giving & receiving pressies

[amimean]

I'll definitely change my name for this one.
I do tend to take things too seriously, I suppose, but my dd has just had her b'day, and from our friends/aquaintences in the area, she received no pressies at all, even though I have bought all of their kids a birthday present when it was their birthday. Many did have parties, but most we didn't go to, either because we were away or whatever. We were away for dd's b'day too, but back shortly after.

Maybe I'm too mean to mention, but I feel annoyed (for me & my finances - one family, who I thought were good friends, I've bought both kids plus mum pressies, but poor dd gets sod all) but also for dd's behalf. Luckily she's too young to know or care.

I'm not a terribly out-going person - I try to be firendly & sociable but am quite shy. I hate the tought of a party, mainly because, especially with small kids, it seems to be a blatant reuest for presents. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong? But also, I don't really feel terribly close to many people, although have many 'friends' (ie acquaintences) - we've lived in the area a couple of years, so I'd not feel confident about inviting them.

Oh, and her godmother, very carefully chosen, also forgot her birthday - for the second year in a row. Not even a card. I feel so hurt and annoyed. I don't feel I can say anything. Is it possible to divorce godparents and get new ones in??
Can anyone spare a couple of minutes on this (relatively monir) problem for me.

Not blowing my own trumpet, but I never forget friend's childrens'/nieces/nephews, etc. birthdays.

We have an agreement that we (close friends) always buy for birthdays but not for Christmas. Because people's birthdays always fall on different days of the year, it is just a case of buying ONE present for ONE birthday (unless of course there are twins). We don't do Christmas as we find that children get so much anyway from relatives and what we could afford to buy would only be a token gift and instead of spending £5 on 20 of my friend's childrens, I would rather spend £100 extra split between mine.

I find this works rather well.

Because of my bad year (worst year of my life ever), I have not seen a lot of my friends as often as I normally would, although I saw a friend yesterday whose child's birthday was the end of July (we are good friends but just didn't get round to meeting up during the summer holidays) and I gave her his present then. She said I shouldn't have bothered but I had bought his present anyway - it was just a case of trying to meet up (what with us both working different days, etc.).

My dad's family does the opposite from Bumblelion (in a way). 6 siblings, their mother (my gran), spouses, all us grown up grandchildren: dozens of people.

We exchange no birthday presents. But for Xmas you draw one name and spend $50 (this is in the US) on a nice gift for that person.

There's a kid's draw, too, for all the children under 15, with a spending limit of $5.

DH's side send cards for every birthday, even his cousins send cards. I have 30 first cousins; I don't even know when half their birthdays are!

Zebra
I really like the idea of a draw - especially as I know who will be putting presents away ever after! One big present would be great.

we have a close family (my mums side) and what we do for the adults is buy a game and box of chocolates for Christmas Day, we just buy for the children, that saves a few pennies!