To say "no presents necessary" for 5y/o party

No I don't think you can put that on a 5 year old's invite, and the dcs are getting an afternoon of free entertainment so it's fair to expect them to bring one. We get far too many gifts and we sell the stuff she won't use on Vinted to recoup the cost of hall hire, entertainment etc.

In my area it’s very common to say “no gifts please” on the invitation. If you genuinely want no gifts, I think you need to say no gifts, because if you say something like “gifts not necessary,” everyone will still feel like they ought to bring a gift in that situation.

The children will usually bring colouring books / little craft sets as IME when you get invited to 10+ parties in the whole year they don't spend loads on all the kids. It's more symbolic. The kids love running in and handing over the gift, the birthday child loves receiving them. It's not necessarily a bad thing. You can always donate surplus to the charity shop if you feel like. I've had a couple of parents message me directly asking what DC likes and that's when I usually respond no pressure!

Everyone in my groups say that because we don’t want to look like grabbers, and everyone brings a present because we all know that children want presents.

I’m probably part of the problem, but I would struggle to turn up without a gift to a child’s party. I think the only way to avoid lots of unwanted gifts for a child’s party is to ask for books as gifts. Most people won’t mind that request too much, and it’s a cheap gift anyway. Requests for money are incredibly polarising, and many won’t want to bring nothing along.

It seems a bit mean. Like a pp said, even if you do it, some people will turn up with presents anyway.

She's 5. Let her enjoy getting presents.

Honestly no please don't do this. Your child is 5 this is probably one of the only parties she will have where the whole class will be invited.

Imagine the feelings of a 5 year old child inviting all these people to her party and none of them bringing her a gift. People will bring her a present even if you say not to because no one will quite rightly want the poor kid to feel like they are not worth even a token present.

I wouldn’t because people like to bring gifts, plus the kids talk non-stop about this kind of thing at school. You just have to accept that birthday parties for kids involve gifts and plan on giving what you don’t need to your local charity shop

I agree in principle. But. It is so hard to word without looking like a dick, and people will then still turn up with a gift and the other kids will feel bad.

in this situation i would not pop it on the invite, I’d mention it when you get the rsvp eg “delighted you can come to the party, Billy is already v excited! Btw no need to buy a present as we have soooo much stuff, if you feel you cannot turn up empty handed 😂 then a card and a bag of Maltesers or something would make the birthday boy happy!”

By mentioning something small like that, you set a subtle spend limit.

Many parents will simply recycle one of the gifts they got at the last party anyway… so often it’s a “no spend” situation! (I spirit away about 50% of my primary dc gifts for regifting!)