I'm sure it's been done before but please humour me - party bags on the cheap? And party food on the cheap?

[lunavix]

We want ds/us to make new friends so we invited everyone he goes to pre-school with to his birthday party. Out of 50 kids, around 38 have so far accepted, with three saying no ( we really thought most wouldn't come )

So I'm thinking with 40-odd kids, what can I do so party bags are half decent but cheap - I don't like plastic tat but I'm resigned to thinking maybe I may have to go down that route...

blimey, thats alot of people!

you do not have to do party bags, you know. we didnt.

whats wrong with a piece of cake and a balloon?

Buy a packet of sunflower seeds or bean seeds and lots of little pots. Plant a bean/seed in each pot and tie a little label around with childs name on. Hand out with piece of cake at end to take home. You could also put big bowl of sweets out and ask each child to choose three to take home..... or little packets of smarties etc

OOOH

I like the seeds idea.

Well, I've seen they do little red tractor and little princess multipacks of books from the book people for under £1 each. So what about one of those, a tiny tub of soft stuff/playdough, and a fairy cake? (I'm having a friend make fairy cakes with flowers or cars on it instead of a big cake)

Maybe a pot and seed instead of playdough... ds wouldn't open it and smudge it but I know many that would...

I'm not sure about balloons. I know one little boy coming has latex allergy as has bil.

Don't like sweets in pot idea, would rather avoid sweets.

woolies may still have those huge packs of little playdough pots (50 i think) and buy a bumper pack of cutters (but not the lakeland ones as they are huge - the small pot of playdough won't stretch that far LOL)
But TBH i would just go with cake/balloon/funsize sweeties with that number