To ask what your KIDS actually like in a party bag?

[wibblewobblebottom]

So many people here suggest a book and a packet of seeds saying 'they go down a treat '. As if a 5yo is "thrilled" at receiving a seed bomb and a book from the works? 😂

We used to give stuff like a big bar of dairy milk. Or a bag of haribo. Or whatever hanging bags were on special offer. And would also chuck in something else. Things like whizzing balloons or gel pens or blind bags or whatever the latest craze was at the time and depending on age.

So what do your kids actually like in a party bag?

Eh? I'm 40 and has party bags when I was young

Cake and sweets....well the icing off the cake followed by sweets.

Sweets and cake!

It depends on which child and how old. My older ones usually chose something like fidget toys, keyrings, cheap jewellery, scratch art etc
One year we gave out some little instruments, slap bands and mini painting sets. Another birthday we gave out little stress ball type things, slime and pop its. Another birthday we did squashie things, scratch art and keyrings. All with some little sweets because it seems obligatory but there are kids with diabetes so I make them separate bags with a little something extra. The kids have loved them but we do them for the entire class as I don't do big parties. When they have friends over we usually give a little activity set type thing out along with cake and balloons sometimes with a themed item. Like our Moana party they all got lei's.
I detest cheap plastic mass produced tat that usually goes straight in the bin or breaks within minutes and I'm not a fan of food party bags because of allergies, health needs and spacial diets.

I’m 42 and the only difference between 1980s party bags and now is that the bag is sometimes made of paper these days. They were widespread! You aren’t allowed to have your birthday party at Mcdonalds these days I suppose.

If someone gave my kid an energy drink I would tip it over their head. Love a bouncy ball though. A proper mega bouncy powerball one. Also kids have recently loved those 3d type glasses things that make everything into rainbows. Bag of iced gems always go down well.

Sweets. Just sweets.

I didn't say this is the first time I'd heard of them? I have friends with children. I just didn't get them when I was a child.

Seems I am alone in this though, maybe I just got invited to crap parties 🤷‍♀️

@TheBeesKnee maybe your parents just binned them on the sly. Did your mum also tell you that when the ice cream van played its song it meant it’d sold out…?

My DD won’t eat sweets, especially the sort in sweet cones. They go straight in the bin-not because I have any issue with them but she genuinely doesn’t like any of them. Loves chocolate though, bubbles, balloons, stickers. She also loves books though too. So a book or a sticker book would be her choice.

One of her favorites was a slinky but that was relatively pricey.

She also likes a proper big bit of cake covered in revolting thick fondant icing. Not those ridiculous tiny squares of cake with little icing on.

For the first few years we did no plastic tat. This year due to a complicated turn of events we did a haul of dinosaur themed plastic tat. It included slime which was very popular. Next year we will try to be plastic free again though. I felt the guilt!

There is absolutely no chance anyone around here would give out Prime drinks. That would leave parents aghast and you’d probably be put in the village stocks. Not the done thing.

The affluent families do a selection of old fashioned toys. There were mini stunt kites at neighbours youngest but their dad is a Viscount so they run to a different budget. I don’t spend £20 a head 😂

Mine always love the hooters/whistles the best 🙄

You know Prime isn't an energy drink right?

I think books only work if they are good quality and work with the theme, say a mog book with a cuddly cat toy for a 2nd birthday, or a Lego book that comes with a figure for a 6th birthday.

Seeds, my ds didn't actually mind getting them when he was younger, we never remembered to plant them though.

Plastic tat, kids might like for a minute, but the impact on the planet is just too much.

It varies a lot by age, but I think things that work with a theme, are as reuseable/recylable/lest plastic waste as possible are best- nothing is perfect though.

It massively helps if you can sew, I can't but thankfully my dm is amazing. So we've been able to give out personalised super hero masks & capes, and personalised fabric bags before.

Shop bought things that went down well, thay we've either given or my ds has received:

Metal beach bucket & spade, with sweets in the bucket.

Mini lego figures

Waboba gravity ball

Frisbee

Winter gloves & Hat set- matched the theme and I think they had put sweets inside the hat

Mini torch

Notepad & fun pens, smelly ones/metallic etc...

Hot chocolate set- mug with hot choc sachet, marshmallows & biscuits (that was a secondary aged party)

Just as well no-one is suggesting that an energy drink goes in then....

I want a bag of Iced Gems now.

Seeds. Yes, really.

I am not that keen because we don't have many places to plant them and I will forget them and mistake them for weeds, right up until the middle of next summer when my kid suddenly remembers we planted them and wants to know what happened to the plants! 😅

Better than plastic tat though.

They also like sweets, especially if it is something they've never tried before.

Bet those aghast parents wouldn't fucking bat an eyelid at a fruit shoot...

Any type of craft or something to assemble

Mine are all too big for party bags now, but when ds was about 7 he gave out a big roll of brightly coloured Duct Tape to each party guest. It was his choice. The parents were a bit confused but the kids were thrilled, and I later got lots of parents saying, well, we thought it was a bit odd but Little Johnny has played with nothing else in the week since the party.

Mine love seeds and plant your own books but alongside other things. They like a balloon, stickers, sweets, pencils with a novelty eraser/topper, squishies, fidget toys. They like something nice paired with sweets and tat.

Sweets mainly!

We always threaded conkers up and put those in ds' party bags (autumn birthday obviously !) along with a balloon, sweets and a slice of cake. Always went down a storm.

This year I got paint your own money boxes (themed to the party) half price from hobbycraft, glowsticks and a few chocolates so party bags cost me just over £2 a head and a few parents messaged to say their kids were happily painting away after the party. (6yo)

3rd birthday I got cute little snack boxes that could be reused and put some chocs in, a little pack of pencil crayons and a notebook and some stickers.

DS actually likes planting seeds but they are ALWAYS sunflowers and we have loads. He loves stickers, glowsticks, badges, slap bands or the silicone bracelets, he got a swirly straw recently which was a mega hit, balloons and temporary tattoos. And of course sweets, but I hate the bags that are just filled with sugar or sweetie cones because he's normally already had tonnes of sugar at the party, plus cake and then I have to be the bad guy and limit what he can have.

DS age 5 absolutely loves receiving a book, had lots from the Works and never had one he hasn't enjoyed. He has grown up reading a lot though and his favourite day out is a trip to Barter Books.
He also loves sweet cones and all the plastic tat, basically he's just happy to have anything 😊

No kids, no skin in this game but surely. party bags are compulsory - no bag = total outrage. Thats the thankyou for coming, bringing a pressie and being on your best behaviour (ideally, not crying in the party games and not weeing or throwing up on someones carpet).

It WAS talked about in the playground if there was no partybag or if the party bag contained some sort of weird shit like, wooden toys or cereal bars. Ugh.

Child of the 80s here - party bags contained cake, sweets/choc (not loads), pens/pencils/novelty erasers/stickers/hair bobbles/hair clips/garish plastic jewellery/bubbles (not all of these, a selection of) and a balloon to take home (thus parent hosting party did not have 9 million balloons to dispose of. Sneaky!).

I don't think small children have changed that much in the last 40-ish years have they? Surely cake/sweets/stickers/bubbles and a balloon will please most?

Never enough plastic tat that it would cause someones house to explode due to over filling, nor enough sweets to cause an obesity crisis!

A mini can of Pepsi & some Haribo will go down a treat.