Party bags, again

[FiveSatsumas]

Sorry, I know it’s a perennial question on here but I’d like opinions.

Party for my just-turned-five year old. Kids will be 4/5, one seven year old. Not a big party.

I hate tat in party bags. Not just the stuff that breaks in minutes but the colouring books that go unused, tiny tubs of Playdoh etc. I equally hate the virtue-signalling brown pencils + seeds + organic quinoa type. Which leaves me a bit hamstrung.

I’m planning on giving a small Lego set (example attached) and mini bag of Haribo (or maybe one of those Bear / yoyo snacks?). Is this OK do you think, or does it look miserly because it’s only two things? This would be my ideal to receive as a parent but that’s not the point clearly otherwise all the other parents would be handing out gin miniatures.

And advice welcome for a total fussbudget. I’d look normal if you met me, honest.

YABU - bring on the tat, they love it!
YANBU - that is fine/thoughtful/lovely/less likely to end in the bin.

My son would love to receive that. I would deffo do more sweets/chocolate and also a balloon though.

Lego is a great idea! I know people love the books but usually we got duplicates or books too young for her age. Kids love tat and sweets!

@reelcat you can't put Lego in the 'tat' group...
It's a highly sophisticated interlocking brick system 🤣

Lots of people do the book idea. Usually the books are a bit rubbish/ or we already have it plus my kids are always a bit disappointed with them tbh. They are expecting some sort of toy.
Lego would go down very well with my DC. I've seen these sets for £3.50 in Tesco. More than I'd spend on a party bag personally but it's a good idea in my opinion

My favourite party bags are mini bubbles and a few edible bits with a piece of cake.

I recently did my two year olds with a pack of organix crisps, milky bar, mini bubbles a small book and piece of cake. Seemed to go down well.

I understand your opinions of party bags but what you think of as tat may not be a child's opinion.

My kids love love love play doh, but would ignore colouring in books or books in general. My son loves lego but those small sets would get ignored.

Mine would have loved this at that age. Will it not be quite pricey though?

I agree that the lovely seed packets, hand whittled pencils, etc often end up unused and we’ve had some books which never get looked at. Mine love punch balloons. Not environmentally friendly I must admit but at least they deflate eventually and don’t clutter up the house. I’m just going to max out on the sweets this year 😬

That's exactly why the custom of party bags should end, you're never going to give 15/20/30 kids a bag full of inexpensive small gifts that they all like and use. It will always, always be landfill.

Kids do like tat, they'd probably also like a planet that's not been ruined by rampant consumerism. Party bags must be one of the very easiest things to cut out. That and those magazines with 200 pieces of plastic crap on the front.

They were in the Lidl aisle of doom at (?) £3 a few weeks back @Shinytaps , so I nabbed them (plus one Duplo equivalent for the little sibling toddling with). There's only five or six kids coming so it feels manageable; don't think I'd do it for a class of 30.

I came across one charity shop which had a 10p basket - full of party tat. OK, so it made them very little money, but I would guess that having something affordable for the kids to buy gained them trade from the parents.

I'm sure the kids will love it OP

My kids would love Lego and sweets! It's a great idea

@Needmorelego you are right there! Lego is definitely not in the 'tat' level it is top shelf premium party bag swag!

sounds perfect (with Haribo rather than the fruit snack!) but also send a slice of cake and I’d put a couple of balloons in too

As a parent, I want at least one thing in the party bag that will keep my child occupied on the way home after you've filled them with sugar. Lego doesn't do that. At least send them home with a balloon too.
Mummy can I play with my Lego in the car? No, it'll get lost.
Mummy, I'll be careful, can you open it? No I'm driving.
Mummy, I opened it by myself. Oh, have you now.
Mummy, can you read the instructions? No I'm driving.
Mummy, I dropped it. Yes, that's why I said no.
Mummy, can you pick it up? No I'm driving.
And then lots of tears when we get home and I can't find all the pieces.
(Maybe fine if they're likely to walk home)

Lego at any other time is great.

To clarify, no arguments about giving the Lego, it's about only lego.

Totally give the parents gin miniatures 😂

It looks fine, don’t worry OP. I agree re party bags; we’re only just getting in to this now but for DS’s birthday his included a slice of birthday cake, a Freddo and some crayons and bubble mixture. More than enough, and half that would’ve been fine.

I would do the lego, a book from the works 10 books deal, a piece of cake and Amazon does brain teaser games party fillers.

Right, thanks to you lovely folks I've settled on-

The little Lego bag
A balloon
A tiny bag of birthday cake flavoured cookies that I chanced upon at Tesco
A Maoam sweet

No actual birthday cake in there, they'll get that at the end of the party with enough time to smear it on my patio furniture as nature intended.

I bought a 50 boxset of Mr men books for £30 and DD1 and DD2 had half each for their 5th birthday, this time around along with a novelty pencil and rubber topper for 40p each, a balloon, and some sweets. Total including bags around £1.30. I'm assuming they went down fine, no comments or complaints.

Definitely not Lego. It holds its value better than gold.

Parents love things like books, games, jigsaws. Hate tat.
Kids look at books a few times, play game do jigsaw. Then ignore for ever and it clutters house before parents drop off at charity shop.
Kids love tat more than anything. Keeps them amused for a few hours then is thrown.

When DD was younger I always used to put a clear soap with a toy in in the party bag. These mini toys varied year on year (fake goldfish, Lego mini figures, Disney princesses). They were BRILLIANT and the kids went mad for them (also encourages hand washing because the kids want to wear the soap down to liberate the toy ). They were made by soapsforlittlesuds.co.uk/ - not on their website but she would probably make a batch for you if you asked (small business).

Just do sweets and cake. No one is expecting you to spend £££ on little lego sets.

The kids love tat for the amount of time it takes them to get home and then they are immediately lost or broken.

You know you're going to get parents fretting about their babies choking on a balloon next.

We did books at those ages; everyone got to pick out 2 to take home. The Book People used to do fabulous bargain sets of great books, packs of 10, 20, 30, etc for young readers. ... I'm sure there must be online book sites that still do.