Revealing gender to family at christmas - ideas?!

[ChocolateBiscuitCake]

We are expecting DC4 and after three darling boys WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!!!! To date, we have always kept the gender of our children secret.

This time round, I am not sure I can keep it secret and DH and I thought it may be lovely to reveal the gender over Christmas to family (my 3DS are the only grandchildren as both our siblings will not have children, so the news that there is a DG will be a lovely surprise!).

Other than standing up and announcing the news, I wondered if anyone had done something similar and could offer some alternative, fun suggestions please?

Thank you

Buy them car stickers with granddaughter on board on them?

We told my parents by getting 'It's a girl!' iced onto Thornton's alphabet truffles (with a few stars on either side to bulk it out a bit!) You can buy them online but we got them done in store.

Get a box, put a pink helium balloon in it, wrap the box and give it to your parents for Xmas?

Oh your ideas are making me teary (hormones!) - thank you

Bake a cake and put pink food colouring in the batter! cover the whole cake with icing then when they cut the cake they'll see pink!

Give the boys big brother t-shirts and then put a little sister baby gro under the tree in the same package.

I wouldn't make a big deal of it purely because of your boys, they may feel that they aren't as wanted if you make a big Christmas announcement and all your family get excited, if anything I'd tell people quietly and ask them not to make a fuss in front of your sons especially as you didn't make any grand gestures or tell anyone about their gender.
A similar thing happened in my husbands family and the boy in question was quite tearful and hurt thinking that his parents had been disappointed with him being a boy.

We were in a similar position last Christmas, except our dd is dc2. We told ds (then 6) on his own on Christmas morning, and practised an announcement with him. We waited until all our guests (11 family members) were in the kitchen having pre-lunch champagne, got their attention and ds proudly told them all that the baby was a little girl It was such a special moment, dh's dad became very choked up & everyone was thrilled. As for ds, he was in the middle if it all & because he made the announcement everyone made a fuss of him in all the hugging and congratulating afterwards. He had a huge smile on his little face! Tbh I'm sure everyone's reaction would have been the same if the baby had been another boy - just to have confirmation of the gender, whatever gender it is, is so exciting
As for not feeling wanted, if handled in the right way I'm pretty sure your boys will just be happy to be part of a nice celebration. My ds would never have thought that, he is an adored and cherished little boy and is secure in his position in our family.
Congratulations, and enjoy your special moment

Thanks ladies!

All my children, regardless of gender, are very much wanted, loved and cherished. There is no reason for them to feel otherwise!!!!

Since telling them I am pregnant they have been over the moon and all three, when asked and unprompted, have said they want a sister. Apparently, according to my 6&4 year old, we need more girls in our family !

We plan to tell the boys on Christmas morning (before family arrive) as we feel strongly that they should know first.

Lots of lovely suggestions- we will definitely include the boys in telling their grandparents!

Oh and we never revealed the other boys genders as we never officially intended to find out with ds3...I just saw his willy!!! (besides which ds1 was only 3!!)

Boring, dull and worthy post warning.

Unless you have had genetic testing (is that what I mean? Amnio or similar) scans are not 100% particularly predicting a girl, once a penis is seen it's hard to unsee on the scan but they can hide!

I was thrilled to be expecting a little girl, not that DS1&2 were in anyway a disappointment but a bit of a change and dresses and tights and frilly nappy covers was exciting. Anyway, DS3 is the love of my life and after an initial giggle at how wrong the scan had been it was like I'd known him forever. Fortunately I only told H because otherwise I might have felt a bit silly! Although the idea of 'big brother' t-shirts and a little sister baby grow made me tear up a bit and feel nostalgic that I never tried for no 4!

Wow losty, wow. That must have been quite some surprise!!! My da3 has us all wrapped around his little finger!

There is now a harmony test done (blood) that genetically tests for downs etc and it also gives a conclusive gender result.

Yes, better to be properly sure like that rather than go with the sonographer but I had seen the scan too and I can read ultrasound because it's my job. If that doesn't make me seem even more stupid! In the end I had a very dangerous labour and both of us alive and DS3 finally breathing gender seemed irrelevant, plus when I looked at his face it was like I'd known it would be him all along IYSWIM? He was so familiar. Just very glad I hadn't told the world! DS3's are pretty awesome though and a right bugger when they get to 7 and have two bigger brothers they want to do everything with .

I'd also had a high risk of chromosomal abnormality from the triple test so I was more bothered with him having Downes or something. Wish they'd had that blood test then, would have saved me a world of trouble!

Just a thought. Your siblings... Could this be a painful subject for them? Having TTC for 4&1/2 years a beautiful announcement like this would have plunged me into dispair that I had to put a brave face on for. It would have ruined my Christmas Day. Are you sure this is not the case for them?