Blogging Baby Size 6X: Parent friendly party favors

by Melissa Summers (Subscribe to Melissa Summers's posts) Apr 13th 2006 8:03AM

Since my son had a birthday last month, I've been thinking and posting about birthday party favors pretty often. I don't like cluttery bags of garbage at the end of a birthday celebration to be later sucked up in my vacuum cleaner, but I also like the idea of giving party goers a little something to take home at the end of the party because that's fun.

People had some really good ideas for party favors so I thought I'd round up some of them and since there were so many great ideas I had to pump up our usual 'six' format to 6x.

A mix cd of great kid's music (like Laurie Berkner, Justin Roberts or maybe picks from Dutch's great list) is always a hit. As a bonus, maybe it's a way to push the Wiggles out of our collective consciousness. First step, a birthday party favor bag, next step the world!

Jan suggested a candy bar tied up with a video rental card. I suggest telling Jan she's a genius.

A small collectible item, like a Littlest Pet Shop pets, a small Polly Pocket set, a small car or mini puzzle. Just one, we're going for little clutter remember?

Spring said they'd be giving party goers a foil balloon at the end of the party. During the party the balloons will be decorations. My five year old would pass out with the joy of a foil balloon all his own. Maybe you could tie on a bottle of bubbles as a weight for your balloon for an extra treat, as Elsimom suggested. (Add a sticker from your home printer and make it custom.)

Kathleen offered up this stroke of genius from her son's last party, a paperback book about baseball with a Babe Ruth bar tied on top, her son called them 'Goodie Books'. You could play around with the book and candy combination based on your own party theme.

Bonnie likes to give away coloring pages and a small set of crayons. You can find printing pages at NickJr.com and on the internet. She also likes to make scented play-dough (with Kool-Aid)(who knew?) for the kids to take home.

My son went to a birthday party this weekend where the guests made their own pizza and ice cream sundaes. The host purchased aprons from the craft store over a couple of months watching for sales and collecting coupons from friends. She then customized them with iron on transfer paper and a computer (here's a decent tutorial). That was their 'goody bag', far more useful than a bag of junk, but still really fun for the kids, and still around $5 per child.

Comments (11)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

momma2mingbu 4-13-2006 @ 8:23AM

Other good party treats we've been given or given ourselves -

One friend had a ladybug themed party. She bought bug stickers and saved up babyfood jars. She gave everyone a jar of LIVE ladybugs! The kids decorated their jars with the stickers at the party. Each child also went home with a hair band that was made up to look like antenna. (Can't remember if that was the ladybug party or the bumblee bee party...the same mom did both bug theme parties!)

Window paints or window markers.

Glow sticks/glow necklaces/glow bracelets.

Pinwheels.

Puzzle books.

Hand puppets.

We had our guests make sun-catchers to hang in their windows at one party.

Courtney 4-13-2006 @ 8:41AM

Sidewalk chalk has always been a hit. And not too expensive.

Or my youngest son just turned 1, and for his party we went to Target and all the $1.00 stuff was .25, you can't beat that. I grabbed some leopard print jewerly boxes and put silly putty in them. As well as some puzzles and togo games. They had something for all ages.

When my oldest son had his party at a rock climbing place. I gave each child a bandana, rock climbing clip (just the ones from Home Depot) and then bags of trail mix. Just to stay with a theme.

The 2nd son, always has a costume party (bday right around Halloween) so the kids get creepy bats and glow sticks to use on halloween.

The 3rd son has a July bday, so I usually get the party guests beach balls, or something of that sort. Some summertime toy that all kids have fun with.

Kim 4-13-2006 @ 10:03AM

Our son had his first birthday party last Saturday. Invited kids ranged in age from 10 months to 12 years. After much deliberation, I ended up with little baskets filled with chocolate and an assortment of washable markers. "Pipsqueak" size for the littlest ones (mom and dad were happy to eat the chocolate) and regular size markers for the older kids. Everyone went home happy.

Fly Daddy 4-13-2006 @ 10:51AM

Wow, that would be a great way to get rid of our
ladybug plague! Free
pets!

foodmomiac 4-13-2006 @ 11:45AM

I love the apron idea. We went to a Clifford party when my daughter was three. They all used dog print stamps dipped in fabric paint to decorate their aprons. The mom then ironed them to set the paint and gave them to us a few days later at school. She still loves her apron and that was nearly a year and a half ago.

At my daughters third birthday party, we did a Halloween theme. It was in November, so we called it Halloween Redux. The kids all wore their costumes, and the Halloween decor was purchased a huge discount from Target (on November 1). For party favors, we let them all paint mini pumpkins.

michaele 4-13-2006 @ 1:46PM

I have been known to fill little goodie bags with lots of cute junk...as above usually related to a theme. I've done Princess, Magic, Thomas, Astronaut, Zoo themes.

The magic party was fun--Target had a bunch of magic stuff in the dollar aisle so we had top hats, little bunies, wands, and one trick per kid. I got stick on stars to decorate the hats.

One of the most popular take home crafts I did for a princess party was make your own candy necklaces.

Little books are always welcome party favors--I got a great deal on small paperback American Girl stories for my daughter's 8th bday. One of her favorite favors is a kid's joke book.
Dover Publishing has nice activity books, stickers, stencil books, paper dolls. Oriental Trading has some great little crafts--we used the alien pump rocket kit for the Space birthday party. I saw as many parents as kids making them...

:-)

Uncle Roger 4-13-2006 @ 2:43PM

I hate to be a party pooper on this one, but that mix CD is probably illegal and a bad example to set for kids. Making copies of music for friends is really no different than stealing anything else, except that it's easier. It also starts kids off thinking that it's okay to copy music -- which would naturally lead to pirating DVD's, software, and so on.

I've never written any music anyone would ever want to listen to, but if I did, I'd get mighty upset if everyone had a copy when I'd only sold one or two. Same for the books I working on. And if I ever get around to doing some painting or sculpture. Oh, and the software I've written. And that orange dirt bike I had as a kid.

MelissaS 4-13-2006 @ 2:47PM

Good point Uncle Roger. I'm sure my kids will grow up to be lying theives who probably have the audacity to do something like, I don't know, hug other children at school.

Uncle Roger 4-13-2006 @ 3:10PM

Melissa... I'm really hoping your sarcasm is just that... I agree, stealing music is probably not going to lead to a career in illegal drugs, but the fact remains that making copies of music is illegal. Doing so is breaking the law.

Certainly, the RIAA (and MPAA while we're at it) is no knight in shining armor -- they're as crooked as they come. Two wrongs still don't make a right, even digitally.

This is something I feel strongly about, having been involved in the music business (and involved with others who were), so perhaps I can't get the across the understanding that it is stealing, it does hurt the artists, and that it is just plain wrong. So I will have to go with the most basic fact -- it IS illegal (whether anyone thinks it oughta be or not, it is) and therefore is not the sort of activity I want to model for my kids. Period.

As for hugging, well that leads to petting which leads to... well, next thing you know, you're a grandmother -- are you really ready to be called Granny? 8^)

Judy 4-13-2006 @ 10:08PM

I have to chime in with Uncle Roger on the homemade mix CD. It's not the most heinous crime, but it is illegal - my husband and I are always agog at how people seem unable to grasp the fact that it is stealing. You have had so many great ideas in this article and the subsequent comments, there are plenty of great ideas to choose from.

For my baby's first birthday, I plan to copy a friend who also threw her son's first party at Gymboree - bib's embroidered with "I have a little friend, and Kevin is his name-o!". (Gymboree veterans will get the reference :)) Practical and personal!

Camille 4-14-2006 @ 5:07PM

My daughter had a bowling party just a few weeks ago. I made a t-shirt, using ink jet t-shirt transfers for each kid. They used sharpie markers to sign each others shirts before they left. It was easy, cheap (about $3/shirt) and the girls thought they were great.

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