To Have a Birthday Party for My 1 Yr Old Who Turned 1 at the End of March?

Forget about the one year old party. The window of opportunity is gone. If you wanted to have a little get together with JUST family and a little cake for him, you could. But to make it into a "party" would be seen as a call for gifts. Even if you don't mean it to be.
For those who think that this baby will one day grow up and say,"But what about me????When was MY party?", I don't get that. Your children expect what you lead them to expect. If for some bizarre reason this child suddenly got a HUGE interest in his first birthday celebration or lack there of, I would have to wonder where it is coming from. I'm sure a simple,"well, mom had morning sickness" would suffice. Any further complaints would signal an unbecoming focus on "MeMeME".
It's a birthday. There is one every year.

3 moms found this helpful

my 2 kids birthdays are a month apart, early december and late january. we ended up doing a combined birthday for them in january and it was perfectly fine.

Go with it! for a boy/girl party, you can do superheros, circus, robots, pirate/peterpan and tinkerbell....

some cute party ideas with free downloads here:
http://www.livinglocurto.com/party-ideas/

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As for the people saying not to combine them because she is old enough to feel jealous and he isn't old enough to understand... one day he will be older and wonder where his first birthday party pictures are and how he ate his little piece of 1st birthday party cake, and she is old enough to learn to share. just my thoughts. if it is hard for her, then at least giving him his own little cake and party hat for pictures and cute memories would be nice. Just a different perspective.

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The first birthday is for parents and family. Your son didn't expect it, won't miss it, wouldn't know what it means, and kids that young often get overstimulated by a noisy party. So do whatever feels right for the bigger people in his life.

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No I wouldn't combine them. He doesn't know what he missed but she is old enough to understand that its her special day. Don't feel guilty about not having a first birthday party, he will have many in the years to come.

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I agree with many other moms... I wouldn't combine their parties. What you could do for your son is the next time you have family over (his grandparents or whoever he recognizes and likes) is give him a little cake after dinner with a candle in it, snap a few pictures for his scrapbook, and call it a day. There's no need to go whole-hog for a 1-year old's birthday. Actually I've always thought that birthday was best celebrated by the parents, not the child. As such, we planned a cocktail party for our girls' 1-year birthdays, invited our grown-up friends, dressed our little guest of honor in a cute outfit, then put her to bed and enjoyed the party! After all, what you're really celebrating is that YOU lived through the first year! ;-)

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Having a party for your child months after their birthday would come across as a shameless request for gifts. Personally, I think it's tacky and I would never do it.

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Why Not? People will understand. I H. you are feeling better

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I would not celebrate my 3 yo's birthday with the baby's. It's her special day... She might even resent having to share her birthday with him (not sure how much sibling rivilary and adjustment issues she's had toward him; it might open this up for her again).

If you are concerned about having pictures for his first birthday, you can bake a little cake for him and celebrate it among yourselves.)

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I think it is fine to combine. For those who think it will infringe on the 3 year old; I think that in larger families combining birthdays for close siblings is the norm. I think it is cool to celebrate your son's first year, and I would go ahead. It is NOT tacky at all, and friends and family who know you, will know what you were going through in March and understand. Also, they are close enough in age that if you go with a theme, it won't be terribly out of place for the one year old. :)

As for ideas, check out www.pepperspollywogs.com. They have a TON of birthday party ideas, including ones about combining birthday parties! :)

Well I have a 21 month old son and a 4 month old daughter and they were going to share a room and I was going to do it in peter pan and tinkerbell. I just think that is the cutest but, good luck finding party things....

I see nothing wrong with doing a combined Birthday party. You don't have to have a special theme to have a party. Make a little girls cake and a little boys cake. Also, we like the idea of make a small individual cake for the Birthday kids to blow their candles out and to have for theirselves. A lot of people do not like to eat cake after a child has blown the candles out on it.
Also, personally I think the little personal cake makes the Birthday more special for them. At that age you don't need to invite a lot of people or worry about decorations. Keep it short and simple. Be sure to take lots of pictures of them with their cakes and gifts. Relax and enjoy!!!

I don't see any reason you couldn't combine the two. I threw my daughter a 5 year old party in January. Her two year old sister had turned 2, two days after Christmas and I didn't think people would want to come to another party right at Christmas time so I just combined them. I did a princess themed party for both and my older daughter thought it was great to share her birthday with her younger sister! I don't think it would cause hard feelings or feelings of resentment with your 3 year old daughter, if you presented it to her as an exciting oppertunity that you too are really excited about. Plus it will save you a ton of money if you don't have to throw two seperate parties! I wouldn't want you to look back at pictures with your son and have him realize in 10 years that you never thew him a party for his first birthday either! Especially if you did for your first and will for your last...know what I mean?
I think you could do any basic theme, even just a happy birthday theme with the colors that they like! You save a lot of money that way too!
Enjoy!

I just wanted to add one more thing....for all of my childrens parties, I clearly express to all guests invited that we would not like them to bring presents. It's just an oppertunity to come celebrate another year of life with our child. There is always cake and icecream and a nice party! That's it!!! We do give our children presents for their birthdays, but do not expect presents from others and tell our kids not to expect them either! They are totally fine with that. They don't need them and they usually get thrown away within the year anyway.

I would have a party for just the 3y as far as invitations are concerned.

I would however get the 1y old his own little cake and candle so that you can get picks of him blowing out the candle, smearing it in his face, etc.

M.

Yes, it would sound like a request for gifts for your son. Just have your daughter's party.

Do NOT do a combined party. Your 3 year old will hate it, and it isn't fair to her. She deserves to feel special on her birthday. For our daughter's 3rd birthday we had a few (5) of her friends to a park for lunch and play. No theme. We cooked a variety of hot dogs (one item to make it easier), and we had tofu pups, bratwurst, and all-natural unpreserved chicken dogs to accomodate all the dietary preferences without complicating the cooking. I made cupcakes. The kids had a great time at the park and I didn't have to worry about the state of my house.
For our one-year-old's first birthday we all went to the beach. Since he doesn't eat very well yet, but he does like ice cream, we played on the beach for a few hours and then went out for lunch and ice cream and he got to eat as much ice cream as he wanted (still not much, seriously). We knew he would enjoy the beach or the zoo, so we let our 3 year old pick the activity, so she would enjoy it too. We all loved it. At one year old he won't care what you do and isn't into marking days, but your 3 year old is, so don't steal her birthday from her. On a different weekend do something special for his birthday, and let her have her birthday to herself.
On a side note about the gifts, it is tough. My preference would be no gifts, but then people ignore you and bring them anyway, and I've been the only one who didn't bring one when the invitation specifically said no gifts, so now I'm wary about that. I've taken to compromise. Since we have small parties and don't invite many friends (our families live several states away so send gifts by mail and don't attend parties), I've told them they don't have to bring anything but if they feel compelled, make sure it costs less than $10. That seems to work. We also didn't do real birthday parties until 3, so it was my daughter's first birthday party and she was so excited and I'm pretty sure she wanted to feel special about her own birthday.
If it's an issue of family traveling into town, then combining makes sense, but personally I'm not a fan. I would say if you do combine, then do separate candle blowouts for each kid. I don't go overboard with the gifts or accessories, but I do feel they should feel special on their birthday.

hello, I dont think its a good idea to have a combined party since a 1 year old doesn't understand as much as a 3 yr old. But if you have a Princess and Prince or princess and pirate party is a good idea so each will enjoy there theme but your 3 year old will feel its more for her . If you are looking for a really good party company call Butterfly Dreams theme parties for all ages, they are so good, they bring everything that you need and comes to you. call them at ###-###-#### or there website is www.ButterflyDreamsParty.com and they can also suggest some theme ideas.

I agree with others that you organize the party for your 3 year old and invite family and her friends. If you have a combined party, people will feel like they have to bring two gifts.

Just do the 3 year old; the 1 year old doesn't care. It'll be easier for you and it's months later for him. Don't worry about it.

I think it would be just fine to combine the two. Your family/friends probably understands that you weren't feeling well at the time of your sons birthday. Plus, I think it's important to celebrate each birthday in some way. I DON'T think a 3-year-old would be jealous... As long as there is cake and ice cream, she won't care! :) The idea of a prince/princess is a cute idea. Dora/Diego. Mickey/Minnie. Flower/Ladybug. Anything could work. It does not sound like a request for gifts, in my opinion. It sounds like you love your children equally and you want them BOTH to be able to celebrate their special days... even if a bit belated. Enjoy!!

I just wanted to add my voice--my kids are about the same ages apart, and the little one just loved being around/a part of the big one's party. I don't think they really get how to be the center of attention until they are three. But I would definitely make sure the little one is an included guest at the party.

i wouldn't combine the parties... she is 3 and old enough to care about it being "her day"... IMO it wouldn't be fair to make her share it with her little brother, and could cause resentful feelings toward him... also, if he is only 1 he isn't going to realize he missed out on his birthday. ~maybe have a mini-party with the family for just him, that way you get your memories, and then go ahead with the full out party for your daughter?

if you decide to go for it, maybe a circus, farm, favorite cartoon (could do a combined dora the explorer and diego if they like those shows...), themes...