RSVP date for a birthday on Dec 17th

[Seitvonzu]

My Lu's 4th birthday party is going to be at a local swim school on Dec 17th (the saturday before christmas eve) The venue allows me to have up to 25 swimming children, so i decided this would be a great year to go ahead and invite the whole preschool class.... (up to this point we've done close friends only, mostly because that's all she had and we had at home parties)

So I sent out a "save the date/heads up" email last week and said i'd be giving out paper invitations this week. Tomorrow's the day and i'm about to fill out the invites-- what RSVP date should i use? Preferably i'd love to know by Dec. 3rd because then i'd have two full weeks to make sure i have enough favors/organize food. Is that too much to expect from people?

My thought is that , in december, people will know pretty quickly whether they have plans that day or not. It's such a busy time, that i just wanted to get our invite out there.... I'll see the parents at drop off /pickup, so i'm guessing we'll get most yeah/nays that way.

Thoughts?

[justlearning]

I would just say one week before the date of the party. I think it's hard for people to plan 2 weeks in advance, especially around the holidays when family/friends may decide to come visit at the last minute.

FWIW, I'm hosting a birthday party in Dec. and did the invitations through evite. I decided not to list any RSVP date. Instead, I will send out a reminder email as the date gets closer to any who haven't responded. I was talking with a friend a couple of days ago and she sent out invitations for her daughter's party 3 weeks in advance and listed on there an RSVP by date (I think it was a week before). Turns out that nearly half of those invited had not responded at all by that date, so she sent out an email to get a firm yes or no. All of them (8) said that they were planning on coming! So whether or not you list an RSVP by date, you still may need to track down RSVPs.

[g-mama]

I think two weeks is too much, even more so around the holidays. People get a lot of invitations to Christmas parties for the whole family and it's tough to commit to having one member of the family doing something separately. Trust me, I know this is a pain. My youngest b'day party is going to be on Dec. 10th, and I just had one this past weekend for my oldest. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas birthdays, I understand.

In general, I am pretty sure I see a one-week ahead RSVP date.