Alternatives to Party Bags PLEASE PLEASE

[drosophila]

I really haven't time to shop for all the bit to put in a party bag. DS and DD have been sick for about 10days now. I was thinking of buying just one thing like a book or something. Any ideas please????? Don't want to spend a fortune.

nowt?

bumping this
trying to find colouring books or similar at the mo

how old are they?

jimjams posted a while ago about a fantastic stick with marshmallows, etc. Are you in a major hurry?

Girls or boys? Dd went to a party once where they were given a little compact mirror each - she was thrilled by it as it was quite a grown up thing really.

here

How old and how long have you got ? The Book People/Red House do great packs of books for all ages you can split up but you need to allow at least a week. Otherwise bargain bookstores do activity books from about 99p or Card games from elc. Wrap them up and have a lucky dip and then give them a slice of cake and balloon.

We do books, get a multi pack of the right age books from The Red House book co., wrap up with a couple of sweets. Works out about 1.50 ish a head usually. Gives them something to keep instead of a bag of crap.

OK they are seven. One girl the rest boys. Party on Sunday. No bargain bookshops near me that I know of.

Message withdrawn

the book people do packs of 10 books for £10.
Or just a piece of cake would be fine.

How much were you thinking of spending? Would a pack of Top Trumps be too expensive? Can't remember how much they are!

Do a 'lucky dip' .... a pressie for each child, wrapped up and in a box .... pink for girls, blue for boys or unisex ...
Each child takes a pressie on the way out ...

That's what I do ... Can't stand party bags

I got sticker books from The Book People and put some chocolates in a basket (I am mean with sweet things at parties) and everyone took a book and a chocolate as they left.

Went down well.

Message withdrawn

Loathe party bags too ghosty. Usually too many sweet things and cheap and small plasticky toys that break on the way home. Causing either tears from the children or raise my stress levels if we are in the car and I can't see what they are doing.

have you got a local asda? they do very cheap books. we also do the lucky dip thing, or a proper small prize in each layer of the pass the parcel, eg gel pens/ lipgloss(?). you could colour code the layers of wrapping so you can stop the music for boys/ grls at the right time.

Top thrumps a good idea. I hope to keep it below £3. I will check Tescos out too. Thanks.

I am trying to think of the shops near where I work. There is an M&S and a Books etc but not sure how pricey they are. There is a WHS but not a great one. Hmmmm

No ASDA near me that i can think of.

ps...party bags...i don't get them. its not like they need more sugar for the journey home! most seem to contain sweets and more sweets and plastic junk.

wooden bead necklace kit, wooden dinosaur 3 d kit, invisible ink pens, luminous skeleton kit

I have bought colouring books from Tescos (c. 99p) with a small pack of pencils (c. 50p). Have also found other bargains in Tescos (I have dds so my examples are quite girlie, but I'm sure there'd have been boyish things if I'd been looking) like fluffy pencil cases (c. £1.50).

Good luck. Hate party bags with a vengeance.

I do stationery and stickers mostly, get packs of pens etc in big supermarket.

I just did a set of halloween ones with beasties in, wrapped stuff in tissue paper put in a cup and wrapped in cellophane, I sell them so I have everything to hand .

M and S have lots of things on 3 for 2 as do Boots. You might even get some post Halloweeny bargains.

A helium ballon each and a piece of birthday cake.

Do you have a party ballon place near you? Try yellow pages. They will blow them all up, attach a weight thing to the ribbon and you just go and collect them ready to go on the morning of the party. Should last at least a week to 10 days. You can probably get something to fit in with your party theme too.

Always a hit with our lot.