It's always very exciting when the date is coming near to his/her first birthday. However, for me I am pretty nervous. I really don't know whether to plan a small gathering or do it in a big way. Please do suggest & share how did you celebrate his/her first birthday?
My children's first birthdays always had a small party with family and a few friends. A simple dinner for all, games and goodie bags for the children. Cake, ice cream and presents. I always enforced a no alcohol party, after all it was a child's party, so no booze for any of the adults.
My kids have kids of their own now, but their first birthdays were always family affairs, with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It's great to get the family together to celebrate such a landmark, and it certainly beats hosting a party for a dozen one-year-olds. Just imagine the noise levels if they all decide to have a tantrum at the same time!
For my son's 1st birthday, I've prepared a couple of games and treats for the children and dinner for the adults. It was a small gathering with family and close friends only. It was mostly giving thanks that the little guy is growing to a healthy boy. That's what I plan to do on his 2nd, just a simple gathering. I'm planning an all-kids party ( a bigger celebration) on his 3rd birthday. I think he's old enough to be excited to celebrate at that time.
My kids are all grown up now, too. We used to just have a small family gathering to celebrate the 1st birthdays. I made a separate small size cake for the birthday kid and let them have at it. They usually start off very timidly and within a few minutes, most of the cake is all over their face. Perfect photo!
I had a small party for my son. We invited family and a few friends. I love decorating and party planning, so I did everything myself. It was so much fun and gave me practice for his future parties. They don't remember the first one, but it's still nice to have those special touches and take a lot of photos. Watching them eat cake for the first time is too cute!
We've always done just close family to the first birthday, right now, a total of 10 people. We do decorate and have cake and presents, but that's it. We invite everyone over to eat and hang out with us and the birthday child. We eat, sing and have cake, and I end up holding baby while opening presents. We take lots of pictures, and just hang out until people are ready to go, or the birthday boy/girl gets tired. I much prefer small, family-oriented parties.
Like many others, we had a relatively small gathering of close family and friends. Everyone had cake except for my daughter! She was too shy and I bit overwhelmed to eat. She just stared at everyone. She received lots of clothes as most of my family knew that she already had a ton of toys. This was the first birthday party we had ever hosted at our house.
Im one of those crazy parth mamas so my son's first and second bdays were big. However alot of my friends usually just have close family over and when the kids are a bit older have all of thier friends over.
This is a very exciting time my look on it is you don't want it to be too big as he/her might get overwhelmed. My daughter which is my first born her first birthday i only invited close friends and family who were apart of her life no need for friends i just associate with to be there it is a time to celebrate the life of my baby and i didn't want people who really didn't care about her there. I decorated got a cake had a theme and all and it was very nice. Was going to do a cook out type of thing but it rained but still she had a great time. My son is turning a year old in a week and i am planing a cars theme birthday because he loves the disney movie Cars i'm invited family and a few close friends going to through some burgers on the grill and due a cake and gifts going to decorate the living room and it's just going to be a small gathering. So i would go with the small gathering it's their first birthday so you want it to be special not crazy and out of hand.
Thank you so much for sharing your feelings. Sorry to hear about your daughter's birthday, but just as you said finally the party ended in a happy note. All the best for your son's first birthday bash and wish him all the good luck from my side.
