Is it weird to invite the new nursery class to a September birthday party?

[alanthicke]

My younger DC is turning 3 in September. He is absolutely desperate to have a birthday party of his own. He lives in constant awe of his big brother and it does sometimes feel like my older DS gets everything, so I really want to give him a nice party. The problem is we just moved to a new area and he only has 2-3 friends who live close enough to come. He is starting a new nursery in September where he doesn't know anyone. I too have very few local friends and would love to get to know some of the parents. (At this age, I would expect a parent to stay, right?). So, I was thinking it would be nice to invite his whole class to his party. The only thing is we would have to send out the invitations as soon as school starts, before anyone really knows us, and I don't know how it would be received. I imagine most of these families will already know each other from last year but we ate coming in new bc of the move.

For various reasons, I really don't want to have even a small party at my house, and I need the whole thing to be as low-stress as possible. I'd like to find a soft play or gym type place where they will run the party, and I'm more than happy to pay for it. I'm not sure that that type of party would work with just a few children.

If I did do this, I would feel very strange about expecting al of these people to buy a gift for a child they don't know. The last thing I want is to give the impression that that is the purpose of the party. DS will have plenty of gifts from us and extended family and we have way too much crap already so I was thinking I would say no gifts, but I'm told that can create issues because some people bring them anyway and others feel awkward.

How would you feel if your 3-year-old was invited to a party like this?

[alanthicke]

And also if I do this how should I handle the gift issue?

[SissySpacekAteMyHamster]

I've taken my children to parties like this.

Lovely opportunity to get to know other parents in the class.

I always did soft play when they were little and invited whole classes.

[Marmite27]

I'd be happy to go, and fine to bring a small gift - tbh it's a birthday, it's what you do.

[twirlypoo]

We had this at the start of term - everyone welcomed it as an opportunity to get to know each other :)