Gifts for the party guests – goody bag tips

Every kid needs a birthday party at least once in their lifetime, but how do you make it memorable? By bribing their friends with great goody bag favors, so they constantly remind everyone at school that your child had the best party, duh.

Let’s start with a question, are goody bags mandatory? For a kid’s birthday party, yes. A question that probably runs through every kid’s mind is, why would I go to a party with this awesome gift in hand, but walk out empty handed? Don’t make them wonder. If you’re going to host a birthday party, you must have goody bags.

Here are a few tips to start off with:

• Make all the goody bags the same. This is very important, the last thing you want is some fight breaking out because Billy got a bouncy ball and Johnny just got a colorful pencil. If you’re going to be putting bouncy balls of different colors into each bag, a great idea would be to keep the bag of extra bouncy balls on hand but out of sight and if there is a quarrel, get the bag and let them trade the ball out for another color.
• Always make 20-30% more goody bags then you need, you have 10 guests, make 12-13. Too many times have people miscounted, forgot, or someone brings a friend to a birthday party and they end up leaving without feeling like they were even welcome to the party, don’t be the one that miscounted. And plus, making extras are great for the times when you made one or two defective goody bags.
• If the party has a theme then buy bags that go with the theme, please resist from reusing your daughter’s Barbie goody bags for your son’s 12th birthday. Generally white goody bags fit most occasions, it’s what’s inside the bag that matters anyways. Oh and if you plan on putting a lot of things in the goody bags or your party is at Chuck E. Cheeses or something, buy bigger bags so they can fill it up during the party, don’t have them dropping their toys and losing all their stuff.
• A general rule that I go by is to have at least 5 things in the bag, and if you have a bunch of candy it only counts as one thing. Too little party favors and it will be a disappointing bag and too much will just end up costing you more than you need to spend.
• Go for quality goodies. Quantity might prolong the kid from realizing this bag has nothing good in it, but if you buy quality goodies they will play with the goodies in the bag and have a positive thought of the party. 
• Before buying goodies, think about how many bags you need to make and how much you want to spend per bag, then buy only the items that can be divided up into ALL the goody bags. Make sure you don’t blow off every bag’s allowance on one or two items, the trick is to spread the allowance out to 5+ quality goodies. Sometimes you will find that you might have to add a little more money per bag, and yup, throwing a birthday party isn’t cheap.
• Bring the birthday child out with you to buy the goodies. Let them run around the store looking for stuff they like to give you ideas and maybe ask them for some advice.

 

And now, here’s the fun part, what to put in the bags…

 

For the boys:

• Water ball YoYos, just a warning, they can pop and splash water everywhere, but everyone likes them.
• Wooden glider planes
• Glow Sticks, these will probably give them the best 6 hours they can remember for a week.
• Toy cars for the younger ones. Toy cars like Hot Wheels can be expensive as a goody bag favor, but they can last for a while and  kids love them.
• Finger skateboards
• Candy, maybe just 3-4 pieces, but no more. Any more and they will be jumping off the walls even after the party is over.
• Bouncy Balls
• Small  Flashlights, don’t get any flashlights that are too big obviously, just the tiny, one battery ones.
• Bubbles
• Mini Frisbees
• Kazoos
• Whistles, but it will get loud.
• Small Blow Up Beach Balls
• Invisible Ink
• Playdoh
• Tops
• Etch A Sketch Key chains, a bit expensive but will totally be worth it.
• Water guns, some parents might be anti guns/weapons so make sure you’re familiar with most of the parents before throwing in some of these.
• Deck of Cards, while they won’t enjoy it then, chances are they will eventually play with them.
• Stay away from party favor YoYos, first off the toy YoYos intended for party favors are hard to play with and it will just end up around the neck of some kid and that is not a memory you want of your child’s birthday.
• Stay away from pencils unless they’re the color changing pencils that change when you touch them. Pencils are boring, that’s all I have to say.

For the girls:

• Playdoh
• Small brush
• Small stuffed animals
• Markers, the more colors the better.
• Colorful Pencils or colored pencils, while boys would use these as swords, girls will use them for their real purpose.
• Coloring books
• Crayons
• Bouncy Balls
• Whistles
• Small Blow Up Beach Balls
• Invisible Ink
• Bubbles, I would say bubbles are a big must.
• Glow Sticks
• Water ball YoYos
• Candy, same rule for the boys section, 3-4 pieces only please.
• Stickers, stickers are a good idea, glow in the dark stickers or scratch and sniff are even better.
• Small Notepad
• Etch A Sketch Key chains, a bit expensive but will totally be worth it.

Basically if they are small, cheap and fun to play with then they will make a great goody bag favor, so just throw it in.

Vendors

• Party City – You can’t buy things from the Party City website, so go there and check out the things they sell then look for a local Party City, the stores are usually pretty cool and basically half the things they sell are goody bag material.
• Oriental Trading – Very cool site, mostly everything in the novelty section is a good goody bag item.
• Local Dollar Stores – Should probably be one of your first picks when you go shopping for goody bag favors, everything is cheap and their toy sections are always stocked with a lot of choices.
• Local Target – They have a goody bag section with a lot of the dollar goodies.
• Local Walmart – Same as target, a one to two aisle section for parties.

I realize I mentioned to make goody bags all the same and then went and made a list for girls and boys, but if you’re having both girl and boy guests there are many options that both will like. The reason to make them all the same is to avoid anything that seems like unfairness because every kid weighs toys differently, and believe me, the deciding factor of the party can be from how amazing the goody bag is. Other than that, kids are usually happy from receiving a goody bag, and you’ll be amazed how long children can be entertained from the $5 you spent on the bag if done right.

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