How much do you spend on birthday party bags? Or am I a cheap present giver?

[december2020]

DS is finally at an age where he is getting invited to birthday parties.
These are all nursery friends, whose parents I have never met before until the party - so not close friends or family friends. And I don;t think in 'best friend' territory for DS either.

I budget around £10-15 for a birthday present and ask the parent what kind of things their child is into so I can try get something they'd really enjoy.

From every party we've attended so far, the gift bag has felt very fancy. The most recent ones have included little lego sets and character stickers or dinosaur book, figurine and big balloon, as well as all the candy and chocolates etc.

Maybe I am missing something from bulk buying and finding deals, but these party bags could easily be £5-6 per child! Which is half the amount of the gift I get them!

Am I being cheap with my budget? I will totally accept if I am, I genuinely thought it was an acceptable budget for a nursery friend who's parents I've never met before.

And I'm planning DC's first 'friend party' this year - is this really the standard level of party bags?

I've only done younger birthday parties, but I offered a slice of birthday cake in a serviette and people seemed happy with that!

Other parties I've been to had fancy party bags of stuff my kid has never touched.

It's fine!

Re: party bags
You can buy massive sets of V cheap books op and add some sweets. Doesn't cost a lot!

Oh gosh am already dreading this as DD gets older as where I come from we don't have this custom.

Not where I live which is affluent!

Mine were about £2.25 including the paper bag- we had a paint your own suncatcher £1 from the works, mini haribo bag, lolly, small choc bar (Freddo size).

We’ve been to loads recently- can’t think any of them were over £2.50.

Presents are about the £5-15 mark

Not here, we do literally a mixed bag of stuff for party bags, with different stuff depending each time but often include some of a pencil, rubber, ruler, stickers, spare collectible cards, ballons, a little toy such as a bouncy ball or similar and then some sweets and a small packet of some sort of crisps to bulk it up. We try and avoid an overload of plastic tat and sweets and get little things from charity shops or supermarket party bag section. My children have received party bags with similar contents also including party trumpets or whatever they are called, slapbands, those stretchy plasticky people, temporary tattoos, sweets, a piece of cake... Nothing too fancy. Sometimes just a sweet cone.

Budget for presents also around £10. Party bags are a funny tradition but it is a way of signalling it's home time and children are quite happy to go as they get their bags to take with them and are less likely to throw a tantrum about having to leave. It's all part of the ritual @Olika

I aim for around £15-20 for presents. I find kids tend to love the cheaper party bags more so can't go wrong really.

No party bags, waste of money and plastic. Slice of cake in a napkin, thanks for coming, bye bye!

I hate the plastic tat that you normally get, so I do tend to spend £5/6pp.

But honestly it comes down to personal preference. Kids enjoy party bags whether they're filled with cheap stuff or slightly more expensive versions, and IME parents don't really care.

Slice of cake, a book, packet of sweets, pot of bubbles.

Ours are around the £1 mark. Little tube of bubbles, baloon, bouncy ball, stickers, sweets & piece of cake.

I'm very good at party bags (according to my friends!), but I do it by buying stuff throughout the year when it's cheaper and then pulling it together ahead of the party. So the bags look like they are worth £5-10, but it's more like £2.

Probably about £3-£5 per child. Just don't be like my friend who gave all the kids whistles. She was getting death stares from the parents 🤣

https://www.theworks.co.uk/c/books/childrens-books?CAWELAID=720011340002961735&CATRK=SPFID-1&CAAGID=125927354609&CATCI=kwd-10444983&CAPCID=661583345026&CADevice=m&gadsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAADybf6fgwd1rMgtsdwgOIa58Uvt30&gclid=CjwKCAjwgfm3BhBeEiwAFfxrGwcpsVyWSvhehBNDqN3dY12WQWOzzj2o82RuNuKJq1ZV16Cqqntb8hoCLwEQAvDBwE

Book for £1
Fun sized chocs
Cake
Done!

Sweet cones!

I didn’t count the price exactly but recent party bags were possibly around £5 each. I find they are highly important to my children! I try to avoid too much tat and was pleased with what I got, maybe I can add up now:

friendship bracelets for 60p each
Packs of ‘make your own popcorn’ 50p each
a pot of nail varnish about £1.20 each
pencil and notebook about 80p each
Bag of haribo and a lolly 30p

£3 something then, not so bad. I got the friendship bracelets and popcorn packs from ecopartybag.co.uk, I’d use them again.

I keep my party bags very basic. Seeds, lolly, pencil, stickers.

They are bad for the environment and I would rather not do them at all. But small kids are disappointed if there isn’t one. And it’s a good way to indicate it’s time to leave.

I've only done one party bag so far and in my excitement I probably went overboard.

Was in Primark and found mini aviators for £1, a 3 pack of twisty straws for £1, then a little 5 pack of bracelets which was £1.50, bought a roll of stickers for steal and chopped those into sheets, also got a pack of temp tattoos which I cut up and put 1 or 2 in each bag, bulk pack of party bags for £1... add some sweets (which we had from Halloween), a balloon and cake and it looked like loads... But was less than £2.50 per kid.

I do spend a bit more on them, I think it was about £5-6 a bag for 12 kids at last party, but parties aren't a mercenary transaction, and I don't care what people spend on a gift at all. I choose to spend that money on the party experience and don't expect anything in return other than kids showing up to have fun! DD1 is mad about party bags so it's just part of the 'party' expense I bake in.

@vincettenoir agreed we've largely avoided them so far! One year we stuck some seeds on home made thank you for coming cards and gave that out, or just didn't do it. Kids seem to get over it pretty quickly.

Till this year when I was in Primark for other reasons, saw the aviators and went down a deep, dark, unenvironmentally friendly hole. They did bring a lot of joy though, still being referred to as the best party bag of 2024...😅 and so far nothing that was in ours has broken, so that's something.

Home bargains is your friend. I have had some excellent books, sticker books and craft activities for under a pound. Plus the multi packs of the big balloons you can split up. Little mosaic art for about 60p was popular one year.

Another good one is Baker Ross. You can split up the sets. Or if you are doing a basic home party (especially if it's near Easter, Halloween etc) great for entertainment as well.

I'd also recommend the home bargains brown paper bag style depending what you buy. But if you have sticker books or real books which are a bit bigger, they fit better.

I printed a picture in line with the theme e.g jungle animals with a 'Freddy is 5' type message across it. They look quite good but are super cheap.

I aim for under £2 a bag. My kids enjoyed the process of making them up but we live rurally so whole year is about 10 kids which is easier than 30.

Or failing that just get sweetie cones as no child ever complains if handed one.

When I did whole class parties the party bags were cheap and cheerful.

But my ds often preferred to invite a small group of 6-10 boys that made the party cheaper and I tended to do a better party bag as there was less to buy, a small Lego, book or craft set.

As they start to get a bit bigger and it gets harder, these little brick sets were popular. They were on a voucher offer at the time. Come in nice sized individual packets and with a bag of sweets and a slice of cake were super easy amzn.eu/d/5SkTUd5