to be going bonkers over bloody party bags!!!

[OAM2009]

2 year old boy's party on Saturday. Came back from hols abroad last Thursday so doing it all at the last minute (again )

1. are party bags supposed to be individualised? ie different ones for babies, older children, etc
2. are they supposed to be done by gender? (hate gender stereotyping but did admit to myself that 4 year old girls might not like toy diggers that much!)
3. is it acceptable to fill them up with all the hair I've pulled out????

OK, should now stop MNetting and go and clean entire house for incoming relatives and/or do bloody party bags!!!!

A book, whoopie cushion, sherbert dip. Perfect :)

I am the mum that everyone hates, I LOVE planning parties and always go over the top. Not because I want to be competitive but because I think "oh that's a good idea" and "oh that's good for party bags forgetting I have already bought a million things for party bags I always theme the party and make stuff my self so it doesn't cost much more than a plain soft play party.
Last year for DDs Dora party the party bags were Dora backpacks - made out of purple paper party bags and purple curling ribbon and boys had orange ones for Diego. I spent way too long making maps out of white felt and putting maps face on etc. kids loved them though
This year she's having princess party so bags are themed princess for girls and knights for boys.

Oooh, this has brought back fond memories of indoor treasure hunts with chocolate coins. Each child then put their treasure in their (named) bag and took it home,by way of a party bag.
We also had some parties where the game inved throwing (wrapped) sweeties into a big, plastic bowl in turns then tipping the bowlful into the named bag.
(Years later we were still finding chocolate coins in obscure places. Shows how conscientious I am about dusting :o )

Me too, jojane. Other parents think it is competitive but it's genuinely not. I do home-made OTT parties because it's what I love doing, and part of that is party bags to complete the theme.

You will find kindred spirits on Shirley party advice thread - planning other people's parties when we don't have any of our own to do.

DH used to work in Boots when they briefly sold console games - one year in the sales a lady bought 15 xbox games - to put in party bags!

Fuzzpig - my DC have received party bags that patently cost more than the present we took . The party bags that I do cost time, not money.

God, I'm about to be struck off MN - I love doing party bags. To be fair, DS1 is 4 and thus far, his parties have been staid events with 4 or 5 of his friends that he's known forever (antenatal group!) and I know the mums very well, so no angsting about whether my card's going to be marked for putting in too many sweets/too much plastic.

Last time, I got some cheapy white paper bags off ebay, set DS1 to decorating them with stickers and foam shapes, etc, and inside put a mini sticker activity book from Amazon (cheapy cheap), a 'rainbow' pencil from a £ shop multipack, a small tub of playdough I'd made with nice smells (orange, mint, lavender etc) and a little galvanised metal bucket (ebay again, v cheap in multipack) with some cress seeds inside to plant. And some haribo packets. And yes, tbh, it was as much for the mums as for the DC - I know them as good friends and knew they'd enjoy faffing about with the seeds and cute buckets.

From now on, it'll be parties with his school mates too, and probably more guests, and I'll be going down the time-honoured route of: slice of cake, some sweets, balloon, pencil, bouncy ball. I wouldn't ever want not to do them though - I really enjoyed getting them as a child and DS likes giving them (and getting them).

You can order them on line (to your chosen theme) and they come ready packed etc - they actually work out very reasonable price wise (can't remember the site I used but Google turned up plenty). All I did was buy some mini packs of Haribo to add. Took the stress right out of it for me.

If I had the money/time I would really like to do that as a business TBH.

Stickers! Especially for tinies, they love stickers. Stickers, haribo, cake and bubbles. 99p shop quite good for some of these.

If you have the energy for it, small presents can be nicely distributed via pass the parcel, especially when the adult in charge of the music is aware of the age/gender appropriateness of each layer's contents. (For more demographically complicated parties, some form of crib sheet may be required).

We got plain boxes off eBay and as children arrived they got to decorate a box of their choice with stickers from sheets out of a cheap sticker book. This went down well and was a good welcome activity that filled the first 15 mins nicely. An idea born of necessity when I couldn't get any bag or box I liked to fit with DS's choice of party theme. Plus I too got more excited about the party boxes than the actual party

We're also great lovers of a bargain and eBay. At short notice I would go for bag with cake and sweets, love the print out idea as you can tailor to your audience and theme. I can probably supply enough pots of bubble mix and sets of mini pencils after this year's round of parties if you're stuck!

pot of bubbles for each child and chocolate bar/sweets/cake: multi age/gender neutral.

I love the decorate-your-own idea, my friend did that with paper bags at her DS' party. I would probably do that if I was able to host a party in our house, but I am not because the house is about the size of one of the party boxes :o

I go way over the top but I love seeing my kids enjoy the party. I always do a themed invite, this year was scrolls written in olde englishe, last year for Dora I super imposed DDs head onto Dora's (made her wear a wig and everything)
I even try and make the sweets fit the theme. This year is choc crowns, choc coins, sweet bracelets, hearts etc to fit in with princess/ treasure theme. Also making cake pops to go in - princesses for girls and knights for boys.

What are cake pops?

What about getting lots of bits and bobs and decorating a bucket, shoving everything in there and letting every child choose X number of items? Bit different from the normal pre-bagged party bag.

You don't have to give any guests anything. If you really want to, I would suggest one decent item - a story book, a colouring book or whatever. If you add up how much it costs to fill a party bag, one good item is in all likelihood cheaper and definitely easier. Who needs a house full of plastic bits and pieces?

Update - thanks again for all the hints and tips! As I have fucked it up left it too late this year, I will put all the best tips into action for the next one.

To make things easier to do, DCs decided to pick up a wheezing and vomiting bug Wed/Thurs So, only managed to get more done after a trip to Asda this afternoon and throwing money at the problem!

The final tally for the party bags is:

1 x mini water pistol
1 x mini football
1 x noise maker (various, clappers, whistle lips, etc)
1 x smiley stretchy man
1 x micro car
1 x Milky Way
2 x little Haribo bags
2 x chocolate coins (girl, boy or gold/silver)

Touchable bubbles HAVE NOT ARRIVED!!!! Hopefully, they'll be here tomo am before we set off!

Girls are going to be loving these bags but we are blue x 10, pink x 7 so majority wins!!!

Thanks again for all the help , wish me luck for 17 kid party tomo!!!!!

Cake pops are little balls of cake and buttercream n a lolly stick and covered in choc and sprinkles. Google and you will find some great ones

Yay, touchable bubbles arrived and went in! We did remember to give them out and they seemed to be appreciated!

Awwww. Smily, stretchy men.......
DS LOVED these.
Well done OAM.

Ikea do packs of finger puppets!

wrathomum!

Actually feeling quite smug as think it all went really well, and actually did have lots of nice comments about the smily stretchy men. People were texting me to say they stick to walls and the ceilings, so we then enjoyed throwing them at our house as well

Party bags can be a nightmare all those horrible plastic bags filled with tat, the kids love them though! I have used The Friendly Party Bag Co before they do fab fabric bags, they are going for the 'upcycled' thing, you can get them filled or unfilled and they our personalised. Bit posh but for a small group of kids, affordable they do cheaper paper ones to, worth a look... thefriendlypartybagco.co.uk/