Am I stressing too much?

[Neverknowinglyunderfed]

Ok so my eldest is 3 rising 4. He's been at the same nursery since he was 18 months. We've always been told he is very well liked and plays nicely with the other kids.
But we've noticed that there have been 4 or 5 kids parties which he hasn't been invited to.
It's made worse by the fact is best friend (we are friends with his parents) has been invited to them all!
He doesn't seem fussed and I'm not sure he even knows there's been parties to go to but I can't help but feel sad for him.
His best friend is having a party soon and he's been to parties outside of the nursery circle.
Has anyone got any advice about how I can do anything to help him get invites as he moves into primary school? I really don't want this happening to him at school and that pattern sticking...

Bumping this for you, OP, in hopes someone will be along with more ideas soon.

But I wouldn't worry too much at this stage. As you move into school whole class parties become more of a thing anyway. At 3 or 4 they might just be inviting a select few to prevent overwhelm, but between reception and year 3 or 4, parties tend to be pretty big so everyone gets an invitation a bit more often.

In the meantime, I'd invite more kids home, find a reason to invite a small handful of children for a little tea party or something. People then might feel obliged to reciprocate a bit? Might even be worth asking the nursery if there are any children they think might be a good match that you could encourage a friendship with. But I wouldn't worry too much. Lots of children are still playing 'side by side' at this stage and aren't too fussed about friendships. It definitely affects us more than them - you're probably right that he's nor noticed or isn't bothered. A lot changes over the next couple of years, though, and it will probably happen naturally.

Does he have an unusual name?

There was a boy at my sons reception class who was not being invited to parties as the children were having trouble saying his name.

My son told me his name was Colli as in Cauliflower and I had to ask his mum after school what his name was!

It was Macaulay! Once word got around the parents that the boy was called Macaulay he was then added to invites!