Collecting the presents at the party
- Leave a box on a table for checks and have a Bat/Bar table for the presents.
- Take away the presents early in the evening and place them in a locked room.
- It happens often that people lose gifts. At the end of your party, check all around and make sure that no gift was left behind.
- It is recommended to choose one family member that will be responsible for gathering the gifts and seeing that they are kept safely.
Opening the gifts
- Now that the B-Mitzvah is over, it is time to open the gifts. Isn’t it fun?
- When you open the gifts, write down a list of what you got from whom. You will need the list to write the thank you notes.
Thank you notes
- The thank you notes are a wonderful way to express genuine gratitude to the guests who attended the simcha.
- Arrange a day to have all the thank you notes written.
- Where to get thank you notes? The Doc usually gives thanks with thank you notes for Bar Mitzvah present at FineStationery.com
. Anyway, these notes are to be found in any stationery shop.
- Let the BM child write the thank you notes. After all, it is the child who got the presents! There is something sincere and happy about a thank you note hand-written by a BM child.
- Make the thank you notes warm and personal. Say something about how special it was to have them share these happy moments together.
- For those who gave money gifts, mention in the notes what the money will be used for (college fees, a new laptop, books, etc).
- For those who gave gift certificates, mention in the notes what you plan to get from the shop.
- Writing thank you notes to out-of-towners? Talk about what it meant to you that they made the effort and traveled the distance.
- Close the note with something sweet like: “Hoping to see in my wedding!”.
Guests with no gift, or gift with no guest!
- Missing a gift from one of the guests? Or maybe that guest simply did not intend to give a gift? Maybe you lost it? Or is it a gift that you don’t who gave you? What to do? This is a tough one!
- First, check if gifts or envelopes were left behind at the party hall. It happens a lot!
- How long to wait? Should you ask the guest about it? Maybe they never intended to give a gift?
- Some people will bring you gifts later. Be patient and wait around 2-3 weeks to see if a gift comes. The Doc remembers gifts that came three months after the event!
- The Doc’s friend, Bob, always forgets the checks in his pocket! This happened to him 3 times! Then, at the morning after, he runs with his car to put the check in the mailbox of the family followed by an embarrassing phone call.
- The Doc does not recommend calling the guest and asking about the missing gift…
- The Doc thinks you should still send a thank you note even if there was no gift. Make a generic thank you note saying something like: “Thank you for helping me to celebrate my BM party” or “Thank you for participating in my BM party…” etc.
