Next year I might drop the 1 kid per age birthday party

[artk2002]

It's "No more than one guest per year." Not "It must be exactly one guest per year." I get the feeling that you're trying to fill slots to make a magic number. Besides, it's a guideline not a legal requirement. Inviting a bunch of kids is fine, as long as you think that you and your child can handle the total number you invite. Don't ever plan on some people not accepting. Only invite the number of people you can handle.

Time-shifting the birthday is good, too. A month early, or a month late, or 6 months off are fine.

[Deetee]

It's "No more than one guest per year." Not "It must be exactly one guest per year." I get the feeling that you're trying to fill slots to make a magic number. Besides, it's a guideline not a legal requirement. Inviting a bunch of kids is fine, as long as you think that you and your child can handle the total number you invite. Don't ever plan on some people not accepting. Only invite the number of people you can handle.

Time-shifting the birthday is good, too. A month early, or a month late, or 6 months off are fine.

Actually, my party is one guest per year because that is what I told I daughter my daughter that she would have. And I will do what I told her I would do.

I will add that despite what several people (not just you) have suggested, I resent the suggestion that I would invite random people to make up some numbers. I only invite friends of my daughter that she cares about and wants to spend time with.  Also, as I already mentioned, I would be OK with 3 of the 4 kids coming, but I am not going to end up with zero guests.

For several reasons, I am rethinking what I will do next year.

For this year, I have three confirmed guests and maybe a 4th so we are all good to go. It worked well as I had only one set of kids (siblings) could not make it and the rest were in town.

[Lynn2000]

I will add that despite what several people (not just you) have suggested, I resent the suggestion that I would invite random people to make up some numbers. I only invite friends of my daughter that she cares about and wants to spend time with.  Also, as I already mentioned, I would be OK with 3 of the 4 kids coming, but I am not going to end up with zero guests.

I apologize if I contributed to that. After your clarification I understand better what you mean, that your daughter has a large number of kids she would be fine with as guests, and not only four.

[Lady Snowdon]

I'm really surprised that there are so many people saying birthday parties in June worked well for them!  I'm a June baby, and it was terrible trying to get people to come to my birthday parties.  In fact, after I was about 9 or so, my parent stopped trying, and I just had family parties from then on. 

DeeTee, I'm glad you've got it worked out for this year.  In coming years, I think a mid-January party would be fun, or a Valentine's Day party.  The Easter celebration you have sounds great too! 

[Deetee]

I will add that despite what several people (not just you) have suggested, I resent the suggestion that I would invite random people to make up some numbers. I only invite friends of my daughter that she cares about and wants to spend time with.  Also, as I already mentioned, I would be OK with 3 of the 4 kids coming, but I am not going to end up with zero guests.

I apologize if I contributed to that. After your clarification I understand better what you mean, that your daughter has a large number of kids she would be fine with as guests, and not only four.

Thanks, yes, there are about 8-10 kids that she plays with on a semi-regular basis. Her initial picks were all children that she plays with less often (due to circumstances not her preference) and I thought that was kinda neat.
When two of those couldn't make it (the siblings) I knew that she had another 3 close friends at daycare and another two friends in the outside world that she would be happy to invite (plus she might chose an aunt or grandparent)

I also apologize if I sounded defensive, but I started this thread because I realised that this is a much more unwieldy process than I initially envisioned and I don't plan to repeat this approach because of that. But once I have promised my daughter something I plan to follow through (This holds true for threats of time-outs and delivery of treats).