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?

We just got given tiny toy dinosaurs (from a Dino themed party), they were great.

Please no food. I hate when other adults try to ply my kid with sugary crap all the time. The parents who do that are often the same ones who nutritionally neglect their own DC. It's not necessary at all.

Pretty sure they will have mainlined cakes and biscuits at the party...

Being sent home with a cake and some sweets is normal and doesn't mean the kids have to eat them all immediately.

Youngest loves bubbles, noisemakers, and cupcakes. The rest goes in the bin. He’s not bothered about the sweets and DH and I don’t eat them nor does the oldest.

The youngest would love seeds (never gotten them in a party bag). Both of our sons love to help in the garden and he is currently collecting seeds to plant in the garden.

Well maybe everyone should start just giving a slice of cake. Just because the kids want plastic crap shouldn't mean they just get it, don't they learn about the environment at all?

To be fair, I'm with her on the fondant icing, horrid stuff 😂😂. I can't have the haribo as I'm vegetarian (or else I would be all over it 😁) her uncle is pleased though as he gets most of it.

Thinking on it, she'd probably love it if a party bag came with some seeds, she grows sunflowers with her dad every year. She's very keen on the idea of growing pumpkins as well.

The trick is always one big something rather than the bags plus 4x toys. I’ve done Top Model Books and also sweetie cones. Both seem more generous but are in fact cheaper. Books from The Works are remaindered - so you are buying something you know no one wants…

Oh yes, top model stuff always is very welcomed. The little drawing pads that look like a phone and play a little tune are a huge hit, as are the rubbers that look like a lipstick.

I was bringing home party bags in 1979, if that helps, but some parents would either refuse bags or take them and dispose of the 'noisy plastic tat and sugary stuff/awful Americanisms' without their kids knowing..

My kid hates stuff that breaks immediately. He got a big bag of fluffy marshmallows yesterday in a party bag, was well pleased.

My football mad son had a football party and we did cake (a football shaped one of course), a pair of socks, a football pencil and DH got a picture of all the kids in their kit before they started the games and his dad raced off to print them on his photo printer and stuff them in the party bags while the kids had snacks.

I gave out mini maze games, an activity book on space and a sweetie cone, all the kids loved that party bag!
I hate whistles. Bouncy balls are popular. Also sick of her getting pencils/crayons, she has loads!

@TheBeesKnee are you UK based? I am, and I'm over 40 and as a child I never attended a party where there wasn't a party bag filled with tat, and a piece of cake wrapped up within it, to take home at the end.

What did the kids do with the Duct tape? I always thought it was used by kidnappers to bind up the hands of their victims 🤔

Personalised water bottles - buy the bottles cheap (£1-2 in Asda) and order vinyl labels on eBay/Etsy.

Mine loves those stickky men/ sticky creatures or characters. Ots not a party bag if it doesn't contain something you can throat at the wall and it will stick.

We also like those small tattoos. But sometimes people don't know what they are.
Mini dinosaur eggs are cool. You can buy loads on amazon- but again people might not know what to do with them.

Transfer tattoos, anything edible, a fidget toy of some kind, anything that makes an annoying noise

Cake and sweets mostly. Dc2 got a small bouncy ball once which he loved.

Going back centuries to when I was a child, I remember at one party there was a lucky dip at the end. We got a slice of cake and a present from that.

Kids love the prime bottles and it's not more plastic tat to clutter the house.

Mine keep all their Prime bottles. 🤦🏻‍♀️😩

bubbles
the mini balls
whistles
sweets (moams and the mini hairibos seem to go first!)
those little plastic gold medals complete with ribbons you get from Tesco (in fact 15yo still has one hanging beside his bed, I picked it up one day and he asked what I was doing with it that he wanted to keep it!)
Great thread op, tat is only tat if kids don't use/cherish it!

@wibblewobblebottom if the cake goes stale depends on the cake… most supermarket cakes are dry anyway, snd then wrapped in tissues for 45 minutes plus transforms them into sweet cardbord…. in the bin it goes (they don’t like icing)
a nice cake (homemade/made by an actual baker) is different, but rare.

Sweets , county balls and whistles , I know these are plastic heavy but I’m sure there are eco alternatives nowadays. My kids are teens so this doesn’t apply to us anymore

DD is 5 and her dream party bag has too many sweets, a balloon and some stationery (stickers, little notepad, pencil).

My kids (5 and 7) love haribo, the yellow stretchy men, a notepad and cool multicoloured pens. I've put novelty twirly straws with a dinosaur/sea creature attached in my son's last two party bags and the kids went mad for them and parents say they use them still so that's something fun and colourful but that doesnt get binned straight away. Like these but bought much cheaper https://amzn.eu/d/dlpoPqi

The most positive feedback I ever got was for novelty rubbers. Little animals one year and marvel themed another.

the kids went nuts for them - I had to buy more marvel rubbers beciase a friend of my nephews lost his and was crying in school😂

I was a kid who LOVED books in party bags. I was always gutted when it was just plastic tat. I loved stickers and stationery though.