Community Chat

[ECBG]

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@KathyM23 wrote:

At my granddaugher's baby shower last year, the gifts were opened.  Instead of playing games we decorated oneies and tiny tee shirts for the baby that DIL found about on Pinterest.

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@KathyM23 

Very refreshing!

[haddon9]

I can understand if there are a LOT of people and gift opening can take more than an hour or two.  Some showers can have 100 people or more!

When my daughter had her baby shower last January I insisted that she open gifts.  She wasn't going to do that at first.  I told her that people enjoy seeing the gifts and as long as they made the effort to attend she should open the gifts.

It wasn't a huge shower with only 25 women attending and didn't take long.  Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing the gifts.

[bargainsgirl]

That is not new.  They did it at my daughter's bridal shower 10 years ago.  At first I dd not like the idea but it actually was nice.  Opening all those gifts takes forever and this allowed people to just socialize and shortened the length of the shower.  We got many thumbs up afterwards...

[cookie16]

I don't like much of what is happening with invites to weddings, showers, parties etc. Most appear to be money grabs where you, as a guest, are told what to buy, how much to give, fund our honeymoon, fund our wedding, come to the gender reveal, then the baby shower, a sprinkle shower etc.  Now you don't get to see gifts that we choose opened in front of us.  I also know many don't send thank you notes either. No thank you, keep your invite .

[VanSleepy]

@haddon9 that's a good point about it possibly having to do with the number of people attending. 

[Stray]

Gifts aren't opened in my area.  Went to two showers recently & was asked not to wrap the gift at all as  the couples are envionmentally conscious; I guess that's what you'd call it.  I like it as the gift opening is boring to me.  

[PA Mom-mom]

@Nataliesgramma  I always liked to see the gifts opened, but my niece had a good idea for her bridal show and then her first baby shower. She asked guests to not wrap gifts but mark them with a gift tag. They were all displayed on the gift table. It saved on wrapping paper and time. Win, win! We spent the time visiting, playing games (ugh!) and wishing her well.

[Rockycoast]

Have never been to a shower where the gifts were not opened. Held up for all to see and ooooh and awwwed over. That is half the fun of seeing what the recipient receives. Glad our family/friends are doing it old style.

[ROMARY]

'Well, I declare'.........

Anyway, it seems to me that it's more fun for the person to open each gift and thank each guest.  

'Plus', guests do like to see shower gifts, especially at baby showers.  Some baby items are very cute.   Jmo.

[ROMARY]

Update:

After reading some of the posters' opinions, I now can see that maybe displaying the gifts on a table with guests name tags attached is a nice idea, time-wise.

Some showers are way too long.......It might be better to use the time to chat with one another, etc.

Btw, any opinions re: a good time frame for showers?  Two hours, three hours, etc., etc.