Hellobee Boards

Yes, that's fine. I'd make sure you put the gifts away out of sight immediately so that guests who follow your instructions don't feel bad for doing so.

That’s what we did - put them under a table. I think you’ll always get at least a few gifts no matter what you say.

Are you doing favors at the end? If so, I think you’re fine without doing a thank you card.

I just make sure that my son hands one to everyone and tells them thank you for coming. Then, we open gifts later and I usually send a text message that we got it and love it.

I also wanted to avoid this, but I know people are often inclined to bring gifts anyway, so I put a little blurb on the invitation that we are not expecting gifts, but we would happily accept donations of dog or cat food for the local shelter. Parents seemed to like this, and we had probably half of the kids who attended bring a gift (of food). I actually had a couple parents text me and say how great they thought this idea was.

@honeybear: @alphagam84: As these ladies said, please hide the gifts! I posted on this topic around this time last year, wondering if I'd majorly screwed up....my then four year old daughter felt so awful when (as instructed) we didn't bring a gift, only a handmade card...and showed up to see at least half the other guests bringing gifts!

@Mrs. Cereal: This is a really good idea - I thing giving people something to bring other than a gift helps them feel ok NOT bringing a gift.

Exactly what other people said--thank them, but don't open them at the party and kind of tuck them away. We're in NYC and it's the norm to have "no gift" parties in our daycare circle, I think bc we all live in apts with limited space, and no one ever opens gifts during the party. We're having our girls' bday party at an indoor place next month and the staff will just keep the gifts hidden til we're leaving (this is the 3rd time we're having a party there, so that's what they did before...)