Ideas instead of party bags

[SpanishFly]

My son's 8th bday party is in a few weeks. The venue supplies very basic party bags as part of the cost, i.e. bag of crisps, lolly and something else that I can't remember.

Anyway, I make and sell personalised gifts, e.g. advent calendars, baubles etc, and thought I might make the kids a personalised bauble each with their name on. Yay or nay?

Or can any of u think of anything else that would be a but different but low cost? I have a cricut machine so cutting vinyl names etc is easy. Thanks in advance xx

Sounds lovely.
Another cheap present is a book.

My son is about to turn 7 and we are giving each child a pack of top trumps (& a piece of cake) instead of party bags.

A bauble probably won’t appeal to an 8yo boy, but maybe a personalised pencil case would work? Sort of like a wallet.

What about a plastic drinking cup with a straw you can usually pick them up for a pound each you could personalise them if you wanted to, my daughter used super hero ones for one of her dc party, she just put a piece of cake in it

Your baubles sound lovely but might not be appreciated by that age group. In the past I have bought sets of books from The Book People and split them which works out at around £1 or less per child. If party bags are being supplied anyway could you add a personalised cupcake?

I read your title very literally at first and had fleeting image of you hanging out ideas or philosophical concepts.
"Thanks for coming Jodie, your idea to take away and consider is 'do religions always cause conflict. Now Sam, thanks for your lovely present- can I leave you with the concept 'the dealth penalty acts as a deterrent"

But am glad it was only fleeting! I agree that whilst am sure the baubles are lovely, 8 yr old boys not target market. Personalised pencil case or reference to a shared game (fortnite/minecraft) as a fob? (My Dd is 15 so my knowledge of the likes of 8yr old boys is limited!)

DD aged 9 recently received a pebble decorated and with her name on in a party bag and loved it. Also personalised bookmark with a quote on and a secondhand book.
We tried charity shops for random toys to go in ours and that worked.

Book from the book people?

I love the idea of small personal gifts or favours instead of party bags. My children give out candy canes with personalised labels to their school friends instead of cards and that's always gone down really well.
I don't think baubles would be much of a hit but there must be something else that would work. Perhaps something from the party theme? Or pirate name plates for bedroom doors? Personalised key fobs for their school bags?

Books are great but our school give out Book People books at every event and my kids now have a massive amount of copies of the same book. (I'm looking at you, bloody Gruffalo...)

Sweet cone?

My Ds is that age. If it was at Christmas, maybe. If the party is more than a week outside of Christmas, he’d be a bit disappointed. He loves the bags of crap.

My 12 year old son would love a Christmas bauble with his name on, and would have at 8 too. I don't think books would work at that age as there is too much variation in interests and reading ability. I gave out American handballs (small rubber balls) for my DS's 5th birthday, which were well received.

Party bags have usually meant he ate half the sweets (the ones he liked) in the car, and binned the rest of the sweets and the plastic as soon as he walked in the door.

We went to a party where every child chose a book from a pile from The Book People. I thought it was a fab idea.