Baby's First Birthday: Creating Traditions and Planning Celebrations

Send out invitations at least two weeks before the party. Use this opportunity to be creative if you'd like. You can make fun and inexpensive invitations by purchasing a box of blank cards at a stationary or office supply store. Glue a candle on to each card, attach paper dolls, or make color copies of the birthday babe's hospital photo. Be sure to keep one card to frame and present with your child's cake or keep for her photo album, baby book, or scrapbook.

If the thought of making your own invitations sounds too time-consuming or daunting, there are many online resources for printing your own invites. Websites, such as www.mycardmaker.com offer free downloads and templates for printing your own invitations.

A helpful invitation-making and mail-order site, announcingit.com, adds, "Don't feel you must create a theme to build the party around. Your party already has one theme—it's a Birthday Party!"