What to put in a party bag? Cost effective and not plastic crap!

[PickUpAPenguin18]

I'm looking for some party bag ideas please. My son is having a 4th birthday party next month and there should be about 12 children coming.

I've already bought some second hand, 20p Mr Men and Little Miss books which I was going to personalise by putting their names on. I also have paper bags, not plastic.

I don't want to spend a fortune on bits and don't want to buy plastic rubbish that will just end up being thrown away and going into landfill. Any lost cost, environmentally friendly ideas? Thank you.

Sweets, lollies and chocolate.

Bath bombs!

A sheet of stickers! You can bulk buy off Amazon for about a fiver and keep for future party bags/your own kids... Win win all round

Don't put their names on the books as it makes them harder for them to pass once they're done with.

Little colouring book? Some stickers?

I would say packets of seeds for them to plant out but may not be the right time of year.

Stickers and sweets plus a bit of cake. Job done.

Book & cake sounds perfect. Or sweets, been to more parties recently that have just had a book with either or a paper bag with a variety of sweets. Pack of seeds?

Book is a great idea. Sweets and cake will do! Maybe a little notepad and nice pen? My DDs always seemed to use these - anything else was just tat and just ended up in the bin.

I agree about not personalising the books, I can't see the purpose for that. The book plus some chocolate or sweets and a slice of cake is plenty. You don't need to think too hard about it, children are happy with any kind of little treat.

We will be doing one of those punch balloons, a stretchy man, some cake and sweets.

In the past we have done seeds, chalkboards, crayons etc

Oh a and a temporary tattoo, they seem so popular at the moment 🤷

I would just do sweetie cones

DS's last party we did a book & a little bag of Haribo. Plus cake. Parents were made up and did the same for theirs.

A nice pencil and rubber with a little pad, or split a pack of gel pens. A balloon to blow up at home. Stickers. Sweets. Cake.

The kids were also chuffed, obviously!

I hate all the plastic tat, I intercept the whistles 😂

Thank you. Some great ideas. I've made a little list 😁
I want to personalise the books because I think it's a cute idea. Plus, we actually did that already for our wedding table places, personalised Mr Men/Little Miss books. The guests, young and old absolutely adored it! And I always thought it would work for a child's party.

@EcoCustard I really like the idea of seeds. It's eco friendly and a bit different.

We got some seeds from one of DS party bags. A complete and utter waste of time. They are sat there unused. It seems like such a lovely idea but my DS much preferred the party bag where he got a tiny pot of play doh.

DD's last party I didn't have much time to think about party bags so got a huge bag of sweets and shoved a handful in each bag ( actually DS counted out the same number for each cause he's like that). The kids loved them, the parents loved that they got eaten and were then not cluttering up the house.

A piece of birthday cake is fine, no child ever needed a party bag of shit plastic bought by a stressed parent, the kids don’t care.

You only need one gift - so stick to the books. Add sweets/chocolate (Freddo Frogs are good for this age) and you are done.
We always did biscuits in the shape of the birthday child’s age too.

Keep the seeds idea for next year.

I do sweet cone and piece of cake nothing goes to waste and no plastic tat

The seeds need to be in the right season. If they need to planted in the spring they'll be forgotten about and wasted.

Although the book thing may seem cute it'll just add to waste, they won't be able to pass it on when done so they'll end up in the bin one day instead of back in the charity shop.

An apple to go with the book? Have noticed people starting to give out fruit as a party favour.

My DD5 just loves all the plastic crap (seriously!), however for her own birthday party I bought massive packs of craft supplies and made up little craft packs for each kid. It took a fucking age but I was very proud 😂. Next time I am buying the plastic crap to save my sanity and my time.

Not sure that 4 year olds are really into Mr Men, I wouldn't personalise or they will just get binned rather than passed to charity shop which can be done if not personalised.