Yeah.  I don't think any kid of age 2 or 3 is going to feel that they aren't special if the only get a couple presents.  As long as you are spending time with him for his special day, he will feel special and loved. 

We give my kids birthday parties every year but nothing extravagant.  We have it either at home or at a park and invite family and friends.  We get them a couple gifts and they have a blast pigging out on cake and playing with their friends.  This year we're considering getting a family membership to the zoo for their birthday gift (for both of them).  It will be something we can use all year, not just something to get thrown in the toy box when we get home from the party.

My kids get to celebrate their birthdays with only a few friends and of course family. Nothing extravagant as before we were always tight, but since things have gotten much better... their parties will still not be bi, but they can start having their parties at the house now as they are older and are tired of "baby" parties... e.i. Chuckee cheese or such places. This year they will get to pick some friends to invite over for sleep overs and have some music and yummies to eat but nothing that 50 people will be coming to... They will get to have a party and invite their friends and then a special one for the kids invited to the sleep over. My kids never ask for anything extravagant or ask for tons of things. They just want to laugh adn hang out with their favorite people for the birthdays. they are just happy and grateful for everything they get to do.

Parents that tend to cater to their child in such a way as something extravagant for their birthdays are setting their children up to be disappointed later on. Kids should not hav esuch a large sense of materialistic beliefs at such a young age. They should just be happy and playful.

Megan is only 2 1/2 months, too, but we've already discussed this as well in the face of friends throwing these blow-outs and their kids have more toys than they know what to do with. We plan on staying small. A few presents and cake...maybe a small group of friends to Chuckee Cheese or whatever when she's older.

In excess, things loose their meaning.

16 (for girls) and 18(for guys) then 21 and 30...I think those are the only b-days that would be a big deal. otherwise, a nice cake, your favorite food, and a few presents every few years should suffice. The expression of parental love is everyday not just once a year...

For christmas we got our (then 10 month old) one $5 toy.  He also got gifts from his cousins/aunts&uncles and granparetns.  It was plenty.  For his first birthday we will go a little overboard I think.  He is getting a big gift (a ride on toy) from my mom.  We are getting him a good starter set of duplos and I'm sure he'll be spoiled by others in our church.  But for the party the cake will be homemade (hey, can i take you up on that offer? ...j/k) and we will have a simple meal.  Nothing too fancy in that regard.  However, subsequent birthdays may not be so extravegant.

Simplicity is nice.  Though my dad was always so excited about chrsitmas that we got lots of gifts most years, my very favorite christmas involved very very few gifts and lots of time spent all together.  :)

I've noticed that a lot of people feel that numerous presents are the best things ever. If someone spends a ton of money on them, they're thrilled. In my opinion, that's not meaningful. I want something from the heart. I'd be happier just spending an evening with somebody than I would be if they gave me something. The only value of most objects is the money spent on it; nothing emotional at all.

I think that when your daughter sees how you look at things like that, she'll follow in your footsteps. That's what kids love to do, follow along with what the parents are for. Later on you can explain it to her - why you think that way. Then it'll be her choice to either continue to agree, or to disagree and go another direction.

I don't have kids, but I have a feeling about what I'm going to do around birthdays and Christmas. I'm going to get them presents and everything like most other people do, but I'm going to put more into being with them. Whether anyone realizes it or not, they'll begin to put more value into that than the presents they get.

Though I'm not married or have kids I think doing small things every year isn't a bad thing. It's about the memories and having fun and enjoying that you are a year older. I think for like the major birthdays like turning 1 , 13 ,16 years like that should have a special day.

*shrugs*

When I was little, my birthday parties were a family affair. Just me, mom, dad, whichever grandparents could make it, and maybe a cousin or two. That didn't change until about third grade, where mom let me have my first sleepover birthday party: me, mom, cousin V, and my best friend B. The sleepovers slowly got bigger as I gained friends, but they never became this huge thing, and as far as I remember I only ever got one or two presents from any one person. For me it was always spending time with people I cared about, just having fun.

sounds like you've got a similar plan to what my family did for me. Good luck with future birthdays!

My son just turned two (December 28th). It is a pain with having his birthday and a MAJOR holiday so close to each other. We are going to give our son what he wants, as long as it isn't too out-there and he is a good kid. His first birthday, all he got was clothes, haha. He actually enjoyed that and was trying to put them on and even the bags, he was trying to dress in. This year we let it revolve around his favorite movie, Cars. He LOVED it and was excited. He got three presents, and he was happy. I hope we can teach him to value the time we have together rather than want presents. He is going to be our only one, so he'll probably get a few more presents than other kids who have siblings, but we know we're going to spoil him -- in all kinds of ways.

It's a pretty bad thing when a parent has to worry that they're not giving their kids enough "stuff." What about teaching your kids the important lesson that stuff and money does not equate happiness? By letting your kid think that he's only special if he gets 25 presents each birthday, he's going to think that the only way he can be happy is if he's a consumer.

My parents hosted a few "blow out" parties for me-namely my 5th and 9th birthday parties. But the year I turned 10, I was only allowed to have 3-4 friends over for a slumber party. When I hit my teens, i didn't even have birthday parties with friends anymore. My parents would make me a cake and give me one present, usually something under 30-50 bucks. If I had really wanted to have friends over or something, I probably could have, but I never really wanted it. I was always grateful that I got a present at all. I'm pretty sure most people I know just use their kids first few birthdays as an excuse to have their own friends over for a barbeque or something. Kids that small are too young to truly have their own friends. I think when I have kids I will probably try to do some kind of "event" as a gift. I.e. a family outing to the zoo or kids museum or amusement park. And when they get older, they can invite two or three of their best friends along. Plus maybe one present. That seems pretty realistic to me.

I like your ideas about birthday parties for young kids. I never had blow out birthday parties growing up. There was cake, and sometimes sleepovers and a few gifts; I never felt like I was missing anything. I had fun and I knew my parents cared about me.

We always kept Birthdays and Christmas low key.  Some gifts (dollar store/discount store when they were younger) and one moderately expensive gift, plus stocking stuffers (including stuff like socks, toothbrushes, pencils, etc...) at Christmas.  We focused more on stuff like going to the beach, making your own party hat, decorating the paper table cloth.  Years later, when my kids were pre-teens and we had a financial train wreck in our lives, the holidays wern't "ruined", as we could afford to continue doing what we had been doing.  I saw, during this period, other kids in the same boat, who had a melt down at Christmas, because they didn't have the massive amount of stuff they were used to.  I think the biggest gift we can give our children is the gift that life isn't about "stuff", but about relations with people and being able to make their own fun.

I think your child will focus on what you indicate is important and fun.  Our kids have always loved choosing what food they wanted, and having input into whether they wanted the B'day party at home, at the beach or at my Parent's camp.  They could have two or three friends (a few more as they got older).  They got to help making the invitations and the decorations.  The most fun of the party (for them), was the surpise of the cake.  They never knew what cake they would get.  I got books from the library and learned to create my own specialty cakes, so we have had swimming pool, spaceship, soccer field, pirate ship, treasure box, Barbie, and Girl Guide (same as Girl Scouts in the U.S.) cakes, among others. Sometimes, I would even do something different instead of a cake, like "woms in dirt" (gummy worms, chocolate pudding, crumbled brownies and crushed oreo cookies, triffle (a big hit) or jello layer cake (graham craker crust and three different coloured layers of the jello jiggler recipe).  You can even make your own ice-cream cake and the kids love helping.