Help! Birthday! Is this true???

[Vitallyli]

Hi I'm planning a little Birthday party for my 1yo in a kids cafe. There will be 10 kids age 6m-4yo. I am not from the UK and just realized they might be expecting guests presents? Not a thing where I'm from! What sort of thing would be appropriate and how much money do I spend on it per child? Does everyone get the same thing?

Do you mean party bags? It's usually a piece of cake and a few little toys like you buy in bulk from poundland

I think you mean a party bag.
I normally spend around £1 and go to the pound shop and get 1 thing like a book or a toy rather than lots of plastic rubbish.
I then add a packet of sweets.

Other ideas would be bubbles or a sweet cone.

Google pre-filled party bags and save yourself some time

Party bags are pretty standard for parties where kids are 3+ but that's just a few low priced items and a piece of cake. We certainly didn't do party bags when DS had his first birthday party.

I have never heard of guest presents (2 dds aged 1 and 4). Am in UK. Unless you mean party bags (little bags of sweets/little cheap toys)? And even then they are not mandatory, it's about 50/50 whether people do them in my experience.

I used to place a slice of the birthday cake in a "party bag" for each guest to take home but there is no need for a present for each of them.

Happy birthday to your little one!

For this age range I would just pop a book, bubbles and cake.

If you have time you can order from the works they sell very reasonable priced book like 10 for £5.00 get on ebay and buy a 12/15 pack of bubbles shouldn't cost more than a couple of pound.

To be honest though it's not a must these things can add up so popping a cake in a bag will be fine for this age.

My eldest's first party was when he was 2 and instead of party bags I did a helium animal balloon for everyone (bought from Amazon and filled ourselves with a canister we still have and use for a couple each birthday, he's now 5!). For one year olds I think they'd love a balloon to go home with - maybe one of those small foil ones on a stick, you can get them at Card Factory. Or a book, which you can get in Poundland

I wouldn't do a party bag for a one year old

I wouldn’t do party bags for a one year old either. They’re massively losing popularity for older kids too, but they’ve never really been a thing for one year olds. Don’t worry about it.

“Party bags” are a thing.

Usually a small bag (plastic ones with Disney prints can be bought from supermarkets, more stylish paper or fabric ones can be bought online).

They usually contain something like a packet of crayons, stickers and a mini chocolate or sweets. But can also be very extravagant - DC have received some insane ones over the years!

If you’re in a cafe and they do giant cookies or gingerbread men you could put one in a paper bag and tie with ribbon for each child guest - this would be fine.

Other options are books/colouring books and give these out. Rather than put them in a party bag these tend to be put in a shopping bag and children encouraged to do a lucky dip.

Yes party bags... usually contain a slice of the birthday cake, sweets, a balloon (not blown up) bubbles, mini toy like a yo-yo for example, packet of crayons.

Lots of people don't do these anymore I've noticed and give a piece of cake and a sweet cone. Some people give the kids a book instead... usually from the pound shop!

I’ve never bothered with party bags, especially not at age 1 when they mainly contain choking hazards and sweets!

People do expect them from my experience and it's a good prompt that it's time for everyone to leave when you start handing them out!

I’m assuming they are losing popularity as they normally contain plastic tat.

OP, the best party bag we ever had was a tiny biodegradable pot, compost in a bag and some cress seeds. Just had a sweet cone the other day that was popcorn with a few sweets on top. Perfect.

For one and two year olds I bought a multipack of books (10 Elmer books for £10 sort of thing) from the Book People, I think they trade under a different name now and wrapped them and gave them as the guests left.

Any supermarket party aisle is your friend for party bags.For anyone 3+ I did party bags, I bought a stack of paper bags and put a slice of cake, some bubbles, a pencil or little highlighter or novelty rubbers and a couple of fun size chocolates or haribo bags.

For Dds 10 th birthday I got some little pots for the children and set up an area where the children could chose 5 things from a selection to fill their tubs with, that went down a treat.

You definitely don’t have to do them, especially for a one year old. But they are a good prompt to show its time to leave.

If you’re having a cake you could wrap slices of that up in napkins to send home? No need to put it in actual bags.

It's not necessary and certainly not for a 1 yr olds birthday.

I didn’t do party bags until mine were 4

I wouldn’t do party bags for 1 year olds, and I wouldn’t be adding to waste with plastic tat or using helium. Give them a balloon (biodegradable, not those awful plastic or helium ones) and a piece of cake to take home if you like.

So I don’t think you need to worry about party bags

A party bag is just something to take their bit of cake home in. You can put a novelty toy in if you want but it's not essential and there probably wouldn't be anything suitable for such young kids.

For my childs.1st birthday instead of party bags I gave each child a lanka kade wooden animal with a 'thank you for coming note' on a tag. It worked for the guests 0-5yrs and cost about £2 a child with no waste.

In the olden days when I was a little girl, kids when home with a slice of birthday cake and a balloon. It went mad in the 90s (competitive party bags) but I refused to play. Got told off by a couple of irate 6 year olds once, but a few other mums applauded my bravery 🤣
I'm glad to hear it's settled a bit. Nobody needs a load of plastic tat.