We received a birthday party invitation this month and I was a little worried what we could offer to the birthday girl. I am always thankful for my small stash in our gift closet when times like these arise, and headed straight to my closet for this occasion.
In the stash of gifts, I found a book, a few homemade hair bows, and a cute little iron-on transfer for a t-shirt to give her. If I had been more ambitious that morning, I would have definitely made a container of play dough, but my time was limited that day.
The kids had an amazing time at the party and our hostess provided pizza and cake which was a special treat for the kids. The children played until they were near exhaustion and I heard barely a peep on our way home. Sweet quiet!
I now realize that I don’t need to go so overboard with party gifts and that my simple gifts can be just as much appreciated.
I was just talking to a friend about this the other day because she had spent a huge amount on a party gift and had then been given something much less by the same people for her party. At some point it just gets to be this crazy cycle where we are all trying to out do each other and the truth is that my kids (most kids?)just like playing with boxes.
[Reply]
These are definitely times when having a gift closet comes in handy!
[Reply]
Yea for you. It’s crazy how much people spend on gifts, and with five children sometimes, as a young mom, I didn’t want to go for fear of the $ factor. Good thing I learned early about balance. I know they loved your thoughtful presents.
[Reply]
Having bought a few of your fabulous hair bows, I think any birthday girl would love them as a gift as well!
[Reply]
Funny, as a mother of a 10 yr old & a 13 yr old, it took a long time to figure this out. The cards are a hassle to but I found a great web site to print off cards for birthdays, thank yous or whatever, The kids love the power of choice here.
http://www.dltk-cards.com/
But after watching hundreds of kids rip throught their presents & not even glance at them. We became very creative at gifts like foreign coins or handmade jewelry or a pre-play date & lunch. Or a basketball game or football game date & invited lots of toher skids to play. It is fun to have the kid's name as 1 of the teams. My kids favorites as they older are going to the store & picking out candy & giving each other bags of candy or a gift card (can't help it) or handmade CD's with his or her favorite music. Lots of luck now & in the future.
[Reply]
LaMaman- BRILLIANT ideas- I love them all. I hope you won’t mind if I steal every single one? Particularly the homemade CD’s. That will be next on the party agenda
Willo- You are so right- it is a vicious cycle and not one I hope to repeat. I think I have learned over the years that less is definitely more and I try to encourage my friends to do the same.
Jen- Thank you so much for stopping by. I do hope those gifts are put to good use. I just love sharing things like that!
[Reply]
I agree. With six kids we don’t do many parties (for our own kids) anymore. Just our family seems to fill the house. When we do invite people over for a party we request that they do not bring a gift. We have so much stuff anyway. Our kids seem to be happy just hanging out with their friends and getting to eat cake!
Toni
[Reply]
One thing I like to do is stock my gift closet with art supplies (crayons, colored pencils, markers, etc.) during back-to-school sales when these things are cheap. Then when a party invite comes in we take some supplies, add an inexpensive drawing pad or coloring book from ACMoore and my kids make a homemade card for their friend.
And as a mom, I know that my kids can always use some new art supplies – so I figure other moms feel the same way.
[Reply]
One of the things I like to do is take the gift(s) and put in a box wrapped with a brown paper bag or just get a plain gift bag and use that. Then tape or glue a pack of sugar free gum and a couple of small candies to it for a decoration. The kids love it. No money wasted on bows either.
[Reply]
Hi Amy,
I recently found a US charity called Cheerful Givers which helps mums whose mission is to help children in need. They provide birthday gift bags through shelters and food shelves to disadvantaged, needy children.
I think what they do is great and I asked them to join us on my company's website http://www.thanksto.com. It's a website where people can thank others who make their lives better.
I thought that thankful mothers can join and share/write their Thank You Messages to them there.
I was looking for some blog sites to share this charity with and found yours so I hope that you and your visitors will take a look and support Cheerful Givers in all that they do.
Here's the link to their profile page:
http://www.thanksto.com/profile/CheerfulGivers8059.html
And here's the link to their website:
http://www.cheerfulgivers.org
Charlotte
[Reply]