Please don't wrap the gift???

[ilovemk76]

The point of a baby shower IS to give gifts.

Stop with the logic already!

Not in our close family. We get together for a fun party and most bring a gift but it is NOT required. We do small showers in a person's home with everybody knowing everybody.

The big ones with ~100 are just gift grabs. When I have attended them I am lucky if I know 5 people.

Two very different events. One a gift grab, as the no wrapping ones are, and one a intimate get together.

 

[KristaTX]

Please let us all know (if you go) what you do for THREE HOURS in the church basement if there are not even gifts to open.

Maybe the couple is going to spend the time saying a quick "Thank you" to everyone in person instead of having to eventually write those pesky thank you notes. You know, to "save time".

I'm in the likes-to-wrap-gifts and likes-to-open-gifts camp. I even like to watch other people open gifts.

 

[JessicaR]

I long for the days when invitations didn't dictate what to buy, where to buy it, or how to present it. Invitations seem to have too many demands nowadays.

That was my first thought reading this too. Seems to be a trend we can't avoid.

 

[bedogged]

Just received an invitation to a wedding shower. The invitation said to not wrap the gift in order to save time. The shower is from 1:00-4:00 in a small church basement. What could possibly take so long? We will be there for three hours. There could not be that many people invited. The space is very small. Has anyone ever heard of this idea before?

Interesting idea. I just wish they would do away with the cards and just use something like you do on Christmas gifts. I hate spending $5.00 + on something so worthless!

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I love when I open these threads about showers because I then get to fondly remember the bridal shower I went to where the grooms family physically brought the washer & dryer they bought for the happy couple to the shower!

They really did...they unloaded the washer & dryer from a big truck and brought them into the reception hall. It's not as if the shower was at the furture bride's home so the washer & dryer would be left there. The family brought the W & D in and then took them out when the shower was over!

I had never seen anything like this in my life before. 25 yrs. later I still remember it like it was yesterday.

In keeping with the theme of the OP the Washer & Dryer weren't wrapped by the way!

A nice computer printout with a picture would have sufficed.

Please don't tell me wrapping is going out of style. I just made a wrapping organizer I found on Pinterest.

I'd feel better about some new trends in showers if it wasn't like all etiquette has gone out the window. I went to a shower a while back (2008, because I just searched and found the thread I posted about it) that would have given Emily Post a stroke...Jack & Jill Greenback bridal shower for 180 of their dearest and closest friends (DH worked with the bride's dad), followed by printed thank you notes sent in envelopes with computer generated address labels, followed by a wedding with a money dance. Uy.

I guess I'd be OK with the OP's invite regarding not wrapping a gift, as I lean more towards being environmentally friendly. But honestly, I do enjoy watching gift opening (especially for a bayyyybbeee ) (let me just add...their FIRST baby ), as long as it's not some ridiculously large boring event that feels like a gift grab.

It's easy to say "don't go" but sometimes you just might have to bite the bullet and go for whatever reasons, and follow "the rule" set forth for the shower. But no matter what, there should ALWAYS be hand-written thank you notes from the guest of honor sent to the gift giver. (And I specify GOH because we once drove 400 miles round trip in a day for a graduation party, without the GOH present (his mom didn't confirm his availability for his own party), and then got a pre-printed thank you, signed with just his name (by HIM, thankfully ), and addressed by his mother. )

 

[sonnyjane]

Not in our close family. We get together for a fun party and most bring a gift but it is NOT required. We do small showers in a person's home with everybody knowing everybody.

The big ones with ~100 are just gift grabs. When I have attended them I am lucky if I know 5 people.

Two very different events. One a gift grab, as the no wrapping ones are, and one a intimate get together.

The term "shower" originated because you "showered" the person with gifts. It's fine to invite only close family, etc., but to negatively say that a shower is just a reason to get gifts is silly because by definition that's EXACTLY what it is! Wrapping paper or not has absolutely no difference to me.

 

[Disney Doll]

The environmanetal part of me likes th eidea.
The dorky auntie who loves to watch the nieces and nieces-to-be (my girls)open their bridal shower gifts hates it.

The dorky auntie in me who enjoys watching all my "girls" grow up and become mommies hates it.

As far as thank you notes...handwrite them unless you have no hands. Then I will accept a computer gnerated or pre-printed thing.

 

[mrsklamc]

The kicker was instead of a card we were to get a book instead. Most books are twice the price of a card! I went to the dollar store and got a book. This friend is a little greedy so I didn't feel bad at all going cheap on my book.

I LOVE this idea but the one I am currently invited to, we are supposed to write inside "our favorite" children's book as though it's a card. I hate it because there are likely to be duplicates and it's not like she can return them!

 

[Janepod]

I LOVE this idea but the one I am currently invited to, we are supposed to write inside "our favorite" children's book as though it's a card. I hate it because there are likely to be duplicates and it's not like she can return them!

That's too bad! What the hostess should have done is send bookplates with the invitation, so the gift giver can write on the bookplate but not stick it in the book just yet. (We did this for a shower a couple of years ago.)

 

[mrsklamc]

That's too bad! What the hostess should have done is send bookplates with the invitation, so the gift giver can write on the bookplate but not stick it in the book just yet. (We did this for a shower a couple of years ago.)

Neat idea! Out of curiosity, how did it get handled if someone showed up with a duplicate book? If I were the giver I'd want to get a different book rather than just have it returned.

 

[MINNIEsotanice]

I LOVE this idea but the one I am currently invited to, we are supposed to write inside "our favorite" children's book as though it's a card. I hate it because there are likely to be duplicates and it's not like she can return them!

Yes, we were also told to write in them. I guess I have no idea what happened if there were duplicates as you said they can't be returned once written in.

 

[Styx Fan]

I don't get the posts talking about playing games and opening gifts as if they are somehow linked. You could certainly have one without the other.

As far as opening gifts, I love to watch someone open gifts at a normal sized shower. I wouldn't even bother attending a shower for 100. Just not my thing. Too impersonal. I like admiring the wrapping. I like seeing guest of honors reaction to special gifts. I love admiring baby items. At an intimate shower, there is time as the gifts are opened to discuss them a bit....mentioning how much my baby or me loved a certain item, hence we decided to give it. Sometimes I make a handmade gift for baby and I like to watch the mom when she sees it. Just having it set out on a table seems cold.

As others say, what do you do at a shower if the gifts aren't opened? Just eat and leave? Sounds kind of boring.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Neat idea! Out of curiosity, how did it get handled if someone showed up with a duplicate book? If I were the giver I'd want to get a different book rather than just have it returned.

Honestly I think duplicates aren't necessarily a bad thing. I have a DGD and I keep books here for her, I have books in the car for her, DD has books in her car and of course books at home. Different books are nice, but so are the familiar ones.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

Just received an invitation to a wedding shower. The invitation said to not wrap the gift in order to save time. The shower is from 1:00-4:00 in a small church basement. What could possibly take so long? We will be there for three hours. There could not be that many people invited. The space is very small. Has anyone ever heard of this idea before?

That's about as dumb as the new trend of trashing your wedding dress that some brides follow like sheep.

Part of the fun and excitement of getting a *wrapped* gift is not knowing what it is until it's *unwrapped.*

At least it is to most people I know.

Walking into a shower with all gifts on display unwrapped would feel like walking into a department store. No fun in that.

If you don't want to buy wrapping paper, for whatever reason, use brown paper bags or newspaper or a gift bag from the dollar store.

Seriously people.

Next you'll be telling me that people don't wrap the gifts under the Christmas tree.

 

[Pikester]

That's about as dumb as the new trend of trashing your wedding dress that some brides follow like sheep.

Part of the fun and excitement of getting a *wrapped* gift is not knowing what it is until it's *unwrapped.*

At least it is to most people I know.

Walking into a shower with all gifts on display unwrapped would feel like walking into a department store. No fun in that.

If you don't want to buy wrapping paper, for whatever reason, use brown paper bags or newspaper or a gift bag from the dollar store.

Seriously people.

Next you'll be telling me that people don't wrap the gifts under the Christmas tree.

You laugh but there was a thread on the DIS one year talking about that very thing. Some people don't.

 

[KAMLEM]

I dislike it so much I chose not to have a shower with my second child.

Maybe it's another one of those "regional" things but I don't know anyone who has had a shower for a second child anyway. The only time I have ever known someone to have a second shower is when there is a big time gap between babies.

 

[aprilgail2]

. I dislike it so much I chose not to have a shower with my second child. I also am not a cutesy wrapper so I wiould gladly take a gift unwrapped. I may even try this at my kids next birthday. Have a large party bag at the door to drop gifts in and he can just pull them out one at a time and show them.

A shower for a SECOND CHILD? I wouldn't even bother to attend that- after the shower for a first child, showers for second or more kids are just greedy.

 

[jdb in AZ]

If a young mom already has a little boy and is expecting a girl, I don't mind giving her something pink and frilly.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

A shower for a SECOND CHILD? I wouldn't even bother to attend that- after the shower for a first child, showers for second or more kids are just greedy.

 

[Pikester]

A shower for a SECOND CHILD? I wouldn't even bother to attend that- after the shower for a first child, showers for second or more kids are just greedy.

I had a shower for my sister's third child but I held it a few weeks after the baby was born. She doesn't see most of the family with any regularity so it was nice for everyone to meet the baby. There is a 10 year age difference between her 2nd and 3rd plus her 3rd is a girl while the older two are boys.