Are books as a party favour a big no??

[MumNeedsTea]

Hi all, I'm currently in planning mode for DS's 6th birthday party and I cannot decide whether to go down the plastic tat route for the party bags or get everyone a book and a sweet cone!

I've read some threads on here saying that parents love to get a book, but the kids hate it. Is that true? We received a few books at parties last year and DS didn't complain about them.

Are books a big no and shall I stick to the standard party bag with stretchy man, bubbles, sweets etc??

TIA :)

Thanks all! I think I'm going to go for activity/colouring books route

Books were fairly commonplace around here when my DC we’re younger. Lots of book people packs of 10 split up! I was always more than happy to have another book in the house, even if it was one we had already, and my DC were happy too.

I would agree with the PP who suggested tying to the theme of the party if possible though. I think this helps it to seem more normal/planned and not just “worthy”!

That’s assuming you have a theme that is! If you do, feel free to share it here and I’m sure someone will be able to come up with some good suggestions.

(Disclaimer - I’m a mum of 4 (youngest now 8 and ranging up to teens) but I have never done a bag of tat at any of my DC’s parties and most of the tat my DCs have received has been in the bin within a week

I've done books before. Have a look in The Works or The Book People for box sets.

I split the Shakespeare for kids box set for one lot of party bags, they also got cake and a star wars pen. I wasn't totally boring .

I've got books for a 6 party. I'm also going to give a pack of 10p haribo sweets and a balloon... hoping that works

Why not something like a (wooden) yoyo, badge, chalks, or bouncy ball?

I have only ever done books (DS1 is 7 and DS2 is 2). At the end of the day it ends up costing me 60 quid or more for tat that I know by the end of the week (if not the day) will end up in a bin. If people don’t like books they can just gift it to someone else. Both of mine love reading so they love getting books as party favours. But I don’t feel like I have wasted a ton of my money. (And what a strange attitude that gifting books means you have a joyless attitude to life- there is always plenty of sweets and cake at the party itself!)
Up to age 4 I did picture books from The Book People. The Quentin Blake ones are great.
Then age 5/6 I did a mix of one simple reading book and one activity book.
This year onwards it is more tricky but I bought a series called Infographics which is v colourful and gave everyone two from the series. (Topics like Sport/Weather/Human Bosy but really colourful).

The theme is superheroes :)
If budget allows, I'll also try and get some 'decorate yourself' type of superhero masks.
Any book recommendations for a superhero party?

What age?

I used to bulk buy a set or two from The Book People, then get a VERY BIG box and fill with shredded paper from work (or sawdust, we have horses), and hide the books, some small bags of sweets (Haribo style) or tubes of refreshers, Starburst etc, and sometimes (for slightly older) stationery items eg small notebooks, fancy pens etc. and then let them rummage for a book and some sweets. Sometimes I'd get sticker books and sometimes activity books - one year I found some Thomas the Tank Engine pop out construction books, they were very popular. Any left over books would carry on for next year.

Always very popular with both kids and parents.

For your theme, I'd buy these: www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?productId=647630&catalogId=10051&catId=128706&pageNumber=6

Baker Ross is good for crafty things like colour in masks:
www.bakerross.co.uk/star-hero-colour-in-masks?&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItf3MpcCh3QIV67XtCh30WwkjEAQYASABEgKkoPD_BwE

Ariela thanks for those links!

Tami there will be 5 and 6 year olds at the party.. Girls and boys.

My son came home from a party with a mine craft book recently and was really pleased. I was equally pleas d with the lack of tat.

The best party bag is both - but a pared down version. The Mr Men books are good for this as they're little and will fit in a party bag and are cheap on The Book People website.... give them a Mr Men book, small pack of sweets and small piece of plastic tat and then a piece of cake. Doesn't work out expensive and covers all bases.

What about these from Book People. A little bit different from the usual, but still linked to DC comics so should satisfy the purists!

Ooh good one TamiTaylor

Great idea Tami! I think I'll get those and some colour yourself superhero masks with some crayons and sweets and I'm sorted :)