Party bags at a non-Christening-Christening which is a sort of birthday party!

[JustTryEverything]

Hello everyone - I have been lurking for a while and when this problem popped into my head I knew exactly where to come for advice!

As a non religious family (although elderly generations are VERY religious) we did not want a Christening and also couldn't really 'bill' it as a "Non-Christening" for fear of offending the oldies so we went with a "Welcome to the World" party which happened to fall 1 week after DS 1st birthday.

We have 20+ kids coming and I suddenly thought "Hell, are they going to expect party bags etc...". TBH this is a party mainly for the grown ups (there are 60+ of them) although held during the day so kids can come too.

We will be providing cava for the toast so I thought, 'ooh- remember squash for kiddies' and suddenly sprialled into what else I should be doing??

As this is our first DC I am a bit clueless - plus I had always been thinking of it as a Christening party not a b'day party which is why I've suddenly started panicking!!!

Grateful for any advice....

Hello! You haven't said if the party will be at your house - but we had my DTs christening at a golf club and I gave out 'party bags' at the start of the reception bit of the christening (ie when we arrived there after the church).

I wanted to give the kids something to do as it had the potential to be a bit boring for them otherwise - round tables like a wedding and just food/sitting/chatting.

So I gave them each a bag when they came in with - from memory - a craft type thing (make superhero spoon doll/ princess spoon dolls etc appropriate to age) some crayons and a colouring book, a balloon and some bubbles, and prob haribo or choc buttons too. I bought a few pairs of scissors and some glue for me to have in vase anyone wanted to do the craft things - all of this was from pound/cheapy shops so I think each bag cost about £3, not expensive.

My thinking was that they could do the craft things/colouring during the christening and not got bored, and it did work ( even if most of them spent most of their time bashing each other with the balloons! - maybe just do the balloons!) one little girl made her dolls and they all did the colouring.

So I guess my (long winded) advice is that party bags are probably a good idea but maybe give them out at the start so they have things to do rather than at going home time? Of course if you're having the christening at home this is less of an issue as they can probably amuse themselves more there - but might still be an idea if lots of the kids coming are older than your DS and not likelyo to be entertained by the toys you have.

Hope it goes well, whatever you decide!

'In vase'?! - in case!!

If it isnt at home and the kids are young I would take some toys (eg. Box of duplo, brio)