to start planning DD's Cbeebies card 6 months in advance?

[CaresMildly]

I have been keeping careful watch on the cards to see if I can gauge what I need to do to get mine shown on the big day but unfortunately it seems irritatingly fair-handed.

There are a huge proportion of crap ones made out of backs of cereal boxes with some stickers from Numberjacks magazines and a generally unflattering photo of the child in question. But they still get shown. I have even seen ones using Wordart coloured in with crayons. Do these peoeple have no standards??

So I'm planning original artwork and plenty of glitter and shine as this always seems to generate a comment from the presenter. The question is should I go the whole hog and hire a professional photograper for a really good finish?

ok - I don't know if I am putting myself up for a flaming for evening noticing.

But .....has anyone else noticed that although the actual programmes on Cbeebies show great diversity - the birthday cards are almost exclusively white with the odd asian now and again?

I don't think that the BBC are selecting them in a racist way - I just think that for some reason while british people are just more likely to do this.

I won't flame you, I've noticed that too. if the OP is not a wind up, you are bonkers.
My dd desperately wanted her card on telly. We used to spend hours making it, photo plus characters, plus glitter and shine. I never actually posted them and she was inevitably disappointed when they weren't shown. I was rumbled though when we moved from Thailand to Switzerland and they turned up in the shipping.
You can never trust your home help to bin things when you ask them.

i thought they showed most of them, how upsetting if yours isn't shown

I'm planning DS's, birthday end of august

where do you get the huge sheets of card / paper from? are there any copyright issues when cutting out of magazine / printing from website?

the ones i hate are where the parents have gone mad with the stickers you get in the magazine, especially the "I'm a star" one. sooo amateur

lol at the OP btw but some of us take this seriously

april, not august, i am a bad mothr

My friend made a great one for her ds (I saw photos of it) and it wasn't shown.I expect they just do a lucky dip to pick the ones they show.

will be taping it then & only show DS if his is on
Don't they know these are our babies?!

what a waste, if it's not going to be shown you could have given them it!

Hmm, would it be worth finding out when is a low birth day birthday iyswim? Then I could raise the chances of mine being shown ...

It is indeed a serious business. Not only do you need to get it shown but ideally you want a complimentary comment from the presenter as well. Now if I could guarantee it was Sid or Andy that would be extra fab!

I'm going to do one for my Dd - she's 6! I'm determined to do them this year.

However, it's worth knowing that there is a thing you can do online on the cbeebies website where you give their name, favourite cbeebies character, age etc, and the whole birthday card fanfare gets computer generated and emailed to you.

I did that for Ds1, and the kids totally fell for it!

WTF are you people talking about?

the pictures are generally unattractive, maybe the parents are over compensating

DD had hers shown when she was 2.

DS1 ... I forgot and he's 9 now [blush}

Sent 2 in for DS2 already and neither has been shown and even with his birthday a few days before Christmas which I might of thought was a quiet time.

I agree that the website is the best back up... its incredibly disappointing when you go to all that effort and its not shown, or maybe my artwork was just crap !

Are you mad!? Why don't you put that effort into making a card that you actually give to your child, rather than it be read out by some loon on tv and then binned!?

They must get THOUSANDS! Don't waste your time.

fame! that's why
as a child i'd have been amazed to see myself on tv

Good God - half the fun of having a child is that the world of competitive parenting is now opened up to me. Of course it's worth the bother.

(I can use one of the prototypes for the at-home card and then everyone's a winner )

might still do one but cancel the preapsaration art lessons

prototypes
you do prototypes??
im a b ad mum

Well it's my first crack at it so I imagine things could get nasty wrestling with the pritt and the glitter, so I'd better be prepared.

[grim face, gritted teeth]

I'm very embarrassed to admit this, but when DD was two I estimated the chance of the card been shown. I went to great lengths to find the viewing figures and the number of under 5's in the country. I realised that the chance of been shown was too low to bother. But I have always been more of a mathematician than artist!

CaresMildly un-grits teeth to smile at havoc and admire her ingenuinity!

I intended to send one for dd's second birthday a couple of weeks back. But the four week deadline was in the run up to Christmas and during the first big snowfall we had so I gave up and left it. DD loves watching the birthday cards but obviously doesn't know how it relates to her so I thought I'd do it next year and not give it a second thought. Except on her birthday she was watching them and I blubbed like a big baby . So I am planning hers soon for next Jan!

I honestly thought the op was a joke. Do other people seriously care that much about a birthday card?! Really?

Come on, it's all a total wind up isn't it?

I will never send a card in - I found my mum one night making one to send in for my birthday (must have been 5?) and was devastated when it wasnt shown. I also cant envisage wanting to record/watch the whole days schedule of cbeebies on the off chance they will show our card.

We did the online one last birthday, and DS1 adored it. A special mention from Chris, and Bob the Builder - he was made up. Will do that for birthdays instead, at least you can guarantee your kid will see it.

I think each birthday session is the same on any given day isn't it? Otherwise you're right, you'd have to be watching all day