Party Favors - Douglas,MA

Do a $5 gc to Five Below instead. My son went to a twins party and got one of these and Ithought it was the best idea-and so did my son! Its just a little more fun for a kid than B&N.

No sibling favors-not necessary at all. A piece of cake will be enough if people are rude enough to bring a sib to a paid bday place.

Why do them at all. Kids do not need to get a gift for coming to a party. They are such a fad that has started in the last few years, one that I hope goes away quickly.

I refuse to do them, I think it is such a waste of money. I often see them at birthday parties and the items never even leave the building. Parents just don't want them and kids forget about them as soon as they see if there is any candy in them. If not they are discarded and everything inside.

So don't even do them.

www.birthdayinabox.com
My friend always gets party things and favors from here.
She gets the "personalized" items. It is GOOD quality and useful. Not junk.
We STILL have the bag tags that we got from her kids' parties and use them all the time and it is as good as new. And we got these like about 4 years ago, from my friend's kids' party.
Each personalized bag tag for example, is only about $1.99 each.
They also have tattoos and stickers, for under $2 for each pack.

And NO... if a sibling or siblings of the invited attends, you DO NOT HAVE TO get favors for them. It is ONLY for your child's invited guests.
If a parent "expects" party favors for them too (the non-invited siblings), that is very, rude.

The invitations should or can say something like "It is Johnny's Birthday. Max and 1 parent is invited to attend. Please RSVP by January 10th, if you will be attending or not so that we can get a proper headcount..." and leave an e-mail address to contact you or a phone number.
By wording it this way, the invited KNOWS, that ONLY their child and ONE parent, is invited. That way, you also keep the head count, controlled and, the costs of it too.
IF a parent comes with ALL their kids, THEY are responsible for paying for their own meals or costs for their additional child beyond the ONE child that is invited.
This is how I do it, and all my friends do it this way, too.

Send invitations at least... 2-3 weeks ahead of time. Families are busy and they need to plan ahead.

You could do books. There are always books in the $1 of Target. Or go to Half Price Books and pick out a variety. Or, if you have time, order a bunch of cheaper books from your kids' book order that comes home every month. You may even be able to go into Scholastic.com if you already have a password and order some stuff on your own, not sure exactly though, but I always get emails from them about getting this or that.

$5/kid is pretty darn cheap, so if you have the funds, you could do a $10 gift card to Target or B&N.

Marshalls or TJ Maxx was a good suggestion too. They have really good toys for pretty cheap. You could always take a look and get some puzzles, CDs, or books from there, or even action figure type toys.

Or you could just get helium balloons and tie a sucker to each one and have the kids take that home.

Also, my kids love those glow in the dark wands/bracelets/necklaces and we've gotten those for party favors before.

Oh and as far as siblings...did you invite them? If they are invited then yes of course, if you didn't specifically invite someone then I hope they don't show up! If you just mentioned that siblings were welcome, then yeah, I'd have something on hand.

My point of view is that the party treat goes to the child who was invited to the party.

If you are kind enough to allow siblings to attend that is just you being nice.

I like the $5 GC idea. We've done GC's, art sets, books, etc. and only for the child who was invited on the invitation.

What age will kids be? Where is the party? Just at your house or a party location?
My son loves temporary tattoos...I don't blame you for not wanting to invest in cheap plastic toys or candy. It is hard to think of something useful when
I don't know the age of the kids you are buying for.

A $5 GC to Barnes and Noble for 12-14 kids, to me, is already expensive!!

Not sure what to tell you about the sibling/favor question...Depending on the age of the kids, if my school age child were invited to a party and his younger sibling wasn't, I probably would find somewhere else to bring the younger sibling that day, if possible. If a sibling is not invited, I don't think you need a favor for them, but I guess I think that if a sibling isn't invited, they shouldn't be going? Maybe that is wrong, but it is just my opinion. If the party is simply at your house with games, etc. that is a different story. If the party is at a different location like a bowling party or a waterpark where the hosting family pays for the group, I dont think it is fair to bring along extra kids that were not necessarily invited. Again, just my opinion. My son isn't to this point and so far he is our only, so maybe my thoughts will change in the future :-)

In my opinion, kids don't really appreciate the monetary value of a gift card, and at Barnes and Noble, they can't really get much for that amount. I would suggest going to the Dollar Tree store, or something of the like, and get some play-doh, or paints and paper, or something else crafty. I always buy about 6 extra party favors/bags because there's always a few moms/dads who say, "oh, can Susie stay as well?? I have run a couple errands"... etc... (grrr)

I just did the same party for my twins and 6 year old son. I bought return gifts from a store called five below. They had awesome resealale puzzle bags in different characters 3 for 5. See if you have something like that close to you. In the previuos years I have found stationery sets at Marshalls and TJ Maxx for $ 5 and that has also been a big hit.

Just go to party city get some bubbles, you can get small ones in 12 packs for cheep and the boys like those wooden planes that are dollar each and girls like those bracelets. Add a lollypop to each. And your under 4 dollars for each .

I have 6 yr old triplets and on their 5th birthday I did personalized name tags from birthdayinabox i think and this year I gave kids one book each

How old are your children?

NONE.

Kids to not need gifts for going to someone's party . it's not their birthday.
The only thing that happens to that stuff is it gets thrown in the trash.
eh if you HAVE to I'd do a 5$ gc to mcdonalds that'd be a happy meal at least. 5 at B&N just requires the parents to spend money at b&n not many things for 5 at B&N

Is there a theme to the party? For pool parties, I normally do things like a pail with sand toys or pool toys and/or sunglasses, etc. For a pirate party, I did a little bandanna with an eye patch and temporary tattoos. For a skating party, I did hockey pucks with our local team's logo on them. Those were a big hit - it was 5 years ago and a couple of the kids still have those pucks and remember that those were their first hockey pucks and saved them. Think of your theme and the kids' ages and use that as your starting point. We went to a soccer party where the favor was a mini soccer ball, and at another party for younger kids, the parents had a bunch of those big bouncy beach balls for the kids to play with and everyone got to take one home.

Sounds like you already got what you need, but for the future, books are a great gift at this age. Costco had 6-packs of early reader type books (levels one and two) for only $10. I found Berenstain Bears, Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious, and Avengers ones, so great for boys and girls at less than $2 per book. Throw in some pencils or stickers and you're good to go.

You need to provide a goody bag for every child who comes, regardless of whether they were initially invited or if they are just a sibling. If you're doing books, you can give a board book to a baby. Target usually has them in the dollar bin.

Your post is a bit confusing. How old are the kids Do you plan to spend $5/child or $5 total? At $5/child you would spend $75 on party favors. Yes, you need to include the sibling. If you question this then go to a party with a sibling and be forced to be there watching the fun then watch the other kids get a gift bag and you're just sitting there hoping for a piece of cake. Kinda cruel not to include him.

RSVP doesn't mean anything anymore unfortunately. I would always plan on more than not enough. Sounds like it's going to be fun!

I recently did a swim b'day party for my daughter. For take home gift, I got each child a set of froggy earmuffs from FiveBelow. They were exactly $5.00 each and they were a HUGE hit. It was a cute item they could actually use, instead of the usual bag of plastic junk and candy. And it kept their ears warm on the walk out to their cars!

Look for the LARGE (good) candy bars for 10 for $10...even the huge Tootsie rolls. Use your computer to make personalized labels for the candy (sleeves to go over the labels).
That's enough.
I couldn't deny the siblings a favor.

If you want to do one..

Book Mark?