Party bag nostalgia, what did you love when you were a kid - pics pls

[trytoignoreit]

I'm planning a birthday party later in the summer for my DC (if it's allowed) and started thinking about party bags. I remember getting some of my most magical junk from them.

One of my favourites was the sliding puzzle... what was your best treasure ?

@LagneyandCasey

I must be very old as I don't remember getting party bags when I was a child. It was just a piece of birthday cake (always home made) wrapped in a napkin 😋

^ Same here!

@LagneyandCasey

I must be very old as I don't remember getting party bags when I was a child. It was just a piece of birthday cake (always home made) wrapped in a napkin 😋

Me too!!!! The cake would all be squashed and stuck to the napkin by the time you got home.

It wasn't really a thing in the seventies, you just got a slice of cake in a napkin and a balloon (that had been part of the decorations), maybe a bag of penny sweets in the paper bag they came in from the newsagents. There were prizes for the party games though.

One year, I had a Scottish dancing party instead of party games so my mum made "party bags" instead of prizes. I don't think you could buy party bags so she made them out of the samples from an out of date book of garish wallpaper samples from the hardware store with ribbons for handles (off cuts from her sewing box). She tied them to the banisters in the hallway as decoration. They had the traditional cake and penny sweets and a tiny felt mouse in a bow tie, jacket and kilt made by my DGM from her Beatrix Potter book of toy patterns.

Does anyone else remember the books of invitations you bought from the newsagent that everyone used? Like a pad of paper pre-printed with the invitation text and pictures, with blank spaces to fill in the names, dates and times etc, like a form?

It was always cake in a napkin, a few penny sweets, a balloon and some sort of small gift, like a pencil top rubber or plastic snake. One of my friends was very well off and her party bags always had scrunchies and felt pens!

Little beaded purses. Also used to like pink French Fancies, and clearly remember winning these as party prizes. I don't know if one of the mums holding a party did it and then all the others copied but it was definitely a thing.

A mini box ( not tube) of smarties

we didn't have party bags in Hungary😭

I usually add glowsticks and glow-in-the-dark balloons as I always get parents telling me how their kids loved those!

having a party for DS5 tomorrow (11) and we kept it simple this time, instead of party bags we bought footballs for each boy.
we did this for DS2 a few years back, his mates were very happy!

When I was a child you got a piece of cake snd a balloon.

God I used to love doing party bags for my DCs

Favourite ideas:

fold-up sunglasses
glow sticks
flumps (cheap but take up a lot of room)
caps - is that what you call them? you hit them with a stone and they crack
slime
older girl - multipacks of impulse and lip gloss split up