Co-hosting A Birthday Party, How To Handle The Gifts?
I am co-hosting a birthday party with 3 other girls moms. The birthdays are all in December within 10 days, and we are having trouble wording the invitations. We all agree that we DO NOT want the guests to have to purchase a gift for each of the girls. Instead, we would like to the guests to bring only one gift and we will divide the gifts among the girls. Any suggestions?
Well, first of all I’d like to say that it’s very considerate of you not to expect parents to purchase 3 gifts, only 1. But, I foresee some problems where the gifts are concerned. How will you handle the dividing of the gifts? Will each girl open the gifts which have been divided out for her? I think that’s the only way to ensure that no “but I want what Suzy got!” incidents occur. And, are there grandparents and other family members invited? I, as a grandparent, aunt, etc. of a particular birthday girl, will have chosen my gift specially for that child. I wouldn’t like to see it being offered to another child (unless these girls are all cousins). I don’t mean to seem negative, I’ve just been to these types of functions before and seen many unhappy children AND parents. Careful orchestration is key.
Now for your question: How about something like: “If you choose to bring a birthday gift, please bring only one, as the gifts will be divided equally among the three honorees during the party”.
While I find that extremely considerate of you, there WILL be problems. You could ask guests to give ONE girl a present, but then the one with the most presents vs the one with very little presents situation could occur. You could always “assign” which girl each guest could give the present to. There are different interests etc. and it really is much harder to get a present for someone you aren’t sure is going to receive. You would need to make sure that its something that all four girls would like, which is extremely difficult.
Or you could ask them not to bring presents to that particular party, and that presents are to be given individually? Whenever I’ve been to co-hosted parties, either we all give each person a present, or we just give our friend, or we don’t give at the party, and discreetly hand the friend the present later on.
number the wrapped gifts & put matching numbers in a bowl. let the girls rotate drawing the numbers and opening the matching numbered gift.
as a kid i would feel jipped having to share my birthday with two other kids. especially a December birthday when people will give combination birthday/Christmas presents.