Need Ideas for Party Favors

I think one year for my daughter I went to Dollar Tree and got coloring books and crayons. It was easy and cheap..and what kid doesn't love to color?!

We just did my daughter's birthday party in the pool and used books as party favors. We ordered the $1 books through scholastic (she's in preschool) so her school gets rewards for the order, we get great party favors worth something (yet still cheap), and the guests really like the gifts!

I was at the Dollar Tree north of the 202 on Val Vista last Thursday and they had pool noodles, Spiderman goggles, and a few other pool toys.

You know I kicked the whole goody bag idea to the curb years ago. I have a simple inexpansive idea for you. Since your having a pool, summer themed party maybe you can get some buckets for the kids and fill it with cool snacks, such as cheetos, juice boxes, gummy worms, bubbles, and maybe a crazy drinking straw. Fill the bottom of the bucket with tissue paper so it looks full when you give them out. You can find the buckets at the Dollar Tree and all the other stuff as well. Cheap and fun plus they get to take thier buckets home and play with them. Hope this helps.

What about some homemade playdough?? Put it in little ziplocs and give it to the mom's before they go home, maybe include a monster themed plastic cookie cutter? Kid's always love playdough....okay, the mom's maybe not so much.

Alison

If you hand out the party favors at the end of the party, I don't see why you couldn't give out squirt guns/water toys (great idea). The kids would take them home to play with.

How about swim goggles for each kid? Walmart and Big Lots are always cheap. You could also do beach towels if you can find them for under $5 each. Have fun and make sure to provide lots of drinking water and mandatory out-of-the-pool potty breaks!

I think the water toys and squirt guns are a great idea. I would just make sure that they don't get their goodie bad till they are leaving.

When my son was 3 we gave everyone a small sized bubble container that spill "proof". That way little kids could enjoy blowing bubbles, but mom didn't have to worry about the spills. He's now almost 13 and still uses it!!! Those would be fun even at a pool.

If you do beach balls or floatie type things, bring a sharpie to write the names on them !

Squirt guns and water toys are perfect for little boys! Just hand out the goodie bags as each child leaves the party so they can just take them home.

For my sons 3rd birthday I found some cheap cereal bowls of different colors. Then bought some juice boxes some cookies, some candy(2 mini's each), stickers and a little toy to play with (he chose cars) put them all in the bowl and wrapped it in seran wrap. it worked out pretty well. you can find that stuff for cheap if you go tot he right places.

I buy my stuff from Oriental Trading Co. I try to give stuff that kids will use. They have squish balls that can get wet, squirt fish, things like that, that I think the pool would allow (at least our pool does). They also have cute bags to put the goodies in. They have a beach section, I think -- sunglasses, blow-up, beach-type balls, etc. They sells them a lot of times in packs of 12 and the quality is usually pretty good. The dollar stores have stuff that's inexpensive too, but sometimes the stuff looks and is cheap, it's a dollar store. My kids still use the bags to carry their toys around in to go to grandma and grandpas or to a restaurant, etc. (Just check the size of the bags, some look bigger in the picture until you read the dimensions.)

Last year we did a train theme for our son and I bought jean bags, a conductor hat, and scarves (I got them on Amazon, they were cheaper), some stickers and some tatoos, and a whistle. I don't have a ton of money to spend of this stuff, so I'm always looking for a decent deal.

It's something to look into. They also have craft ideas too. And since I had bought some stuff before, I got a coupon for $10 off my next purchase of $30, so I bought my son's b-day things for around $30 using the coupon. Sometimes they have free shipping too. They have some cute things, so it's easy to go overboard, but it you have a budget in mind and can just pick a few things, then you can easily stay within your budget.

Have fun and good luck!!!

I recently went to a party where the party gift was a CD with lots of fun kids songs. I thought it was a great gift and one we are still using.

May 2009 issue of Parent's magazine has a feature " Birthday Parties That Wow". They have mentioned some great ideas in that article. You can also go to parentsmag.com for more ideas. Hope this helps. And a very happy birthday to your little one.

Hi, J. -

Books! I've used books as a favor for two of my daughter's parties and both kids and moms loved them. You can buy little "first reader" type books very inexpensively at Wal-Mart, Target, etc. You may even be able to find them at the dollar store. If you could find a book about monsters, all the better. I just bought an assortment, wrapped them, and let the kids choose. Worked great for me! Good luck with the party.

If you go to http://www.orientaltrading.com and type in monster or pool party hey have a ton of favors. Aslo a lot of the monster stuff is on sale since holloween is still a bit off. I buy most favors from there. They are inexspensive and really cool.

I would imagine that it is ok to have beach balls and floatie inner tube type pool toys. They sell those and other "summer" themed items at the dollar stores (I like Dollar Tree).

Hi J.

I have found the most successful party favour is bubbles.

No matter what the age, kids just love them!

Also, maybe it might be a good idea to go to a $2 store if they have them and get things like the whistles that unroll when kids blow on them or the clap hands.

Just a few ideas.

J.

The dollar store has some really cute buckets right now with a shovel attached. Buy some monster stickers from Oriental Trading or the dollar store and stick them on the bucket. Put some fruit snacks and a coloring book inside. You could just give them the bucket and attach a laminated card to the bucket that has safety tips for the summer.

Another idea is to buy goggles at the dollar store-just recently they had some higher quality goggles that were Little Mermaid and Spiderman. You could stick those in a cellophane sp? bag with some fruit snacks and call it a day. I like to dress my bags up with a personalized name tag with clipart to match the theme of the party or even a sticker. I attach it with curly ribbon and make it look really fancy.

My only other idea was a container of playdoh in a bag, with a themed cookie cutter attached with a string. Being that your party is monsters, I just wasn't sure of the availability of a monster themed cookie cutter. Good luck and have fun!

Our cousin just had a party for her daughter. They had 3 books for the children to choose from. The got two small pieces of candy, a book, and they craft they made.

I dont know if you can do a small craft with them at the pool but you could find $3/$4 books the easy readers. You might even be able to find monster ones or swimming ones.

I love the idea of goggles... just call them something creative, like monster oglers... and every kid I know loves goggles!

I also love books and I love to get books... I'm sure you could find a fairly inexpenive monster themed book at some discount store and paired with some green sour candy... to be called monster boogies or something equally gross... would be cute.

Or you could just do some of that gross slime that kids love to play with.. always a hit!