To ask for your alternatives to party bags

[TheoTheopolis23]

Had the great idea of doing sweetie cones from a poster on here (they were of the opinion that the toys were plastic tat, broke easily, crap for environment etc., Plus kids only really interested in the sweets so just do sweetie cones and I thought they had a point).

This went down a treat, no pun intended; another school Mum told me she was going to copy it so there have been a few more since.

What could you do instead, rather than sweetie cones again? There's an old thread saying personalized mugs, drinks containers, t-shirts etc.
But I can't see mugs or drinks bottles for less than £7/8 and there are hopefully going to be 40 kids. T-shirts - I thought you weren't supposed to put kids names on t-shirts for safety, and I wouldn't know what characters etc they're all into so ...

I can't see most of the parents going in for the plant a seed etc type stuff.

Personalised chocolate bars looked like a goer, but I'm hoping to do chocolate fountains and giving them a chocolate bar straight after is kinda more of the same.

Has anyone done anything else that went down well?

Thank you 🙏

We had biscuits made as favours for a kid’s Halloween party last year. Used the same lady for lots of different events and always seem well received.

Other hits have been colouring books, sweetie bags/cones, paint your own kits, cookie baking kits with a cutter, scrunchies for girls, yo yo’s, hula hoops, adopt a pet (soft toys)… can you tell we have quite a few kids 🤣

Not my idea, but one party we went to DD was given a canvas bag with a picture to colour on it and a set of fabric pens inside.

Great ideas that I have seen (unfortunately cannot take credit for) are things like including a selection of second hand books in the party bags, a ball that you can scribble on (Zoids Scriball), festival things (leis, glasses, festival bracelets), plant your own plants kits, make your own cookies. Out of those the ones that got played with (5 year old boy) were the balls and whistles! Kids like plastic tat and enjoy looking in bags to see what annoying things they have been given.

Baker Ross do some good activity boxes on different themes if you are after an easy gift experience. I like the race car and rainbow ones. We've also had the activity boxes from Toucan. Other parents just put lots of sweets out and the kids leave on a sugar high.

when dc were small we usually did some craft as an activity and the guests took home the results.

Rex London has some great quirky ideas and LOADS in the sale for parties!

We always did a lucky dip throughout our parties…

Every twenty minutes of so we set of a klaxon got the kids to queue up and had a bin full of the stuffing from one of our floor cushions set up full of gifts

Each time there was something different in the bin to search for … and the kids all had a named bag on a table that they could go and put it in

We always had a theme though which made it easier

One year we had a minion theme - we had a tube of minion bubbles, minion goggles and a banana….I’ve never seen so many kids excited about getting a banana!

The following year we had an Alice in wonderland theme and I put carrots with the fronds still on in the lucky dip and it was the most popular gift …. Children are weird!

These are from The Works! Usually £1/£1.50 per bag!

A friend of mine did hula hoops as well as party bags the venue did some included as part of their package

Soft toys.....https://www.bakerross.co.uk/mini-animal-bean-pals?utm_campaign=PMax-Villains&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw6yhx72__wIVxtLtCh21gQVREAQYASABEgLFi_D_BwE

We did build a bear, not that bad when you consider it is the entertainment as well.

I have done previously in addition to some pick and mix in a paper bag cookie mixes in a jar (£1 kilner jar from asda) with a lost of what to do with the jar afterwards
A book
A money box to paint
A hot wheels car

How about a fling ring/frisbee each?

I think it should only be consumables.
Some if these ideas are more like tat than the plastic toys. T shirts? Mugs? All just pointless stuff that will soon go to landfill. No one wants to wear a t shirt with scribbles from another kids birthday party.
Couldn’t be any less sustainable.

the Works often have some good bits

https://www.mumsmakelists.com/kids-party-bag-alternatives/

Inflatable something? You can get guitars which might fit with your disco etc?

amzn.eu/d/e8S1XvA

Or there are bulk buy websites but don't forget about VAT when you're looking at prices.

Years ago Mum use to a lucky dip style thing with Mr Men books (Taylor for the right ages). She’d wrap them up and put them in a massive mix which she’d cut a circle in so each child would stick their hand in to grab a book! She gave them all a bar of chocolate too! Box was padded out with tissue paper or shredded paper! Could do this with mini crafty kits for the kids to take home I guess

Big bubble wands? They can cost 50p.

I do the brown paper bags and print my own paper labels to go on them so they look nice (they hold a lot more!)

Then give them a little colouring book or mini craft activities. The baker Hughes type stuff is great and usually wooden rather than plastic. You can split the packs up.

One of mine came home with a little sign to hang on her door that she coloured in and it's still there 3 years later

I meant baker Ross! The joy of a party bag is coming home and doing the things in it/ eating some sweets

Cant you just do the sweet cones again?

How old are they 5-6?

Don't overthink this. Its a kids party not a corporate event

The last 3 parties my child has been to haven't had party bags, just a wrapped slices of cake - seems to be the trend here now.

the kids weren't at all bothered

Just do sweets - anything else gets chucked away by the vast majority and I can promise you 40 sets of parents will not remember/care what you did last year and certainly no child will. I am always vastly relieved when all my child comes home with is sweets and not more tat to clutter and then bin (not from a worthy perspective at all, it’s just clutter the kids don’t want/I don’t want to supervise planting etc).

Hobbycraft have some nice crafty things, a few little kits for £3 or under (we put in paint-your-own suncatchers which I think were 5 for £5).

I have a six year who going to alot of parties. Please do no do pots with seeds in. Last time it redecorated the car, the children were all upset as it boring and some of the parents had no garden. My daughter favourite party bags and her friends do have the plastic tat (noisy things being the most loved) and it's kept and played with alot. One of my friends said her son got a special box with it. As it was hot sunglasses went down well on Saturday s party. However painting sets gone down well. Books are hard this age (aged 6) due to how different the reading ages are...they range to just started to read to a free reader. My daughter at the lower end but taking off but she views alot of book s as babish now. My DD party coming up soon..got mini Lego((not real Lego) sets (gifted off Factbook marketplace) for the boys and a pretty notebook and pen for the girls.