Party Bags!

[Hellion]

Does anyone know who started party bags at childrens parties (because I and a million other Mum's would proabaly like to kick her!). Does anyone have any good/original ideas for things to put in them rather than the usual useless plastic 'novelty' .

[treaclefight]

what we did for the littlest treacles party bags this year went down really well, but i admit it only worked because we had the facilities available. when all 30 kids arrived, we got them all round the cake to do blowing out candles straight away, other half used digital camera and took some fantastic pictures before anyone had a chance to get filthy / tearful / sick. then (he liked this bit, excused from party supervision) he ran down the road to a shop where you can get t shirts printed, (we'd bought 30 t shirts from the market, @ five for �3) i think the t shirt printing was about �30 but it may well have been �30 including the t shirts, i cant remember now. anyway, all kids went home with a picture of all the children at the party on a t shirt and a piece of cake in a little bag. we did the normal party bag tnovelties for the middlest treacle and it cost more with much less effect and i felt like murdering the party bag lady too. :-D

[woofgang]

See when I was a kid (no I didn't have a pet dinosaur...) the party bag was the second hand paper bag you got given your piece of birthday cake in....then there were party games with prizes so of course, your prize if you had won one went in there as well...then nice mums like mine slipped in a prize for the kids who hadn't won anything, but this was cheap stuff, penny sweets, the kind of plastic novelties you get in cheap christmas crackers. I guess like Topsy, it just growed

[tracymort]

yeah they really annoy me as parents all seem to think my son will eat the same yucky sweets their kids do! i have to grab the bag first and give it a quick "prune", so out go all the nestle products and lollipops! I give out Mr Men + Little Miss books instead! Ottakers book shop often do them 3 for 2.

[paulz]

Last year daughter had her do in local community centre. We had a proper DJ [not me & a CD player!] the kids all had nibbles, and a going home time a chunk of cake in a napkin. Some of the kids asked where the party bags were, to which me or other � said "there aren't any, you've had three hours of fun, food & drink, here's a chunk of cake" All the parents - there must've been 30+ were chuffed to bits, the kids were happy to. I'd say don't feel you have to, what with sweets for the day @ school, food, drink, entertainment you can go on & on. The kids don''t miss it, parents appreciate it and we saved some cash!

[smudge]

Well done paulz, I bet you've made a lot of parents happier! It's taxing enough planning parties, food, drinks, entertainment, etc. Some children have come to 'expect' too much these days. A slice of birthday cake should be sufficient!

[treaclefight]

when i were a lad we dreamed of just a slice of cake..... :-D

[smudge]

A slice of cake? Hubby said that when he was a little boy they were so poor, his Mum used to take the bones out of her corset for him to to chew on! P'raps you could put a few of those in party bags?

[tracymort]

We never had any sweets at my sons 4th party. I thought they'd complain as i had only provided healthy snacks (apart from the cake that is) and all the parties my son had been to had been "lets see how many sweets they can scoff befoer they puke" kind! The children loved it though. Some mums said it was the first time they had got their kids to eat some of the fruit and veg i had on offer. Crudites, dip and melon went down very well!

[paulz]

Treacle - you had a damn good surgeon - did it hurt & was it expensive?

[Janetex]

We chose a children's charity and every year sent the donation envelope with the birthday party invitation, requesting no presents. Those who chose to brought the sealed envelope containing a donation, with their name & address filled in. At the end of a great party they received a balloon and a brochure from the charity featuring a smiling child. We turned in all the envelopes and shortly afterwards each guest received a thank you letter from the charity AND the parents got a tax benefit!

[Hellion]

Thanks guys, all useful ideas. I think I may be brave and say 'no party bags'. Since I posted we went to a party where the party bag contained a little photocopied note in childs writing saying thanks for coming to party and thanks for present. I thought not a bad idea as child always thanks gift givers in person at party and at 4/5 they find writing loads of thank you notes daunting and I'd rather not put them 'off' writing at this age.