Goody Bag

One suggestion is to skip the goody bag altogether, and instead give each child a book that goes with the theme of the party (i.e. a princess book for a princess party).

My church had a fun event awhile ago -- we set up a table with tons of pipe cleaners. Kids each got 5-10 pipe cleaners, and they made bracelets, little animals, and all kinds of hats (tiaras, kitty-cat ears, antennae, curls, and all sorts of creative things). The nice thing about pipe cleaners is even if they get messed up, an adult can straighten them out to start over.

Another favorite at our house -- sheets of self-adhesive googly eyes. Use them to decorate all the disposable stuff in the fridge -- from butter tubs to milk cartons. Fun for everyone to take home, with some guidelines about where they can go.

Pipe cleaners and self-sticking googly eyes can be bought cheaply and in large #s and are useful long after the party has ended. (I would say that I miss being a kid -- but it seems I haven't grown up too much!)

Does the party have a theme? Sometimes that can give a clue. I do think the kids love a bag with a zillion junky things in it, but sometimes I deviate from that route as well. I've gone to the dollar store and bought those activity/puzzle books and given one of those with a pencil. I've bought a bag of toy ponies and given them out in lieu of goody bags. One friend had a Curious George party and the kids each got a Curious George book.

If you go to Claires they have a great sale section. Usually it's 20 items for $15 or 10 items for $5. They have stuff for the hair, jewelry, make-up. A lot of cute stuff. I always go there for my daughter's b-day.

How about those tiny "party sized" containers of playdoh? Stickers? My child is only three, so I'm not really in the party loop yet....would it be unthinkable to NOT have goody bags? I'm guessing that most of the parents would prefer that!

I find kids that age love little notepads and colored or decorative pens and pencils. Stickers would go with that theme too.

Dianne

I have a 6 year old daughter who loves arts and crafts as do most of her friends. I for one am so over the goody bag idea. Why generate more garbage for us to find space for in our homes and contribute to the great issue of waste in our world. So an idea that was well received at one of our birthday celebrations was to paint small flower pots and each child got to take home a paper white bulb to plant and watch grow. They loved it.

CW,
There are so mays you can go with this.....I love doing favors and goody bags. You can go to Michael's and purchase
tee shirts in various colors or white and fabric markers, have the kids make their own shirts and take them home there after. You can also make frames....acrylic frames go for about 1.99. You can decorate them with glitter glue and put them in a small party bag and give them out at the end of the party. Also, the dollar stores often have great little values such as piggy banks. You can write the childs name on it or decorate the piggy with your childs name(ie-"Maggie's 5th Birthday and the date). Michael's and the dollar stores have saved me many pretty pennies. Contact me should you need any further ideas, I do this for friends kids parties all the time.(____@____.com)

Playdoh is always a great idea and it helps develope those hand muscles. Sometimes you can get the huge cases for like 10 dollars. Try Toys R us, Target..Walmart might. I know that Target also has silly straws, necklaces and the like. I'm assuming by junk you mean candy. You can also get mini slinkies. Anyway, hope this helps

Hi,

I'm also a single mom of a 5 year old girl and her birthday is coming up. I feel the same way you do about the good bags , so what I decided to do was to give packets of seeds, and small terra cotta pots i found at a dollar store, filled snack size ziplock bags with potting soil.

I hope this helps and Happy Birthday

i have a two and a half year old. i bought each child a "desk" for their lap at her party.

It was plastic bright purple and sealed inside were kid scissors, colored pencils and stickers with a little pad.

The desk could be used for playdo or as a lap pad for drawing on the couch or car. it was 5 dollars for each one (sealed) at the craft store in Northern NJ.

This was a hit in our house and other mom's commented on how needed a portable table was for the little ones laps in different rooms in the house..

go on orientaltrading.com. If you spend $60 you will get a ton of cute stuff shipped free. Check out their website www.orientaltrading.com

Try a $1.00 store or Party City and buy pencils, erasers--things that they would use

I found this web site with great goody bags. They have reusable things but on the budget, I bought Toy Story goody bags for my son's 3rd birthday www.kiddobags.com