What makes a good party bag for a 3 year old???

[BosworthBear]

DD is 3 in August and is having her first birthday party, bouncy castle type thing at the local leisure centre. At the end I suppose we need some sort of "party bag" but I don't want to end up spending loads on things that just get thrown away . . There will be about 20 guests half boys, half girls all between 3 and 4. In your vast and collective experience what should I put in them, where are good places to buy the bits and how much should I spend????

We always wrap the pass the parcel without sweets and then have a lucky dip box withe sweet in (a large cardboard box full of those polystyrene bits that you get when you buy a television or similar). The child unwraps the layer and then has a go at the lucky dip box and then sits down and rejoins in. At the end, everyone who hasn't unwrapped a layer then also gets a go at the lucky dip box. This gets rid of the need to have loads of layers and keeps the pass the parcel within the attention span of a 4 year old.

We have used our lucky dip box for years now, I just redecorate it for each party according to the theme. It provides all the prizes for musical bumps etc.

message withdrawn

for clary: a year or two ago the British Museum did a children's book illustration exhibition called "The Magic Pencil" and as spin-offs sold the 4-colour pencils you describe - lovely and chunky too, so they last and last. We did buy loads and they never ever lose their appeal.

That means there must be a supplier somewhere, and someone at the BM knows who they are! Shall we suggest some research is done and they be added to the MN shop?

My pocket money toy supplier does the rainbow pencils, I'll order some in.

Chocolate

I hate it when my DSs get cr*p plastic toys with little bits that are wholly inappropriate for their age.

Best things they've got are a stretchy rubber lizard which DS1 (5) still loves. Something to colour with and something to colour in - for DSs party bags this year (5 and 3) they had a variety of colouring in things from Baker Ross like hats and masks (they also do lots of cheap little things), some 30p felt pens from Ikea and 2 fun size chocolate bars. I also hate it when they get gummy/chewy sweets in party bags so I never put them in the ones I do unless the child is allergic to dairy!

Oh, and as their party was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed, I printed off some turtle bookmarks they could colour in too.

I'm also not a big fan of non-inflated balloons as DSs always try to inflate them in the car and I get panicky! If you want to do balloons, do them ready inflated on sticks.

Ebay does party bits, I thought the punch balloons were a nice idea instead of balloons. Put a wee bit of sugar in them so they rattle. Here

Drawing stuff (shiny pencils, little notebooks, novely rulers, that kind of thing) is always good.

Small rubber bouncy balls are popular too, as are stickers and bubble stuff.

Companies like Tridias cater for this market, otherwise Woolies and pound stores are useful, but tend to major in plastic trash.

My personal pet hate is chupa chups lollies or similar -- I alway force my children to hand them over, which makes them hate me, so I would never put them in a party bag for other people's kids. But other parents may be less neurotic.

stickers, crayons/novelty eraser/tiny notebook sorts of things, if you want to push the boat out tiny books (Red Fox do mini-reprints of nice books for £1.50 each); a sweet or two always goes down well if OK with parents (like the Thorntons jelly spider/fish things); a balloon; those jelly monsters that fit on the end of pencils; shake-the-ball-into-the-holes maze games. Not suggesting you do all of those! I tried to keep it to max £2 per bag, but with your numbers I'd try for less

Personally, not bubble mixture

Sources: Woolworths, pound shops, old-fashioned newsagents (in the dusty toys bit at the back), Thorntons, mailorder (I get loads at once & keep a stash, they're kind of thing also good for car journeys).

How couls I have forgotten books! The Book People do sets of 10 books very cheaply and they look great in a party bag - or attached to the outside of one as they can be too big. This year I actually wrapped the party bags as presents

Little wooden bracelet watches, colour changing bath ducks, pull back racing cars, jumping frogs.this

There is a discount code for mumsnet on the discount page

the discount code is mn0504

i always go to the 99p stores and get presnts for the children instead of party bags.I wrap the gifts up and they get handed one and some cake .I would rather do this than get a bag of crappy toys that break or get thrown away.This year I got all the children a wooden cricket set each they were really nice and for 99p I don't think you could fill a party bag for that.Wilkinsons do some nice toys and Asda. Buckets of crayons,tennis sets,footballs,dolls,rocket games.The children love it too that they have also got a pressie to unwrap

For my 4 year old ds this year I bought the bumper pack of 24 pots of play dough with 20 cutters from Argos - £9.99, which is only 50p a head. Got some Magic Painting books from Baker Ross too, great place. Also you can get boxes of 25 matchbox type cars really cheaply. I save all the party bag stuff that we get and they dont like and put them back in our party bags. Baker Ross to some really cheap bracelets for the girls too. Buying packs of mini books are good too. I also bought a big bag of plastic animals and fish and put those in bags too on year. Im always on the look out for cheap packs of things that I can break up.....I even save presents from crackers at Christmas....cheap skate.

Ds had his party last week and this is what I put in: bubbles, balloon, bouncy ball, little dinosaurs for the boys/pencil and little notepad for the girls, tweenies/fimbles chocolate bar and a chuppa-chuppa lolly plus cake
Most of the supermarkets Asda, Tesco plus places like Matalan do party bag gifts, but if you want to order online or just get ideas check out www.partypieces.co.uk - they're brilliant I've been using them for years - their gift cups are really good and don't take a lot of filling up IYSWIM

Find a cheap bookshop in town and buy loads of cheap sticker books.......they are about 75p each. You could wrap them up and give them a balloon on a stick and leave it at that.

message withdrawn

Second the book people packs of books - thats what I'm doing this weekend!

My ds was 3 TODAY (Happy B'day baby boy). I did:

Girls - Asda alice band/jewel hair toggle/Smarties fun-size box/Magic Stars fun-size bag/balloon

Boys - Matchbox toy car + aforementionned sweets and balloon

Babies (but over 1 year) - Bath toy + sweets and balloon

Some great ideas here for you BosworthBear (good name). I agree with Frogs re lollies, I just panic about choking on boiled sweets. Good point re empty balloons, not thought of that. DS1/DD party in June, 5 and 3 so a real mix of ages there (28 party bags) we did cake, choc bar, gel pen (split up pack of 10 from Asda for about £3 i think, the big girls esp love these for their princess pictures), little tub of playdough with cutter lid (split up pack of 4 for £1) which my two really liked too, balloon and one crappy thing eg wiggly snake, geegaw ring etc.

Best party bag prezzies ever (and we see a lot here) were a really good sticker book which must have cost a couple of quid, and a pencil with four colours of lead ie writes in rainbow hue, we've had that for years literally and still use it. No idea where that mum got it from but she should have laid in a gross.

Wow, thanks for the replies. I like the idea of a larger present, book, sticker book, helium ballon idea rather than the smaller stuff seems better value for money rather than assorted bits (had a quick look at the shop yesterday)ignorant question here . . .do 3 year old boys like sticker books- from experience I know girls do! if so what kind - do I look for unisex ones or is there an equivalent of girly ones? Also saw inflatable beach balls, reasonably priced, which I thought wasn't a bad idea.

I thought that I could always go for the sweet thing in the pass the parcel, but do I have to have 20 layers???? surely takes for ever. Finally, in a wicked moment spotted a fancy water pistol type thing. Would you object if your child won that as the main pass the parcel prize?

Bit scared about my posting dates on MN today. I posted my last comment on this thread on Tuesday (13th), but it has come up as yesterday's date. I didn't even come on MN yesterday!!! SPOOKY.

ps Several other postings have the wrong date too.