too many presents!!! help!

[tweeny]

hi! last year my 5 year old twins invited all their class plus all their cousins and other friends to their party and received a staggering amount of presents. as a one-off it was ok but i don't want a re-run this year.they would like a joint party again this year which i would love to do but i'm bothered by the present issue.(i have written about this on another thread but can't work out how to do the link). i would prefer their classmates not to give them presents but for a donation to be made to a childrens charity if it was felt something had to be given, but i'm sure some mums would object to this (and i understand why). my two wouldn't miss out as they will get plenty of presents anyway and don't seem to be interested in the issue - they're more concerned with who's coming.
any suggestions? (or anyone know how to link the thread?!).

Accept the presents and then smuggle the unwanted ones to Oxfam?

I know exactly where you're coming from. Could you just write something like "please, no presents!!" on the bottom of the invitation?

Otherwise can you donate the presents to charity (understand it can be a pain if there are loads)? I've just passed a lot of stuff on to the Catholic Children's Society (for example) as they run multi-faith drop-in centres and so on. A lady came and picked it up from home.

Save the presents (wrapped) and donate them to a children's hospital?

I find this really hard too tweeny, and I don't have twins (must be doubly difficult) - it just seems to wasteful, and so unnecessary, and a lot of it is junk anyway.

I haven't found a solution though. If you make a point during the year of asking people what they want when your children are invited to their parties, then they may reciprocate and ask you.

Given that you have twins, you might get away with putting a little note on the invite. Maybe you could ask for books to go in the school library, or money for books in school - that might go down better? I certainly wouldn't be offended in any way by that sort of approach.

I'm always a bit dubious about that, as most kids in hospital have plenty of toys at home and our local kids'hospital has tonnes of stuff.

thanks agy! but i don't want the children to be given 30 extra presents each - once they've seen them it would be unfair to take them away. (and they would rightly point out that they were theirs, not mine, to dispose of). i appreciate the thought though.

brilliant idea roisin - books for the school library would probably be acceptable to most mums especially as all our children would benefit. i almost always give books as presents anyway so it would be in keeping. i'll do that!
thanks for all your messages - that's a weight off my mind!

maybe you could print/write on envelopes the name of your chosen charity along with a few words explaining what you are doing (asking for a donation) and include them with the invitiations? then people could put the money in and return them with the reply. contact your chosen charity - I work at a charity and we provide envelopes for this sort of thing. Hope that helps - it's a great idea!

Love big, "Lets invite everyone" sort of parties but this is a real problem. Wondered about getting all the class girls to get one thing and all the class boys something else, Best friends could always get their own pressies, and the kids would perhaps think more about the issues. Must say havent done this before... but 30 presents is too much for any child.

we went to a party where there was a box for donations towards a new bike for the birthday boy.I remember one year my twins literally came home with bin bags of presents .

that's my worry!

rhuby did the same thing - asked for donations to a charity. its a great idea

I had 25 at ds1's 5th birthday party and I ended up sneaking most of his presents off after he'd opened them. I then donated them to a charity night for the local pre-school which I went to and ds1 went to which may have to close through lack of funding.