Parents are feeling the pressure to spend large amounts of money on their children's birthday parties, including goodie bags and smash cakes. — Photos: ANNETTE RIEDL/dpa
WHEN Stephanie Carlucci’s son was six months old, she started planning his first birthday party. The 34-year-old Downingtown woman picked a theme – little Dean would be “Mr. One-derful” – and filled her online Etsy shopping cart with the essentials: matching invitations, thank-you cards, banners, a high-chair ribbon, a custom onesie, and a hat.
She ordered “fancy catering” of charcuterie, pasta salads, and gourmet focaccia sandwiches from Carlino’s Market, she said, and secured a smash cake (that’s a mini-cake the guest of honour eats with their hands to mass applause). For the grown-ups, she crafted a signature drink, a muddled cranberry spritzer in honour of the January baby.
