First Birthday Poll

[HIU8]

DS will be one in November. I can't decide whether to do just a family party with aunts, uncles and grandparents or to do something more elaborate and invite kids from daycare and friends of DH and myself. I was leaning toward a family party, but I haven't decided yet. Opinions?

Heather
DS 11/27/04

[squimp]

I really think it depends upon what you want. I felt that the first birthday was as much for us as for DD. It's just a great day to celebrate how far you've come! So I say do whatever makes you happy. If you would be happy with family party, then I'm sure your child will be happy too. We don't have family nearby, so we invited close friends for DD's first birthday party, with a few folks who have kids. I think once they reach 2, then it's more fun for DC - they're interacting more with other kids, etc.

Just make sure you get some good shots of DS eating the cake!

[lilycat88]

We did something in between. We had family, 1 couple friend with their son who is 3 months older than Susanna, 2-3 other childless friends, her primary daycare provider, and a special "older" couple from church. I think we had a total of about 15-16 people there. It was a good size and mix for us. We have a tiny family so we wanted to include others who had been important to Susanna during her first year.

Jamelin
Mom to Susanna born 6/29/2004

[tiapam]

If your family is big enough to make a nice sized party, I would stick to just them. That is what we are doing. A couple of other things I took into consideration:

-more guests mean more gifts she does not need and we do not have room for (this might sound harsh, but believe me she will be getting plenty of gifts!)
-DH does not enjoy kid's birthday parties, so we can decline other invites without feeling guilty (I don't always enjoy them myself, but we do go to them sometimes)

-Pam

Charlotte born October 2004

[HIU8]

Thanks for your responses. Our immediate family is kind of small so it would be about 9 people including DH and I. Plus, DS was born Thanksgiving weekend, so I feel most our friends and people from daycare will be out of town. I'm not crazy about DS getting alot of useless gifts from people that I just have to return or regift either. I know family will get what we tell them we want him to have.

Thanks, I think I have made my decision.

Heather

[HannaAddict]

You can always just request no gifts too. Some people (mostly family) will get a gift anyway and that's okay, but it will cut down on a lot of gifts and you can always donated unwanted gifts. With the holiday coming up, the Toys for Tots type drives are going to start soon. We did a diaper drive for my son's first birthday and my friend just sent out invites for her daughter's first birthday saying no gifts necessary but to consider donating to a Katrina charity and had a list of the charities and contact info.

Kimberly

[kedss]

For our DS' first party we just invited my Mom, some of my DH's ffriends from work who knew DS and a couple of my friends who were close to DS. We wore party hats, ate cake and opened his presents and played with them together. it was only about an hour, but it was fun and not stressful! Remember to have fun!