Goody bags for a 1st birthday party

[Mindy]

My twins will be turning 1 in October. Any cute ideas for goody bags? All of the kids at the birthday party will be under the age of 3.

[BlueMoose]

Mindy, I'm actually working on goody bags for a party as we speak. For really little ones, sometimes you can get some of those really small board books fairly inexpensively. Also, I'm using individual sized bags of Teddy Grahams, those Elmo cookies, etc.... For the kids who are closer to 3, maybe small boxes of crayons.

It's kind of hard when they're really little (without spending too much money).

Have you checked out familyfun.com? They have some good party ideas.

Good Luck!
Chrisi

BTW, when are they turning 1? My baby will be 1 on Oct. 9 :)

[Mindy]

They will be 1 on the 15th! Teddy grahms are a good idea. It's actually easier to think of something for the 2 & 3 yr. olds. I'm having a harder time with the 1 yr. olds. I was also thinking coloring books or stickers for the older ones.

[BosunsWife]

Well, DD has been invited to four birthday parties in the last six weeks! I can give you some ideas.

Bubbles, stickers, crayons, fat pencils, coloring books, party blowers, buckets of chalk (it was the party favor), fruit leather, I could go on and on but the rest of it was mostly candy.

One thing that I immediately confiscated from DD's bags was all the candy. We don't give it to her as we prefer more healthy snacks. I know we won't always be able to avoid it, but we will as long as we can. I think the Teddy Grahams, Goldfish crackers, cereal bars, etc. are a good substitute for the candy.

The last party that we went to IMO the mom went completely overboard. All DH could say is "we better start saving for DD's party NEXT summer if we want to keep up with the Jones". The trend in our cul de sac is to rent those air filled bouncing houses at $100 a pop! Ughhh!

If you have one of those party stores close by you, they have a whole aisle with party favors, etc. DD got this whistle type thing in every bag she got. Not really age appropriate for a one year old and even for a two year old (which she is), I watch her like a hawk when she is blowing on it.

[KimKelly]

one of the favors that we liked best at that age was plates and cups to go along with the theme of the party. For instance, we still use a plastic Barny plate that we got at a 1 year old party. So cups, straws, plates, forks/spoons. Those are all things that can be used again and don't have to be confiscated! Also we liked books. You might try a toy store and look in the baby isle.. We actually saw at Toys R Us yesterday a bin full of small Teletubbies plastic figures... I think they were like 2 in tall,realistic and about 99Cents. My kids loved to hold those little figures and then the chewed on them when the teeth started...
Just a couple of ideas, hope this helps.

Kim

[Nirak]

What about a baggie of home-made play dough and a plastic cookie cutter. You can also make "rolling pins" by cutting down a large dowel into 6" pieces. You can letter each one with the guest's name. My guess is that this would come in under $2 per child and would be very cute and memorable.

[SandyM]

How about small, soft covered, brightly colored books?

[tammy/MN]

congrats mindy! & what a great day to have them born on..my anniversary!

you might want to hit the dollar store too. we went to a party & the mom had bought those little storage containers, the ones that hold about 1/4c & filled w/ a few treats. those sippy cups w/ the built in straw.

stickers are great, don't forget a small sticker book. how about bubbles! i've seen them in small bottles sold 6-8 together.

you could always include a few tokins for a local chuck e cheese or circus pizza.

i personally hate the idea of goody bags, my 10 yr old is amazed that i grew up w/o them:eek: it just seems once you start, you have to keep up w/ the "jones".

one good thing though, w/ it being in oct, close to halloween, there will be individual bags of fishy crackers, pop corn, & small candy so you don't have to go hog wild. if you want to go w/ chocolate treats there is always that candy "sixlets" similar to m&m, but smaller, perfect for that age.

[tammy/MN]

how about those big magnets, it could be letters to spell out a word or childs name. my girls LOVE magnets.

[clairea]

At a 1-year-old party we went to recently, all the kids were given sippy cups (the ones without designs on them) with their names painted on with a paint pen (the older kids were given those plastic bottles with the flip-top straws). I thought this was a cute idea, and must have been pretty inexpensive. If you wanted to do a little more, you could always fill the cups with teddy grahams or goldfish.

[Mindy]

Thanks everyone for the great ideas. Since the twins are my first children I haven't seen too many goody bags lately. The sippy cup idea is really cute. I'll have to start shopping around for stuff! This will just be the beginning of the many parties we will have over the years!!!