Ok, when I was little, you opened all your presents at the party in front of everyone. Next Monday, we are having my son's 4th birthday party at Pump-It-Up Jr. in Plano. They get 1 1/2 hours in the play area and 1/2 hour in the party room. To me that doesn't seem like enough time to get 17 3-4 year olds settled enough to eat cake and open presents. The only non-family party we've been to recently, they didn't open the presents at the party. So, my question is...do we try to get everyone settled down for cupcakes and get our son to start opening presents and save his cupcake for later or do we wait and open presents later? What's the trend in parties?
Thanks everyone! I was leaning towards not opening presents at the party, the fear of him not being appreciative is part of that, but didn't want to seem rude to others if that was not the trend! I think we'll go with the playing and food and open the presents later. Thanks for the thoughts!
Hi J., my Son is 4 too and what we found was that not only at our parties but other kids parties that age as well that is hard for them to be torn away from what they are doing and of course they wonder where their gifts are!LOL! It's easier to just bring them home and let them open them there. NO fuss no muss! That seems to be the trend! Hope you have a wonderful time! J.
I have been to parties where they do open them and where they don't. It's your personal preference. My 4 yr. old daughter had her party at a bounce house place too and there was plenty of time to eat- they had pizza and cake - and then open the presents. The staff should have all the food ready to go. The kids sit down eat and then you get right to opening presents. We had 16 kids and there was plenty of time to do both without being rushed at all.
We go to very few parties nowadays where the kids open presents. I would say, spend the majority of your time playing, then do cake and give out goody bags. Most parents don't expect to see you open gifts amidst all the chaos.
We opted to not open for my daughter's 5th birthday party. I have been to parties where they do both and the parties seem to drag if presents are opened, plus kids sometimes become possessive about presents etc. Finally, for what it's worth, my daughter sometimes does not have the best manners and asks "what else did you get me" when she opens a present so we avoided that problem altogether!
