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.

I need to remember, this is Mumsnet 🤦🏻‍♀️

Well yes, which is the perfect place for you to fret about eco friendly paper party bags with secondhand personalised books and fruit.

The books and a piece of cake will be great - please no seeds, that is a chore for the parents.

Yes, seeds are just another job for parents.

A selection of choc bars from those multi packs, so the small Milky Ways, chocolate buttons and so on, will do fine.

Fruit's great but I have never seen it in a party bag.

Being honest that's the best idea I've seen. You can guarantee someone will have eaten it. I hate all the sweets in these bags that get binned as no one likes them

Yes, agree. Unless a child has an allergy or really hates chocolate, I would prefer to give chocolate over sweets.

Having come to the end of having two children in reception last year I'd say the biggest hits at the end of the school day when it's someone's birthday are when they have ran out of class having been given chocolate cupcakes or sweet cones.

You would bin a book because it is second hand?! That's awful.

I have given and received plenty of second hand presents in my life. It is fairly normal in my social circle.

Sure they like it but it is just setting them up to expect more. And more. A great failing in todays treatment of children. They are quite capable of being happy to go to a party, it’s a great shame that we take this away from them.

Different strokes TBH. Chocolate isn't hugely popular in our house, but sweets always get eaten 🤷🏻‍♀️
I like the giant bar of chocolate idea from a cost/ease perspective, but DD1 in particular would be very disappointed and wouldn't touch it at all. DD2 would eat a bit before leaving it to fester in her sweet pot.

To the PP asking about mini figures, I picked up some Muppets blind bags in Waitrose last week reduced to ~£1.50 for stocking fillers. The website with high quality knock offs is werebrickinit.co.uk and DCs were very happy with their offerings last Xmas.

We tend to do something like a book, a small selection of sweets, a gel pen (split from a multipack), and fancy pencil (rainbow leads are always popular!) in a paper bag, plus a slice of cake on the side. I have marbles on my ideas list for next year, although my DCs are a bit older.

I'm making up party bags this weekend. Our's have a little bouncy ball, a glow stick, pencil, ruler, small notebook, stickers, mini bag of Hariono sweets, bubbles and a couple of kids tattoos

Best one my child ever got had just a slice of cake and a small torch. Not a toy one, a proper metal case LED torch so it actually worked and was useful (though I think they were probably only a pound or two each in bulk) but my child thought it was brilliant and spent ages playing with it, doing shadow puppets, exploring cupboards etc. All the kids at the end of the party were really excited. And now the small blue torch lives in my car in case of emergencies.

I think a sticker saying thank you for coming to my party or similar, put inside the books would be nicer than writing on them with a marker pen.

Just give a piece of cake and a couple of fun size chocolate bars. Giving a load of second hand books just looks like you have had a clear out of your kids toybox.

We did sweets, bubbles (decent sized tub, not the teeny tiny ones) and a Lego initial key ring from madehappygifts. We personalised the colour to suit the child. The keyrings were about £2 each and the whole bag cost I think less than £3 a child, including sweets and bag. Keyrings went down well. It was a Lego themed party.

Agree with a PP- Go to Tiger, 20 quid, job done. All lovely things, pens, pads, seeds, lip balms, mini toys all eco friendly Danish stuff. Paper bags great Done.

Cake in napkin - that’s it.

I love that the OP said eco friendly and suggestions so far include:

Rubbers
Pens
Bubbles
Balloons
Stickers
Tattoos
Bucket & spade
Lego figures
Hot wheels
Yo-yos
Wiggly snakes
Glow sticks
Sweet cones

NONE of these are eco friendly in ANY WAY 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

My 4 year old loves Mr Men!

What's wrong with Lego? Not all plastic is tat. My DCs have inherited all my childhood Lego despite years of heavy use by me, and it will make it to their children should they choose to have them and I haven't had to flog the more valuable sets on ebay to pay the electric bill . The same is true for Hot Wheels cars, although they are metal not plastic. I only had one of those, but my DCs now own and play with it along with some newer ones.
Kids are allowed toys. What needs to be avoided is the cheap useless crap that breaks before you've arrived home and single use plastics.

Yup, every 4 year old I know loves Mr Men & Little Miss books and cartoons.

@SkankingWombat I don't think the posters were suggesting Lego or hot wheels that have been passed down the generations, I would have thought they meant the OP buying new?!

But do you really have to ask why Lego is not eco friendly?

It might be made of plastic but my kids played with the Lego I had when I was a kid 50 years ago.

If that's not an eco friendly toy, I don't know what is. Lego rarely ends up in landfill

Conkers. One on a string and a couple of loose ones. Piece of cake, couple of funsize choc bars.....kids all went home happy.

That's a brilliant idea!

I reiterate what most posters have said. Please don’t write on the front cover as then they can’t be swapped or donated. Anyone actually collecting a set would consider it ruined.
You wouldn’t have bought them if they already had names across the front.

A Freddo is a nice treat, or a mini bag of Haribo.

You could make some home made play dough and buy some small glass jars to put it in. I’ve made two cakes before and given a slice to everyone to take home after the party, this could go in the party bag too.