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.

If it's safe for the kids' ages, what about non-plasric drinking straws (not glass, but metal / dried pasta / I'm sure there are further options too).

We don’t do bags as such, just a sticker/activity book for each child plus cake. Was £2 each for the book and we had little cardboard cake boxes with handles

After reading about the idea of a piece of fruit last night, I had an thought... I might try to get or make chocolate dipped apples on sticks with sprinkles. Not toffee apples as I don't want little ones hurting their mouths/teeth. But I thought that would be a fitting thing for an October birthday.

I have organised craft activities as part of the party that were then put in the party bag to take home.

One favourite was a grass head made with muslin rather than traditional tights. A bit messy amd needed lots of adult help hut it was a small party and adults stayed.

Decorate your own kits from Baker Ross.

We had a treasure hunt in the garden and kids got to take home the treasure. (Carefully orchestrated so everyone found something - reuse your own bits of plastic tat for this or charity shop / ebay)

Car racing game - they kept the cars. (second hand from Ebay).

@Twool .. ebay for second hand lego figures..

@Bzzz I'm genuinely interested to know, why not secondhand?

Something that they will all use and will not go to waste, and is relatively cheap is a pack of felt tips. You can get crayola sets of 12 on Amazon for £1.90. And they wash off clothes!

The book, a set of felt pens and something edible (cake?) and you’re done.

Books is a good call

The discounted sets from the now defunct "The Book People" were brilliant for splitting for party bags. Not sure if there's a similar supplier around - anyone know?

I hope you'll be giving each child both a Mr and a Little Miss book? That's the best way to neutralise sex-based assumptions on preferences.

Pair of books and some sweeties should be fine - Traidcraft sell big multipacks of their fairtrade chocolate bars and other sweets - perhaps worth a look (their catalogue is good for Christmas gifts too, plus a reasonable range of food and household goods)

They're still around. They're called Books4People now

You can't give yourself a pat on the back for being 'eco' when writing names on in permanent marker will surely prevent them being passed on in the future.

I also agree that this could potentially misfire if a child or parent thinks they've been labelled with a negative personality trait e.g. Ben is Mr Grumpy and Alice is Little Miss Naughty. I'm assuming this isn't your intention, but it could be misread.

@Calphurnia88 do you actually think I'd give a child something like Mr Grumpy?!!! Of course not!! I'm amazed at some of these responses, lol

I think the difference between the wedding and a child’s party ‘favour’ is that generally wedding guests will be faux delighted with anything you do/provide as they are invested in you and want to help make the occasion happy and special. At a kids party the parents will give it about 5 seconds thought and decide it’s a bit weird that you’ve written on the front of a book.

I’d give the book (without the marker pen on the cover), cake and a little craft kit from the range/hobby craft.

@AuntieStella To neutralise sex based assumptions or preferences?! Maybe if I was giving out gifts at school in one of my classes. I might make it more neutral. But I know the children and friends coming to Ds's party really well and their individual preferences. I don't think everything has to be gender neutral.

I need to remember, this is Mumsnet 🤦🏻‍♀️

Fair enough.

You've had multiple people say that this perhaps isn't the best idea for 4 year olds (for various reasons) but do crack on.

If you like a bit of diy, DD & I made hot chocolate bombs, & gave them in a latte glass. (£1 each from Asda).

I used paper bags for my sons party I bought cress seeds and spoilt into little brown cash envelopes and wrote instructions for growing, theses went down well although sone kids thought it was popping candy lol. I also filled little striped bags with sweets I bought multi pack of sweets and split these into the bags and a piece of cake the kids were happy.
I also 2nd don't write the child's name on the book as harder to reuse later on

I'm in agreement with several on here - don't write the children's names on the front cover.
There's a difference between "To Joe, happy birthday love Granny" written on the INSIDE of a secondhand book and a book with a name in big Sharpie letters on the front.
I can picture it now -
Kid 1 says "oh I already have this book", Kid 2 says "we can swap"
Kid 1 says "but it has your name on"
Kid 3 joins in "yeah you can't swap...your names on it... it's not allowed"
Kid 1 bursts into tears because they are 4 and that's what 4 year olds do.

I just think it looks cheap and would immediately bin it. You wouldn't give a 2nd hand present so i don't understand why you would give a 2nd hand party bag.
Books are something that can be bought so cheaply that i really don't think anyone will understand the need for a 2nd hand one, especially a 2nd hand one that isnt the most age appropriate. I would immediately bin the book

Hand out the books but writing names on the front is odd and ruins the books.

A table plan at a four year olds party is also odd and will end in tears when little Eva doesn’t want to sit next to Maisie because whilst they are normally really good friends today they hate one another.

Finally putting the books on the table means they’ll end up covered in squash/water etc when it gets spilled. Cue more tears.

The best party bag alternative my dd received was a strawberry plant. They all had the children’s names on the pot and dd absolutely loved it and proudly served up “her” strawberries when they arrived.

Keep it simple. Cake, book, a few sweets. I'm not keen on the sweetie cones as it's generally too much - especially straight after a party where they've have cake and sweets already.

In DDs reception year she had a party pretty much every weekend. We had tonnes of these cones piling up in the kitchen cupboard. We couldn't get through them quick enough and most ended up getting thrown away.

My only contribution is for those who put sweets in to check if they are vegan- friendly. My dd often goes to parties where they cater perfectly with the food but the party bag is full of sweets she can't eat. It doesn't go to waste as her siblings eat them and she doesn't really mind but I'm not sure too many people are actually aware!

We're boring, we just give sweets. Everyone's happy.
But if you want to do something a bit more then that's fine op. Sounds like you enjoy it. Sorry you're getting such a tough time on here.

(But I do also think writing names on books is silly, what if they have that one already then can't swap?)

You really don’t have to do that OP re sex based assumptions. You really don’t.

Nice!

Seeds are a lovely idea, but it's nearly October so not really the best time, so might be quite lacklustre. All my kids really care about in a party bag is sweets etc. I'd go with books and edible stuff (if you want to stay healthy ish they love any of that fruit winder type stuff)