Comments on: Birthday Party Favors: Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?

By: Lena

Lena — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:12:51 +0000

I totally agree! I actually wrote a post on this very same topic over on the Healthy Living Channel. It is titled "Think outside the goody bag." I gave examples on items my friends and I have given at birthday parties rather than the "tradition" goody bag items. I still don't understand why we have to give a present to someone coming to a party anyway but that is a different issue….

By: Sonya

Sonya — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:11:49 +0000

I have never ever thrown a big party for my two sons in the first place..lol I allow them to have one special friend and then they decide waht to do. They both took their friends to a small fun park. I honestly dont see anything wrong with giving out some candy or little bags but thats me. My kids have gone to parties and came home with small bottles full of candy and there was no meltdown about limiting it..maybe thats because they were older by then and understood that one piece was enough. It seems like birthdays have changed alot aswell. I'm only 33 but the birthdays these days are so far advanced..lol I had one big party and we all did goofy games like sitting on balloons and whoever popped the first one was able to stick their hand in a big brown bag and pick a prize out..we all had a blast with that..lol

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:18:47 +0000

When my son turned one we had a music themed party. I gave out egg shakers as the favor. They were under 5 dollars a piece and his little friends still play with them. If you think about it you wind up spending about 5 dollars on those junk filled bags. I think its so much nicer to give one meaningful favor that a bunch of junk that is going to sit in a landfill somewhere.

By: Sunny

Sunny — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:19:47 +0000

Ok, I am guilty of NOT keeping things simple, but I do try to incorporate some type of craft or project the kids can take with them. For DD's party this weekend the kids will get to decorate pumpkins, tiaras and princess wands that I am making. In their goody bag (yes, I gave in!), there will be a bookmark we made (DD is a book nut), a pencil, and a glow-stick. I figure there will be room for everything but the pumpkins in the bag.

We recently went to a party where the activity was to tie-dye T-shirts…that was fun too!

By: Tammy M.

Tammy M. — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:37:50 +0000

As my children have for the most part never opened a bag of party favors given to them at a birthday party and have thrown 99% of the bags away, I am not for the party bags. One year I felt particularly pressured to do something so I bought a Snicker's bar and wrapped a cute homemade little card to it with ribbon that was the Thank You Note for coming to the party. This to some people, and even myself at times, seems a little like cheating, sending the note with them on the way out the door. But I have to say that it was a great year, no follow up thank you cards to send.

By: Hillary-The Queen I Am Not

Hillary-The Queen I Am Not — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:08:44 +0000

For my daughter's 4th birthday, she wanted a princess tea party. We made fairy wands and decorated princess crowns for each of the girls to take home. We also went to Goodwill and picked up a random assortment of tea cups to not only use at the party (instead of my china), but to send home with each girl. The guests were thrilled! We even heard back from a mom a few weeks later that her daughter had insisted on using her tea cup every single day since the party.

By: myrnie_twin

myrnie_twin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:47:45 +0000

Hmm…we had a tea-party once, and Mom sent everyone home with floral stationary. Another year, we decorated cupcakes with candy, to look like animals. The kids took those home as their favors. For other parties, Mom would order craft kits and we'd put them together as an activity, and the kids would take them home.

By: Colleen - Mommy Always Wins

Colleen - Mommy Always Wins — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:43:40 +0000

What GREAT ideas here! And just in time for my son's 4th bday next month!

We were at a party last month where they gave each kid a few pieces of candy (that would actually be eaten by young kids), a full-sized plastic bouncy ball (you know the kind – swirled colors on the outside), play-dough and a plastic recorder (think instrument you played in middle school). They were real things my kids have played with ever since!

I love the idea of having the kids make something. Keeps them busy AND serves the purpose of a goodie bag item!

By: Vera

Vera — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:17:43 +0000

Oh wow, yeah I am SO on board with hating the little plastic crap… it just ends up at the bottom of the toy box or the trash! For my daughter's first birthday party, we had a garden themed party, and for favors I got little tiny tin buckets and in each one I put a packet of seeds and a butterfly fingerpuppet. For her second birtday party, we had kiddie pools and sprinklers in the backyard. The favors were beach balls – I just had a ton all over the yard, and the kids all got to take one home. They had a blast.

By: carrien

carrien — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:19:33 +0000

hate the bags of candy. I always let my children choose one favorite and then throw the rest away.

WE just came from a party this weekend and the bags were great. Stickers, jump ropes, little tubs of playdough, bubbles(Hours of fun from that one) and the older boys got a tub of noise putty too. (Lots of fart sounds in my house, but they love it and I don't mind as long as they don't take it to church lol). And not a candy in sight.

FOr my 4 year old's last party I bought a lot of beads and necklace string and the girls made their own necklaces for the activity, which they got to take home as favors. It was very inexpensive, I go cute pendants and beads at Big Lots, and they had a lot of fun. I filled a muffin tin with all of the different types of beads to keep things organized.

FOr older boys we've done leather work. They each get a pattern for a pouch or a gun holster or a sword scabbard and they punch the holes themselves and sew it together. It's cool because it's LEATHER, so it's okay if they are sewing We can get leather pretty cheap at a store near here so it works, and takes up most of the party too.