How much do you spend on party favors?

[Anonymous]

DD has come home from 3 parties with party party favors to include a backpack, box of Lego friends, expensive book. I was only thinking of a couple of trinkets to give away and some candy. What is the going thing these days, we are already doing an expensive party with balloons and face painting.

[Anonymous]

I give one item as a favor. My son's party was a Lego Star Wars theme and we bought a few Lego SW minifigures and each child got one.

[Anonymous]

Zero. A waste of money.

[Anonymous]

It's the competition: "my party is better than your's".

Something more useful would be better. Decorate a cupcake and take it home; for toddlers, one coloring book + 4-crayon box or a little book. As a parent, I would be happy with that. Or, you could have a pinata, and whatever the kid manages to put into his grab bag, is what he gets to take home. Kids are happy with even cheap, crap plastic toys; as a parent, I'm not. More junk in the house.

Please, something small and more useful.

[Anonymous]

Total for goody bags is usually around $7. But then again, I love goody bags! I do hate when people put super, super-cheap stuff in their goody bags and give them out. If you're only going to spend $1.50 per goody bag, give one good thing, not crap like 1-inch bottles of bubbles that don't work or cheapo plastic sunglasses from Oriental trading that break on the car ride home from the party or one tiny container of Play-Doh! Or at the very least, if you give out super cheap stuff, give out stuff you know is going to work like stickers or small boxes of crayons or modeling clay.

[Anonymous]

I probably spend about $8-10 per favor.

I try to get some sort of toy in the $5-6 range, not just bubbles or coloring books. Then I add some edible treats and the bag itself usually costs about $1.

[Anonymous]

I think if you are going to spend $7 on goody bag, you should spend less on the party. Goodness, these are little children. Just b/c you have the $ to spend doesn't mean you have to. I used to spend close to $400 on a toddler's party (I'm sure for some of you that seems cheap). I could afford it, but thinking back on it, what a dummy I was. Young kids are just happy to play with each other. You don't have to make it crazy expensive. What are we teaching our kids? And do we do it to impress the other parents? Ick.

Bring out the toys, afts/crafts, some music and food and we've got a party. Or go to the park and let'em run around.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the age. I am no fan of goodie bags, but the kids expect them. We spend no more than $4-5 per bag. My DD loves the goodie bags, especially if there's a balloon (she's three).

Side note - when I was a kid, nobody got a goodie bag. Is this a new phenomenon or just because I am not from DC (I'm from a mid-sized town in the South)? Growing up, birthday parties were very chilled out affairs with a cake and pizza in someone's house and the neighborhood kids. I think I had one birthday party at Chuck E Cheese when I was eight and one at a roller skating rink when I was eleven, but aside from that, the parties were no big deal and just a fun day. The whole big birthday party at a destination and inviting the whole class and providing goodie bags is so odd to me, even though I go along with it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Total for goody bags is usually around $7. But then again, I love goody bags! I do hate when people put super, super-cheap stuff in their goody bags and give them out. If you're only going to spend $1.50 per goody bag, give one good thing, not crap like 1-inch bottles of bubbles that don't work or cheapo plastic sunglasses from Oriental trading that break on the car ride home from the party or one tiny container of Play-Doh! Or at the very least, if you give out super cheap stuff, give out stuff you know is going to work like stickers or small boxes of crayons or modeling clay.

My IQ just dropped 10 points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total for goody bags is usually around $7. But then again, I love goody bags! I do hate when people put super, super-cheap stuff in their goody bags and give them out. If you're only going to spend $1.50 per goody bag, give one good thing, not crap like 1-inch bottles of bubbles that don't work or cheapo plastic sunglasses from Oriental trading that break on the car ride home from the party or one tiny container of Play-Doh! Or at the very least, if you give out super cheap stuff, give out stuff you know is going to work like stickers or small boxes of crayons or modeling clay.

My IQ just dropped 10 points.

[Anonymous]

I give one toy or item around $3 and some candy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the age. I am no fan of goodie bags, but the kids expect them. We spend no more than $4-5 per bag. My DD loves the goodie bags, especially if there's a balloon (she's three).

Side note - when I was a kid, nobody got a goodie bag. Is this a new phenomenon or just because I am not from DC (I'm from a mid-sized town in the South)? Growing up, birthday parties were very chilled out affairs with a cake and pizza in someone's house and the neighborhood kids. I think I had one birthday party at Chuck E Cheese when I was eight and one at a roller skating rink when I was eleven, but aside from that, the parties were no big deal and just a fun day. The whole big birthday party at a destination and inviting the whole class and providing goodie bags is so odd to me, even though I go along with it

I am 42 and we had goody bags at parties when we were small. By second grade it stopped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total for goody bags is usually around $7. But then again, I love goody bags! I do hate when people put super, super-cheap stuff in their goody bags and give them out. If you're only going to spend $1.50 per goody bag, give one good thing, not crap like 1-inch bottles of bubbles that don't work or cheapo plastic sunglasses from Oriental trading that break on the car ride home from the party or one tiny container of Play-Doh! Or at the very least, if you give out super cheap stuff, give out stuff you know is going to work like stickers or small boxes of crayons or modeling clay.

My IQ just dropped 10 points.

Why? Cheap shit that breaks or doesn't work is annoying. Stuff that works and can be played with for a while, like a little book or watercolors is a nice thing for kids to get as party favors. I love nice goody bags (probably reliving through my kids what we didn't have growing up, which includes nice birthday parties ) and I find it fun to look for them-related stuff that's decent quality that kids would like. Why does that adversely affect your IQ?

[Anonymous]

I do a real toy up to $5-6 depending on the size of the party, books, matchbox cars, etc. something that the kids can play with that is not cheap junk. No one needs another 4 pack of crayons, coloring book, bubbles and all that junk stuff that looks like you are doing a lot but none of it is useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's the competition: "my party is better than your's".

Something more useful would be better. Decorate a cupcake and take it home; for toddlers, one coloring book + 4-crayon box or a little book. As a parent, I would be happy with that. Or, you could have a pinata, and whatever the kid manages to put into his grab bag, is what he gets to take home. Kids are happy with even cheap, crap plastic toys; as a parent, I'm not. More junk in the house.

Please, something small and more useful.

You don't consider a backpack or a book to be useful?