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Forget my idea! It didn't come across the way I wanted to say it. I remember my daughter going to a pj birthday party where they all came in their pj's. It was I think from 7-9 p.m. and the invitation said to bring a book to exchange. Instead of the birthday girl getting all the books, everyone went home w/ a new book. Of course, some still brought gifts besides the book. It was a cute idea. They had pizza and ended the night making smores.
When my daughter was in private school, some of the gifts at parties were easily $30 or more. I do remember one invitation (and that's where I got that idea in my earlier post) that mentioned to please keep gifts under $20. I agree w/ the poster who said that was tacky.
Parnents are weird when their children are that age. I advise you to anticipate that all parents will attend the party with their children. We were well into the middle of elementary school before some parents were comfortable dropping off. All of our parties were in public places, like a restaurant, bowling alley, roller skating, etc., but I have even seen parents stay with their children at parties held in homes too. So, be glad you're having it at Chucky Cheese. If you were having it a home, you'd have twice the people with all those parents hanging around. We always ordered extra pizza and soft drinks for the parents. I didn't like having them there and not feeding them, but most people don't provide for the parents at children's parties. It was just something I thought was important personally.
I agree that most will probably just attend and we did plan extra food and drinks for the adults. We figured we would offer it even if most don't take advantage, there are some that might and we wanted to convey that it was OK.
I think most of my apprehension from this comes from it being the FIRST party like this that we have planned and we want to do it right and most importantly for my son to have the party that he wants to have.
I think most of my apprehension from this comes from it being the FIRST party like this that we have planned and we want to do it right and most importantly for my son to have the party that he wants to have.
It's going to be okay. It will be a great party. I promise!
If you were a woman, I'd say take a bubble bath, light a few candles and relax.
Don't mention the gift on the invitation and don't worry about spending too much. Lots of people think ahead. I usually had a stash of age-appropriate gifts in the closet that I picked up on sale, or *gasp* that I regifted because they were duplicates of something my daughter already had.
I never had a birthday party...Tried to..noone ever showed up...Blah. Screw it I hope your kid has a good time!
We were having a bday party at Chuckie Cheese for one of my kids and the table next to us had a family where no one showed up for this poor kids party. It was heartbreaking to see.
We have a huge extended family and we always have a "family" party on the actual birthday and then the "friend" party at a later date. We have always donated the gifts from the "friends" party. We state on the invitation which charity we are donating to. We usually state "in lieu of gifts we are accepting donations for the xyz charity"....the generosity we have seen has been astounding. My children love doing it...matter of fact, it was one of them that came up with the idea and started the tradition.
We were having a bday party at Chuckie Cheese for one of my kids and the table next to us had a family where no one showed up for this poor kids party. It was heartbreaking to see.
I think this happens when parents don't invite enough children.
The rule is to invite three times more than you want to attend because you should anticipate that only 1/3 will accept the invitation and 2/3 will decline.
That's how I ended up with 30 children at one birthday party. For some freaky reason, they all accepted that year!
I think this happens when parents don't invite enough children.
The rule is to invite three times more than you want to attend because you should anticipate that only 1/3 will accept the invitation and 2/3 will decline.
That's how I ended up with 30 children at one birthday party. For some freaky reason, they all accepted that year!
Maybe...I don't really know...but they had the entire row of tables reserved for their party.
Maybe...I don't really know...but they had the entire row of tables reserved for their party.
That's extremely odd. They either didn't do RSVPs, or they wrote the wrong date on the invitations.
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Originally Posted by renovating
I have never heard that about the 3x invites....
That's the standard rule for children's parties: anticipate 1/3 will accept and mail out X number of invitations accordingly.
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I have found the following to hold true based on my parties and those of family and friends, 1/3 to 2/3 of all children invited can attend. So, do invite more than you want to be present or your child may have a lonely party.
Stop mentioning that your childs birthday is near a holiday. His birthday is no less important than an August birthday child.
<------still bitter about my Christmas Birthday.
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