3 Year Old Birthday Party-do We Invite the Entire Daycare Class?

If it is only 3 of the kids, invite just them, but do it outside the school. Get the contact information and send invites home. My daughter's class has almost 30 kids in it when it is full, so very few parties include the entire class. It is understood, but the school has a rule that no invitations, thank you's or gifts are handled at the school. And even at this age, the kids understand about special friends who they play with most.

If you are sending in or handing out the invitations at the daycare, invite the whole class or none. If you want to invite just the few he speaks of, try to reach out and get their contact info (maybe at pick up or drop off) ahead of time so you can personally invite them outside of the daycare setting.

At our school, if you're not inviting the whole class, you must send invites by mail. Even if you invited the whole class, I would guess only about 1/2 would attend.

At our last party we just invited a couple friends from pre-school...the ones my twins played with outside of class. But I did the invitation outside of the school. I did evite (because I had everyone's email and I'm into easy), but you could snail mail the invitation. Or if you see them in person outside of school (park, playdate, etc), you can hand deliver it.

I'm not a big believer in "the whole class" idea. I think it puts a lot of pressure on parents to go to every party, which becomes expensive. I think a lot of kids get the invitations and say "Who?" I think 3 year olds can't sit around and watch one child open 13 gifts and not wonder why they can't have them. I think overloading a birthday child with 10 or 13 (or worse, 25, when they get to elementary school) gifts just teaches them to be greedy. And if they don't open the gifts in front of their friends, the friends learn that a gift is just the price of admission to a pizza or fun space party.

Then the parents spend all year trying to afford gifts for one party after another. There's the guilt of not going to a party of someone who came to yours, and the pressure to take your child to a party being held at a "cool" party place, even if it's not a very good friend. You see tons of questions on Mamapedia about people trying to find an affordable venue for a whole pile of kids, then worry about other parents bringing siblings who expect pizza and a goody bag, and it just mushrooms.

It's much easier just to keep it small. When our son was small, we used the "age rule": Shen you're 3, you invite 3 kids. When you're 6, you invite 6. By the time they're 10, they just want to take a few kids to the movies or have a sleepover rather than a conventional party. So it shrinks down on its own.

So no, don't invite everyone. But that also means not to give out invitations to some families in front of the others. And don't expect the day care center or preschool staff to give out the invitations. You need to invite people you and your child know well enough to have a home address or at least an email address.

Either invite the whole class or don't invite anyone.

My granddaughters bff had a birthday party and her friends dad said only 8 kids could come. So they only invited 8, of course all the popular kids got invitations. There was a little boy in the class and he told my granddaughters friend that he was excited to get to come to her party and had told his mom what he wanted to get her. She didn't invite him. He is the sweetest kindest little boy and I would never leave him out. He cried at home because he knew he wasn't in the popular group and it broke his heart.

This is why kids should never invite only a few kids. It seriously hurts the kids not invited. That is just cruel. So only invite everyone or no one at all. Chances are they won't all be able to come anyway.

I allow one kid per year, so 3 kids this year, 4 next. Just is friends is fine. A small group is about all he can handle and about enough for you to keep control of.

I never invite the whole class. The guest list can get out of control fast. Besides, we have had a few classmates that my son didn't really want to spend much time with outside of class. So I usually send the invites out through snail mail. I did emailed invites this year, because I sent them out late. If I didn't have the address, I usually asked the parent for it discretely before the kids got out of school. It's never been a big deal.

Just invite his buddies. Take care to send or email invites directly to the parents so they don't get handed out/talked about at school.
The way parties are going nowadays if you invited the whole class you'd end up with 13 kids, their parents and probably some siblings too!

I think, in general, I'd say it's either just kids who's parents you've talked to/know/exchanged numbers with or invite them all. If you're using daycare as the chance to pass out invites, you probably need to invite them all.

Why not ask those parents for phone numbers so you can call them and invite them to the party?

I wouldn't invite the whole class, but I wouldn't invite 11 of the 13 kids either. You could pick a number, like he gets three kids because he is turning three, or he can have five kids because that is how many will fit in the house. You could just invite his close friends, or just the boys in his class.

WHen we hit that stage I put notes in the kids' mailboxes and asked the parents for addresses so we could mail the invitations. What kid DOESN'T love to get mail?!?!

We only invited a few. I am sure no one was offended.

Nope you don't have to invite the entire class however when you are only inviting a few then you can't hand out invitations at school and your son shouldn't talk about how only these people are coming to his party.

We've had two birthday parties for our son - one when he turned 5, and again at 8. Both times we invited the whole class. Don't worry - they never all show up! I think most people will tell you that a 50% attendance rate is about as high as it'll ever go. As others have mentioned, when you only invite specific kids, you run the risk of hurt feelings. Of course we *are* talking about toddlers in your case, so they probably won't know the difference. ;)

I think it is fine to have only 3 friends at the party. However, as others have mentioned, you might have to hand out invitations outside of preschool. If you don't already have contact info for the other parents, you might want to get that now. Big parties can be overwhelming at that age.

You could also invite all the boys, if he mainly associates with the boys. I haven't planned on inviting the whole class to any of my DD's parties, but her bday is in the summer. I have just invited a few friends. If you want to keep the party small, keep it to a handful of kids you know he likes and keep the invitations private.

My DH was shocked when all of DD's friends that were invited showed up. I kept her guest list specifically to her good friends. Sometimes you will get them all.