Party bag costs - eeek!

Rummer

Hello

I have been planning my daughters party (pirates and princesses) and have now started to look at party bags. Everything seems so expensive and I wondered what the average spend was per child, per bag????

bryanb

Forget bags, mostly junk anyway. Our grandkids give a small present to each guest, small lego or something appropriate to the age group.

Rummer

We did think of doing that however it still worked out very expensive as we have around 30 coming.

sumsup

Hi I have never done party bags for my son's parties - the only good thing about them is, I take the stuff out and put it in his christmas stocking!! I prefer something either useful ( drink bottles, footballs/hula hoops) or made at the party ( eg decorated t shirts or photo frames - make sure u get a pic of each child, get them printed using free pics from Jessops/Snapfish - and give the frame and pic together with your thank-you note!!)

Themes do make it harder, but still not insurmountable - most children just like something to take home. How about having a table set up to make something - for the boys - pirate's parrots. use loo roll/kitchen towel tubes, give them plenty of green/red stuff to stick on, and have beaks and eyes already cut out of card. for girls, have fairy shapes cut out of card, let them stick on glitter and the little jewels ( from Early learning £1.0 per pack).

have a fab party x

greenpixey

I got the same problem with the party bags for my little ones Halloween party.
Most of the time when we go to a party the boys think the toy they get is rubbish and it get chucked away.
I don't want that, it's such a waste of money.
I'm thinking some sweets and just a loose balloon in the bag this time.

I remember being little in Sweden on birthday partys (now this goes back 25yrs). The last game before everyone went home we used to play something called "fishing in the lake". You get a stick with a peg on a string in one end (like a fishing rod), threw it over a bed sheet that was stretched over a doorway and the sheet was painted blue with some fishes on and you feel a tug because someone put the partybag on the peg on the other side of the sheet.

Now the bag only used to have a couple of sweets and a small apple inside but we were always happy with that.... I think we put to much pressure on ourselfs nowadays to make the partybags great with the perfect toys inside...I know I am..

RustyFlange

Hi Rummer if you have a home bargains near you then have a look in there.

I have just made up 30 party boxes for £12.

I put in the following.
small pot of bubbles (ex woolies stock 6 bottles for 29p)
Parachute men (ex woolies stock 4 for 19p)
Finger monsters ( ex woolies stock 15 for 29p)
small pack of haribo (10 bags £1)
bag of crisps (asdas own)
small bar of choccy (asdas own milky way type ones)

You could also look at a place called tickseed. I got loads of stocking fillers from here for christmas last year! the delivery was reasonable and they stuff wasn't bad really!

Please also remember that if you have invited 30 people, not everyone will turn up.
I invited 37 children. I went armed with 30 party boxes and have come home with 14 of them even after my 2 children had one each!

wannabepennypincher

greenpixey wrote: »

I got the same problem with the party bags for my little ones Halloween party.
Most of the time when we go to a party the boys think the toy they get is rubbish and it get chucked away.
I don't want that, it's such a waste of money.
I'm thinking some sweets and just a loose balloon in the bag this time.

I remember being little in Sweden on birthday partys (now this goes back 25yrs). The last game before everyone went home we used to play something called "fishing in the lake". You get a stick with a peg on a string in one end (like a fishing rod), threw it over a bed sheet that was stretched over a doorway and the sheet was painted blue with some fishes on and you feel a tug because someone put the partybag on the peg on the other side of the sheet.

Now the bag only used to have a couple of sweets and a small apple inside but we were always happy with that.... I think we put to much pressure on ourselfs nowadays to make the partybags great with the perfect toys inside...I know I am..

Things you could also make are pirate hats/bandanas and tiaras. I'd cut out the shapes before hand so the kids only need to stick stuff onto it (I'd use pritt stick or similar to avoid too much mess).

For the tiaras just get the kids to colour and stick glitter/fake jewels. For pirate bananas just chop up some old white t-shirts (or pick up maybe 2-3 large white ones from primark or similar) into triangles and get them to decorate with fabric pens. I'd say it's ideal for the 4-7 age range as they can spend as long or as little time as they like on it.

laurel7172

A good trick is to make the party bag the present. I made pumpkin shaped bags out of felt for my children's Hallowe'en party once-just bought half a metre of orange felt, cut out rough pumpkin shapes, running stitched them together in an evening (yes, I KNOW it looks like I'm sitting in front of the TV with the cat on my lap but I'm WORKING) and let the children decorate their own with sticky-back felt. They then used them in the party to collect the sweets they won for the games. Or they can decorate their own themed cookie and take it home at the end...

Another trick is to think about it well in advance. Never stop thinking about it, really. I used to swoop on Claire's Accessories 50p/10p sales and stock up, even if it was six months before a birthday...I've bought little notebooks for Christmas party bags in July. Also keep an eye open for things you can split up. Pound shops often sell big packs of sparkly/fluffy/monster headed pencils, for instance.

For pirates/princesses, have you thought about maybe money bags/wedding favours? Put some sweets (with a couple of chocolate coins on top-you could use all chocolate coins, but they're expensive) into a circle of brown fabric and tie up like a money bag. If you do it with felt and use running stitch for the ties you have something left over that can go into the dressing up box with the pirate outfit. Do the same for the girls with two layers of net to make a princess wedding favour. Easy, cheap, and a little bit different.

clarelou2

I'm also having a pirate and princess party for my son's 6th birthday in November. I agree that party bags are so expensive and usely contain useless bits that probably get chucked in the bin - I'm definately guilty of this!!
For my son's I have got some clear plastic 1/2 pint cups that I'm going to line with tissue paper and fill with coins, each child will then take this home with a balloon model - I borrowed a book from the local library about balloon modelling so hopefully with plenty of practice we'll be able to do this!! Planning on making the balloons up before the party to save time. At the party they will be decorating pirate hats and tiaras that they can also take home.

hedgewytch13

Ebay often have packs of party favors for bags. I got a 72 piece pack of little plastic toys and a 24 packs of bubbles quite cheaply for Halloween party bags. At another party to fill up the bag, I made cupcakes and personalised them by ordering some personalised Ben 10 fairy cake cake toppers which I think cost approx 2.50 for a sheet of 24. They were really popular.

jexysbird

A friend of mine use the cellophane cone shaped bags, filled them with sweets (mainly flump marshmallow things and jelly sweets, then a nice windmill on a wooden stick (they weren't the cheapy ones) out of the top that they can put into the garden, but they looked really effective and hardly cost anything.