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School birthday parties - what's the 101?
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But what he did say when his daughter had a birthday party she is inundated with gifts, most of which she is not interested in or what he considers tat. So what they did this year for her birthday party was to say, no gifts please if you want to gift donate the money to the school classroom for supplies/toy's/playthings... He said they raised £180 for the school classroom.. a couple of parties since that she has been invited to since have done the same.
I usually asked my kids whether they wanted to go. Where the whole class was invited but mine weren't particularly friends with the birthday child, we often didn't. I do think it's worth asking your child whether they think lots of people will go. If not, I encouraged mine to go. There are few things sadder than a 5 year old waiting for party guests that never arrive (but when you do go, I think those parties can be the best ones!).
Gift wise, I either tried to give something where it doesn't matter if you get duplicates e.g. Lego, art/craft stuff, playdough, or cash. For the younger children, I think it's quite nice to give £5 for a 5 year old, £6 for a 6 year old etc. I wouldn't give more than a tenner unless it's a close friend.
There's no way we'd just rock up having declined or ignored the invite. Having got married nearly a year ago I remember the agro of the eleventh hour messing about with guests lists and table plans etc!
The thinking whether others will go is something I remember now you mention it. I happened to be mates with a couple of children who wernt very popular so I made sure I could go and encouraged a couple of others to do so. As you say, these were often the best parties as smaller groups of better friends and less pressure.
And you can't really blame schools for making such a 'rule'. If you don't want to invite the whole class, you identify the parents / carers of those you DO want to invite and approach them in the playground.
And the idea of getting the school to distribute the invites never came into it....
I did the invite everyone from the class, hire a hall and bouncy castle and for my older two in year R, but scaled right back for my younger two. It gets expensive.
The whole class of 36 children were invited, about 22 turned up. His was the first birthday in the class, so no friendships had been formed and no previous experience to gauge the situation so easier to invite everyone.
The main thing to consider was dietary requirements, we had to cater for dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian and Halal. Thankfully there were no allergies in the mix but it was still a bit of a minefield.
Party bags were something else to consider. Mum bought a job lot of books from The Works and let the guests choose, added some little sweets and a piece of birthday cake.
Pass the parcel and musical bumps, with an indoor bouncy castle in a local community centre. We had two parcels going round the circle or it would have taken forever.
Also remember at this age, the expectation is the parent stays so if catering make sure to include the adults too at least drinks wise.
Pool parties were all the rage when I was younger, but I think in the juniors not infants!
Yeah I'll bet the allergies are a pain, our school is nut free, and my mum is a Coeliac. Went through all this jazz with our wedding too, some stuff was people just being plain fussy though!