Your Childrens Birthday Parties

Birthday Party Etiquette and Gifts

Is there some way that we can help our children become more gracious and teach them some common rules of etiquette? Yes, there is. A good place for hands on training is with Birthday Party Etiquette and Gifts. Children start having and attending birthday parties at the age of one so this is a good place to start.

When you first begin planning your party you can start to explain to your child how important it is that all the guests enjoy themselves. Very young children can learn to say hello and welcome their guests when they arrive.

Are all the guests going to receive a party hat or some other party item? Your child could hand these out. This will help him or her to recognize their role as host.

Some children open their birthday gift as soon as their guest arrives and hands the gift to them. Sometimes opening gifts is the first activity. Both of these methods are placing too much attention on the gift and not on the guest.

The best time to open gifts is at the end of the party while the children are eating their cake and ice cream. The guests gets to see what all the birthday gifts are, which is kind of nice for everyone. The giver of a gift usually likes to see her gift opened and hopefully appreciated.

Remind your child what a gift means and represents. Someone took their time to find a gift they thought was special and that you would like. So, if you have the same toy or you hate the gift, just say thank you. You don’t want to hunt your friends feelings by saying anything else.

If children are too young and can’t wait to the end of the party to open their gift, then it is better to put all the gifts away to open at a later time. Opening gifts later for very young children will also prevent any young guest from having a melt down because they want the gift.

Very young children aren’t really interested in what the birthday child has received. They just want to play and have fun. So again, it is better to place the gifts in another room and open them later.

When the guests are leaving your child could hand out the favor box. And they should thank each guest again for their gift and for attending their party.

All children need to be taught the proper etiquette of hand writing a thank you note. A written thank you note should always be sent even if your child has said thank you when they received the gift.

Some thank you notes have a pre-printed verse, but children can still add their own line of thanks. Very young children should add some kind of thank you mark. They could draw a little picture or place a sticker on the thank you note. It really doesn’t matter what marks they make just as long as young children are involved in the thank you process.

Following these few suggestions on Birthday Party Etiquette and Gifts will help your child learn the art of being gracious.