This is somthing I really struggle with.  Birthday parties stress me out.  One year we let the birthday child pick and event and a friend to bring along and it was awesome.  Took a lot of pressure of me!  We still did a family dinner including grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins.  My son went to a Mariner's game and my daugther chose to take a friend out to lunch and to see a movie.My youngest's 5th birthday is in less than a month and I have no idea what we are doing yet.  My other daughter's birthday is mid-December so it's always a busy time of year, adding to the stress.  I'd love to hear how other parents do birthdays!  Great topic!

We offer the kids to opportunity to have a kids party or get a bigger gift.  They always choose the bigger gift.  Since we don't have family nearby, we celebrate with our own family of 7 by getting them balloons, taking them to the restaurant of choice with whole family, having cake, ice cream and presents.  Also since all but one of my kiddos birthday is when they don't have school we do something special that they choose that day.

This was the first year we did not combine their parties. My girls birthdays are three weeks apart and there's a four year age difference. When they were younger and we invited mostly neighborhood friends that worked well, but this year when they turned 9 and 5 we took a different route. We did a low key slumber party for the older one, and a low key play-date-type for the younger. I struggle with this every year though. Definitely stresses me out.

I absolutely dread parties but not for what you might think. I feel intense pressure that everything needs to go right, I need to get the right pictures, the right video etc.. I am not someone who pours over Pinterest waiting for the next party. I feel such a relief when it is over. Especially when they are young and you have to entertain the parents and the kids. Ugh just thinking about it, I feel like I am having a panic attack LOL.

I guess I'm the exception here. I love putting together parties & I used to pick out a theme for each one to surprise them. I'd make the decorations, the table cloth, centerpiece, I'd use their toys, whatever tied it all together. Very inexpensive & fun. However, a couple times we didn't get many kids coming over & that caused all kinds of hurt for my daughter.

I like to have parties but my son would usually rather go somewhere special. This year we are going to Disneyland. We will just have a small family party with cake and pizza. 

We usually brought treats into their school on their actual birthday and then held a small friends and family party on a weekend. Tried not to get too extravagant. Nowadays many parents go way overboard!

With my older children growing up we always had BIG parties. I loved planning it with them and spending that time on them. I think times have changed. With my younger children, it seemed birthday parties aren't a thing anymore. We mostly now let the birthday kiddo pick a restaraunt to go to, have a small celebration with family. On the big ones (10, 13, 16) we do something a little more. 

I love planning parties, but having to throw one myself tends to be stressful. When they were younger, we did parties and a big deal, but now it rather depends on what all is going on. For example, for my oldest we have made a tradition of going to the Christmas events at one of the local theme parks because that starts on his birthday.

I agree..a party isn't necessary as long as it is a special day for the child.