggestion into the mix what about teaming up with another Mum ot two, and if you'd usually pay £5 per child, put £10 or £15 into the kitty all of you and write the tags out on behalf of all your children.

clairec79

Have you been invited by all of them as a whole? or just invited by the ones he's friends with and the party is a joint party?

We've had before invitations to a joint party but it was made clear it was just one inviting (admittedly it was a brother sister pairing) and that was the only one expecting a present (with the twin parties where both children were inviting I used to do a joint present often (more expensive than I would have done for one but less than two seperate presents)

amalis

I suppose they all invite us because the one whom I had to RSVP is the mum of a boy I dont know. In any case the invitation is not clear in this regard.

Spendless

amalis wrote: »

I suppose they all invite us because the one whom I had to RSVP is the mum of a boy I dont know. In any case the invitation is not clear in this regard.

Are you friendly enough with another Mum invited who you could ask about the wording of the invite, because it could be either, the person you RSVP to, you are meant to buy for that child only or only one Mum is co-ordinating the RSVPs.

amalis

unfortunately I don't know any of the mums. I don't pick my son from nursery by myself.