No birthday can be complete without those small goody bags filled with cute and exciting gift items for young children. And, it’s no wonder that chocolates and cookies are the favorites of most kids. So go for those homemade chocolate-chip cookies, cause they’re sure to be a hit on your child’s birthday!
For kids, one of the main attractions of a birthday party is the goody bags. Nothing can make a birthday party more enjoyable than the happiness of taking a goody bag home. But often, the goody bags given to children are filled up with several boring items, that either get damaged after a short time, or the children do not need anymore. Therefore, it is better to give something that is useful to the children, so that they can appreciate it.
Goody Bags Ideas
If your child’s birthday party is based on a theme, you will probably face no problem deciding upon the goody bag items. All you need to do is to fill up the goody bags with novelties that conform to the party theme. For example, if the theme of the party is prince or princess, you can include tiny princess or prince dolls, stickers, etc., along with common goody bag items like chocolates, candies, and so on. You can buy special heart- or star-shaped candies to suit the goody bags to the party theme. Else, simple candies will also do.
If you have decided on a pirate theme for your child’s birthday, you can fill the goody bags with a treasure chest containing jewel-shaped candies or lollipops, stick-on tattoos, pirate color book, magnifying glass, eye patch, compass, miniature boat, candy skulls, and candy pirate rings. This theme can have a very wide variety of gifts, which makes it easy to fill the goody bags with. So, you should just let your imagination run as wild as the theme and have a blast making the goody bags.
Cartoons are a big feature in kids’ lives. You could give them cups, plates, spoons with cartoon characters printed on these items.
Chocolates and candies are loved by almost all children, and therefore, are great as a goody bag item. But make sure that none of the children are diabetic or allergic to chocolates, otherwise you have to make some special goody bags for them.
Some people do not prefer to give too many candies to their children, so you can consider placing some cookies or fruit snacks in the goody bag, instead of these sugary treats. Fresh fruit baskets adorned with attractive decorations will look very appeasing to the kids as well.
Color pencils, water colors, and crayons packed in a nice little cartoon-printed pencil box or a lunch box can be interesting goodies for kids. You can even have a hamper with coloring books and colors.
You can get ready-made goody bags at stores dedicated to birthday parties. There you can find themed goody bags as well as customized ones. Choose one after considering the average age of kids who’ll be attending the birthday party.
~ Children really like stickers. So, you can buy either stickers according to the theme of the birthday party or just random ones.
~ A gift certificate for an ice cream parlor is an item that can please any child.
~ You can give them travel-sized board games, a milk mug, or a water bottle if you are on a very small budget.
~ An item loved by children is a puzzle game. Parents would also appreciate it as a thoughtful gift for their children.
~ For slightly grown-up children, you can include a music CD as well as a CD cover. While purchasing a music CD, you have to take into account the type of music liked by the children of a particular age group.
~ You can also give a goody bag that has a coin or stamp collection start-up kit, to inculcate a habit of collecting items at a young age itself.
Homemade Ideas
Many people prefer to make goody bag items at home, instead of buying them from stores. One of the most important items that can be made at home is the goody bag itself. A homemade goody bag made of cotton fabric is not only inexpensive, but can be re-used as a pouch to carry a cell phone, or store items like small toys, a CD player, pens, pencils, etc.
You can also use your imagination and creativity to decorate some containers to serve as a goody bag. Make some cookies at home to fill up such goody bags. Apart from cookies, homemade toys are also great as a goody bag item. Those who can make jewelry, flowers, and candles can also include these items in the goody bags. Homemade gifts add a personal touch to the goody bag that speaks volumes, about the love and care put in making these bags.
If you are celebrating your child’s birthday at an animal park that allows the children to pet the animals, then you could take Polaroids of the children playing with animals and include it in their goody bag. For this goody bag, you could bake animal-shaped gingerbread cookies, or make small clay figurines that are in the shape of the animals. Kids love animals whether they are real, stuffed or in the form of candy (like gummy bears, juju fish, black and white gummy cows, marshmallow bears, butterfly pops, mint candy butterflies, sour gummy worms, rainbow gummy snakes and so on).
Goody Bags For Everyone
For girls, you will find a wider range of products to include in a goody bag. Along with common items like cookies, candies, gift cards, and music CD’s, a goody bag for girls would be incomplete without some pampering products like lip gloss, nail polish, soaps with loofah, cute bracelets, hair clips, and small but beautiful jewelry. In addition to these, girls also like notebooks, diaries, colored pencils, glitter pens, and scrapbooking items.
Boys love toys, so you could give them action hero figures, race car toys, posters of cars or bikes, Batman or Superman capes etc. You could also order miniature jerseys with their names printed on these items. Another very good idea is to have pillow or cushion covers with action movie characters or popular sportspeople printed on them.Some other ideas are video game CDs, vouchers for a gaming arcade, or movie tickets for an upcoming movie that the boys are looking forward to watch.
You could also give the parents a goody bag of their own, just as a gesture of saying thank you to those who stayed to help you with your child’s birthday party. If you know them well, you could give them a small set of miniature bottles of rum, vodka, or bourbon. If you don’t know the parents very well, just give them a thank you cookie bag or an assorted brownie bag. Some other options are miniature bottles of bath products like bath salts, body lotion, massage oil, etc.
These ideas can help you to choose something special to give to those adorable young guests who come to brighten up your child’s birthday party. Birthday goody bags can contain anything, right from toys to educational books, depending on the kids who attend the party.
