Books instead of party bags

[listsandbudgets]

Bored witless of the plastic that mainly gets thrown away

Its for 7 year old boys. I'm trying to find a good collection that i can distribute. The book people have The 13 Storey Tree House collection would they be any good along with a few sweets and a slice of cake?

Honestly anything you get is going to be ignored after about ten minutes.

Best thing we ever got was a Harry Potter pencil which still gets used. Personally I think just sweets and cake is good enough (although if you like the pencil idea and have a Kenji nearby, they do amazing and really cheap stationery).

My DS (6 nearly 7) would love that. I think it’s a decent choice as if they’re free readers they can read it and if they’re not they can have it read to them.

We had a 6th birthday where picture books were given out. DS1 was polite but has never looked at it. Luckily DS2 was delighted. As was I because you can never have too many books!

Depends, are they stand alone stories in the set? If not and you need the whole lot, it might not work.

But I’m all for different ideas for party bags, rather than plastic crap that’s gets binned. My dd went to a party and she got a lovely little notebook and pen instead of a party bag.

Book with a treat size chocolate bar cellotaped to the front is perfect, I think.

I totally get where you are coming from (and feel exactly the same) BUT all my children adore party bags and despite being enthusiastic readers feel very shortchanged when they get a book instead of a bag of tat.

For my son's 7th birthday, I got brown kraft bags, and put in

• fun snaps (mainly carboard and paper, although they did have a plastic wrapper)
• mini envelope of cress seeds
• paper wrap of sweets
• cake
• 20p piece (for some reason this caused great excitment!)

So very little plastic but still quite fun for them to dig through!

13 storey treehouse are fabulous books which I would highly recommend. However, not great for parties as they are much better read in order. They literally build on each other - 13 storey, 26 storey etc.

Also they are better for Y3/4 unless you have a very able group, I would say.

Thank you all.

I didn't realise they built on each other and not sure I can stretch to 20 full sets!! Glad I asked now.

Off for a rethink. My other thought was getting pencil cases and filling them. I did this for one of DD's parties and it went down really well - to the extent that I had a couple of parents whose children couldnt' make it messaging me to ask if I had any spares

I would prefer this to party bags. So would DS5. I’m not sure 13 storey tree house would still be entertaining at 7 though. It’s not really all ages (I loathe them and can’t wait for DS to grow out of it).

Pencil cases also a good idea. Cross posted with your update, what about rohl Dahl? Or the lady bird books do a really good history collection. Activity books with pencils might also good down well.

We did filled pencil cases - pencil, sharpener, rubber, temporary tattoo and mini bag of Haribo.

It went down well :)

Books instead of party bags is pretty standard for my 7 year old DS's parties now. He did get a storey tree house one recently and they all read theirs then swapped with each other - I think they can be read out of order (DS and certainly seemed quite happy to do so). Other good choices for that age are beast quest, captain underpants or Lego build books. Try the book people for really cheap deals.

We did books but at 5 not 7. I found that at 7 there is a huge variety of abilities, we had one boy reading Harry Potter and another still working through first reader books.

I would go for the pencil case ones or small colouring in book with pencils?

One party DD went provided cookie mixture in a jam jar. All dry ingredients pre-measured with the recipe and a £1 coin towards the wet ones. Lots of fun for a rainy afternoon.

Boggles for a 5 year old, are you thinking of the magic treehouse?? 13 story treehouse is, if anything, for older kids than 7.

Yes to a pencil case (and love the 20p idea!), or an activity book and pen? Those 4 coloured biros were popular here about that age.

We once had seeds and a small plant pot instead of a party bag. Sounds a bit odd but I thought it was a good idea

I’ve done this a few times and I’ve never had a negative comment. Treehouse books wouldn’t work but there’s plenty that would. Sticker books also work well. Have a look at the book people.

We do party socks. Socks with sweets in! :)

What Ive always dome at my children's parties is I throw a theme party and buy different colour party bags and at the begaining of the party they pick what colour empty bag they want as we go through the party and we play plenty of themed games but basically they are (piñata, pass the parcel, treasure hunt, feel box, ballon pop with things inside, water games, spy game, code games, dance games and for each game they either get things playing the game or there are winners (I make certificates, cheap trophy's/medals from Asda etc, and the kids fill they bags throughout the party they absolutely love it and aslong as you make sure there's plenty for every child there is no prroblem, then I but a themed party box/bag for them all to take a slice of cake home with them and something themed for instance one year was Alice in wonderland I renamed it child's name wonderland and each of the children were given they cake bag with a tag on it saying open me and inside a new straw cup with a tag saying drink me and the cake slice had a sticker on serviette saying eat me, one year we had a Peter Pan party for that party children had to fetch a teddy and adults a umbrella and be in they pyjamas to be able to 'come to neverland' party bag with the cake had a jar of pixie dust and a fairy wand for the girls and the boys had blow up swords and they all had stickers of mermaids, crocodiles (tic toc) and pirates, another year we did Disney princess so an apple (Snow White) a plastic fork put a tag on it that it was a dingle hopper ( aerials to brush they hair with or of corse eat they cake with), and a child's lipstick with another tag saying for kissing the frogs (Tiana) and of corse a Disney princess book (belle) the kids always love them and so do the parents and they leave the party with two party bags full that haven't cost a lot I theme absolutely everything from the rooms, games the certificates the invites to the party bags and dress up and often people turn up dressed up too when there's a clear theme

At that age mine liked the stories about footballers, which were not sequential. Guests all share them between each other after they had been read also.

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?productId=1002503

How about the Bear Grylls Adventures. They are stand alone.

Puzzle books would be good. My kids once got just regular plain pencils and were quite disappointed as we have loads of school pencils, but character pencils would be fun.

Adults prefer it to party bags, but I'm honestly not convinced that kids would. I'm an avid reader, but it's a bit boring as far as post-party offerings go.

Oh, and when it was my daughter's birthday, we did mason jars with sweets in. You know, the glass drinking jars with the screw lids and the straw in? That went down very well, and looked the part too. Think they were only a pound from one of those cheap shops.

We did a party bag with a book. Did the cake, book, some sweets and a hatchimal each.

So not too much plastic but enough variety for it to feel like a party bag.

I second the Roald Dahl suggestion, you can usually get those books in a discounted set.