I am going to throw a birthday party for a 2 year old and would like some input on goody bags for children of mixed ages. Can you provide me with some fun goody bag favors or gifts. Though it is very thoughtful for parents to give goodie bags to I hate getting the goody bag filled with candy and junky toys as I have to take the candy from my child and the toys are often not age appropriate or break easily.(Not being snobby just truthful)
I would like to know what were the best goody bag items or favors you received at a party?
Thank you everyone for the input and ideas. I probably will do sand pails that I will customize to the party them with paint markers and include a visor or hat as it will be outdoors in the summer in CA. Bubbles are always great we will see about crayons and coloring if the weather permits. If I decide to be lazy however baskin robins is close and I will the advice of one mother and probably save money and just go buy certificates. :)
BEST:
- Gift certificate for an ice cream cone at DQ
- BUBBLES
- Small water bottle (reusable)
- Board book with "chubby" crayons
- Bouncy ball (not too small) and tons of stickers
- Notepad with a pencil
- inflatable sword
- "silly" glasses
- "snack pack" of raisins, pretzels, etc.
Worst:
- "small" items that my guy could swallow
- candy that he couldn't eat b/c he was too young
if you want to give a "favor" to everyone... you could give an inexpensive toy to each kid (like a cheap stuffed animal or little "lego" people (the toddler ones not the swallowable ones). Or maybe toddler crayons and some coloring pages.
Or send every kid home with some home-made snack that is relatively healthy, like granola bars or oatmeal cookies, or muffins.
Really, it all depends on the kids you invite and thier parents. I have been to parties where the parents are pretty relaxed and would be happy with any cute thing... and some parties that parents are anti-sugar, anti-mess, and by-the-book parents.
It is better to just have a good party that to get too caught up in the favors. Junk will probably get tossed anyways... so only worry about it if you can afford to do something nice (ish). On the other hand I thing that it is ridiculous to spend more than a few dollars on other people's kids AFTER you have fed and entertained them. Sure they were nice enough to come and maybe bring a nice gift, but you can repay them (with a gift) when you go to their kid's toddler party!
At least in my town the 2-year old birthday extravaganza has been blown WAY out of proportion. I am wondering if the parties are more for the parents than the kids anymore anyways. Just make sure the party itself has fun, simple games and activities to keep the kids happy, and you'll all have an awesome time!
Happy birthday to your 2 year old!!!
Hi .. I just handed out the $2.00 gift certificates to baskin robbins.. it will buy them a one scoop everyone loved them, no junk or sugar filled treats.
We gave a cookie cutter that went along with the theme of the party and sugar cookie mix. We packaged them along with the directions (add water and cooking time/temp, etc.). They looked really cute and everyone seemed to like them.
Age appropriate book for each?
Hard to say for sure without knowing the ages of the kids, but here are a couple of suggestions:
1. You don't have to give every kid the same thing. You can vary the goody bags by age
2. Make a CD of your child's favorite music
3. Fill a pail or lunchbox with fun stuff - chalk, crayons & coloring book, shovel, etc
4. Playdoh + cookie cutters (I got 100 cookie cutters for $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond)
5. Even just a coloring book is nice
I agree that the junky toys are a huge waste.
K.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao - awesome toys for kids of all ages!
Our kids received a plastic tote (from dollar store maybe?) and sand toys in the tote. Cute idea and can be used versus all the candy or little junk!
Or you could get them a gift card to a kid friendly place. We have a place here called Jungle Java....coffee place with giant play structures for kids. It's close to 8 bucks to get in for the kids. A free pass to something like that would be cool. Or maybe a bowling gift card?
I didn't think I'd like the gift bag thing but I do kinda like making them. I like to give books (dollar store has some) or coloring books and stickers (since they aren't plastic stuff they'll just throw away the next day). I agree about treats. I don't put treats in there unless it is something like organic all natural cookies or something, but I usually stay away from that altogether. Kazoos or any musical instruments are bigs hits. All these things encourage creativity! Bath toys might also go over well. You can also get silly straws or for my 2 year old I did put in there fun plastic sun glasses and it was pretty cute seeing all the kids wearing their colorful glasses together.
"Birthday B." has great items on their ebay store....
www.stores.ebay.com/Birthday-B.
I usually do a small gift. A book, stuffed animal, Kite, coloring book. stuff like that. You can find inexpensive things that are quality and let each kid pick one. Sometimes everyone gets the "same" (like everyone gets a book) sometimes we play a game and the kids get the "prize." and they are all different. And I have the same opinion of goodie bags as you.
A friend of mine, well this was during summer, but she got a plastic pail and in it, put beach/sand toys. Inexpensive things you can get from any dollar store.
Perfectly so very useful.
On the pail, in Sharpie pen, she wrote the kids' names on it.
One time my child received a book as a "goodie". I loved the idea, so for our next party, we did the same thing, but I had my daughter make bookmarks to put in them (she was 7, so bookmarks were age appropriate) with the party date and "thanks for coming to my party!" etc. We also put a label on each book that said "thanks for celebrating my birthday with me."
I'm with you, really don't like junk toys or treats in the goody bags. I'm not a fan of goody bags to begin with, and I agree with another post that these toddler parties are for the parents more than they are the kids.
My favorite "goody bag" was part of the party. One party theme was airplanes (I have two boys). We spent lots of time putting together foam airplanes and having races to see who could fly their plane the furthest off the back deck. The planes went home with the kids. One birthday was Curious George, and each child took home a Curious George activity book that I printed off the internet. Rather than cake, we made frozen bananas on a stick. My favorite party was a summer party on the lawn. Sprinklers, bubbles, and colorful pinwheels all over the yard. The wind picked up the bubbles and spun the pinwheels, the kids ran all over the yard, in and out of the pinwheels and the water. They all went home with a bottle of bubbles and several pinwheels from the yard. We ate watermellon and homemade push pops on the lawn. Best party ever, and it didn't cost much.
Have a great time!
for my 2 year old's bday, the gift bag had fruit leather (organic), little bag of organic alphabet cookies (you can buy a pack of 6 or 8 at Babies R Us, Target, Walmart, etc), or a little bag of Cheez Its or Goldfish, 1-2 little tubs of Play Doh (Target/Walmart have pack of 25 of these little Play Doh tubs), 5 piece Crayola Crayon set, and a little book ($1 bins at Target).
O. of the favorite things my son (now 8) ever got was a mini bowling set. Also a parachute guy (bigger--not the army-guy size O.).
I hate, hate, hate the goody bag, too.....
I've done Giant Hershey bar with a wrapper saying "Thanks for coming" which was a hit.
Or pick O. thing--bag of popcorn, small etch-a-sketch, etc. and that's it.
