To not want to give out bags of tat at birthday party?

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DS is having a party for his 5th birthday next week. 25 kids and I’ve just been adding party bag fillers to my Amazon basket, there is now £100 worth of the usual crap in my basket ready to purchase….surely I can get something better for £4 per kid?

im trying to avoid sweets as 3 of the kids attending are type1 diabetic so thought it would be easier to have non-edible party bag contents.

Sand bottle art? Asda do heart and star shaped ones, £1.50 each. I always see them in George home.

groceries.asda.com/product/creative-play/gl-style-sand-bottle-art-heart-or-stars-age-3-years/1000298315180

Now that is a good idea but can I have chocolate please.

Just to add I still have the pottery painted things, some of them over 40 years old. The kids weren't interested in them when they grew up although they'd have been upset if I'd thrown them in the bin when they were kids. Now I feel bad about throwing them away although when I go to the big party in the sky they will just go in a skip. Mean while they are yet more clutter and to be honest they aren't even vaguely attractive clutter.

😂. If you have enemies, you could do worse than to give their kids a "paint your own teapot" or "make your own giant bear" kit.

Personally, along with slime, I always view these things as minor acts of aggression. Or 'friendly fire', if I think they're kindly meant.

Probably kindly meant, reminds me of an exteacher I worked with. She had taught keystage 1. One day she came into work and was moaning like mad about her son's teacher. He was in year 1 and it was a make a model of something or other, on she ranted about does the teacher realise we don't have time for all this crap. I listened for a while and then asked if she'd sent kids home with similar tasks when she was a teacher. She thought about it and said she had never thought of the stress she'd caused and I said well now it's payback.

It was a strangely satisfying conversation.

Love this idea!!

I did a book, cone of sweets and individual cup cake.

You need to have consumables that won't end up cluttering up homes or the bin.

Small colouring or dot to dot books
Small packet of colouring pencils
A bubble wand/bottle
Small sweets like haribo
Birthday cake

That's it.

I agree with this - my DC enjoy going though their little bag of tat and haribo after a party. Neither they (nor I) want seeds or a craft kit - it's like being given homework from the party tbh!

Books are either crap or we've got them already. They are more of a gift to the parents than the child.

Yes that sounds ideal.

For my daughter's 7th birthday, we did a suncatcher and a pencil with a rubber topper
https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/craft-activities-for-kids/paint-your-own-suncatchers/5052089308831.html

https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/kids-stationery/pretty-pastels-pencil-and-eraser-set/5052089305335.html

For my son's 4th birthday we went with a sticker book and a pencil

https://www.axelbooks.com/products/playtime-learning-sticker-activity-10-books-collection-set-by-make-believe-ideas?variant=41737668788399&currency=GBP&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google+shopping&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw06-oBhC6ARIsAGuzdw1-g4n_Rnc-D7sQBSnL0ep2R5g9F6pLFlH2sP0YfA0nmRQYQcXzEEwaAtzvEALw_wcB

I sometimes gave some books from the works and bubbles. What about some kids activity books or little colouring books?

Book for 99p and a bag of sweets

Flower seeds

Sweet cones £2

I got prefilled party bags from curious caterpillar for my son's party. They have an "eco friendly" section. Surprisingly it actually worked out much cheaper than buying the bits individually, and a few qiud extra for some sweets from tesco.

i once just bought a loads of those fly away footballs from home bargains for £1 each and gave all those out with a piece of cake. I resent buying all that stuff as I used to just bin it all whenever my kids came back from parties with party bags

Not many will go out of their way to go and buy seeds, but being given them would nudge (most) parents to engage with their kids and actively plant them
Seriously?! "Not many" parents would bother planting seeds with their children, but you can single handedly change that by graciously dispensing the seeds in your party bags?

Wow! I honestly don't know where to start with this.

Mini football each would go down well here

There are ten different books per pack and multiple different pack options. The probability of exactly the same book at every party is minuscule - especially as kids will have probably been to the same parties and the other mums will have seen which series of books has already been given out, so can avoid them. And on the odd time it happens they can just swap.

by the way for kids with November birthdays, chocolate advent calendars go down a storm.

I ordered a gaming set from Amazon £15 for 12 and includes a material bag a key ring and a wrist band, there are some good things on there. You can also include sweets and chocolate, my son is type 1 diabetic and they can still eat these things they just need to have insulin to cover the carbs 😊

There are ten different books per pack and multiple different pack options. The probability of exactly the same book at every party is minuscule - especially as kids will have probably been to the same parties and the other mums will have seen which series of books has already been given out, so can avoid them. And on the odd time it happens they can just swap.

I don't care what they get in their party bags tbh.

"But the other mothers will have seen which other books have been given out, so can avoid them..."

This vision of spreadsheet Mum is so far away from my experience of being a mother with 4 kids that it's hilarious.

Who knew which series of books was given to which kid , when, god knows? Or where it would be now or did it end up down the back of the car seat under squashed cake🤣 Or thrown around as I was telling them to get their shoes on and left under the coats.
God knows.

My son recently had a party and admittedly I collected bits for ages but the main elements were little pots of putty/play doh (sets of 4 for like £3), sheets of stickers (cheap from SHEIN), a hot wheels car/cheaper similar one, I found some little trolls sets reduced to £1 each, football stickers/cards or similar, some make your own slime/snow packs for like £1.50 each and then some little bags of sweets. Look in the reduced sections in Tesco as they often have toys. Also try The Works or The Range kids sections.

If the book ended up "down the back of the cat seat" what would it bloody matter if they got a duplicate?

Like I said I don't care what's in a party bag because it doesn't matter. 😁

Party Bags are a little bonus if anything, but neither here nor there really.

Parents are very kind to do them, but in the grand scheme - important - NO.

Hi,
Another Type 1 mum! Just to clarify that Type 1 children do not need to avoid sweets or cake - they need insulin for anything that has carbs anyway…even a piece of bread!
I think the book and a bubble wand is a great idea 😊