Prince George's First Birthday: No More Gifts, Please...The Prince Has More Than Enough

Prince George's First Birthday: No More Gifts, Please...The Prince Has More Than Enough
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As Prince George celebrates his first birthday today (July 22), he will no doubt be overwhelmed with messages from wellwishers.

And that's just fine – as long as they don't come accompanied by birthday presents!

According to the Telegraph, baby George's parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, would prefer the public to hang on to their toys and gifts because, frankly, the boy prince has received more than enough over his first year.

In fact, insiders say Prince George has received more than 4,000 presents since he was born! You can only imagine the door on his playroom is straining on its hinges trying to accommodate them all.

In the past 12 months, the Prince has been given everything from an Aston Villa hat to a fattened bull.

Some were sent to Kensington Palace as christening gifts from members of the public, others have been given to William and Kate during walkabouts, and yet more have been official gifts from overseas countries.

To date, presents have been sent from 48 countries, though not all of them could be put in the post.

The chief minister of Australia's Northern Territory named a crocodile after the Prince, to whom it now officially belongs, and the Dudley Zoological Gardens in the West Midlands named three meerkats George, Alexander and Louis - the prince's middle names - after they were adopted on his behalf.

In Kenya, the Samburu people donated a fattened black bull and a goat. The bull will be used to start a new 'royal herd' in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.

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There have also been plenty of gifts of more use for a baby, including clothes, blankets and toys, which began arriving shortly after his birth and once again the deliveries increased in number as George's birthday drew near.

While the majority of the gifts, especially toys, are passed on to children's charities, some, including clothes sent by British designers, are kept by the Duke and Duchess.

Not that the Royal parents are ungrateful. In fact, to show their gratitude on the occasion of their son's birthday, they released a statement thanking people 'for their warm and generous good wishes to George and our family'.

Meanwhile, photographs taken to mark the birthday were released of the Prince on an outing with his parents to the Natural History Museum in London, of which the Duchess is patron.

The Duke got a blue morpho butterfly to settle on the back of his hand, much to his curious son's fascination.