1st birthday what did you do?

[Supermum11]

Ok so my baby's first birthday is coming up soon and I'm a bit unsure of what to do for her party so please can you let me know what you did for your baby's 1st birthday? Or what you are planning to do if it hasn't happened yet?

My baby has quite a lot of friends so I don't know if I should have two party's one with her friends and then one with family or should just have one big party with everyone

what did you do and where did you have the party/party's?

please help me with any information or tips you might have thank you

We took DS to a soft play and then made a small cake for him to eat while we had a larger one. I don't really see the point of having a party for a 1 yr old.

Posted too soon.

For you though, I'd just have the one party. Less stress. Either with everyone or just family.

Both of mine had a party in a hall with soft play/bouncy castle - we invited family and friends.

First baby I had a party(waste of money!)

Second baby we went to a pub with soft play for a meal

Third baby we went to the farm, this was definitely the best of the three, he was at the stage where he loved to watch animals.

We had a party with friends and family together. Hired a local village hall and did the food ourselves, played music and had a few toys and loads of balloons out. It was lovely and probably as much for us as it was for DD!

We had a party at the house with friends and family. Had a big buffet, cake and a bouncy castle. The adults had more fun

We had a tea party at home for both our DC for their 1st birthday. Just invited family, so grandparents and aunties, uncles and cousins along for sandwiches, cake and tea. In terms of guests that's probably about 15 people. I made the cake and we got some balloons. We also then did a separate day out to the aquarium for just us and the DC.

I then did exactly the same for 2nd and 3rd birthdays, plus a 'special' day out eg to the zoo etc. 4th birthday was different and they got a party at home with some preschool friends but still keeping it quite low key. When they are 5 then i do the whole class party either a soft play or hall with bouncy castle etc.

In your situation if you want to invite friends as well then just do 1 party, as it's easier and not worth the effort doing 2. To be honest i think 1st birthday parties are fine for just family, i don't think her friends will be expecting it.

Tea party at home for both of my DC's 1st Birthdays. Invited family and friends and we had a big buffet and cake.
( Dc didn't really have any 'friends' at that age. Cousins/friends children were quite a bit older)

We had an "open house" at home for family and neighbours (social street!) on the day, and DD blew out the candle on her cake (a well set and quite firm jelly, with whipped cream piped decoration, as is traditional in our family for 1st birthdays).

Her "friends" were the 6 month old from up the street, her 18 month old DCousin (who was invited), and crèche buddies (from city centre - so the DCs were actually quite widely scattered and never were invited to each other's parties).

We still do the same for her actual birthday - a gathering for family and neighbours if we are at home, or just family if we are "down home" for Christmas, as it is right around Christmas itself.

And for friends once she got to school, we tended to organize a party just after they went back in January, if that worked, and a couple of years, we had it in May/June as she wanted an outdoor activity that wasn't possible in January (we always called those outdoor ones "just a party for friends, not a birthday party" - but everyone still brought presents, and we had buns/cake, just no candles).