Just a large candy bar

A balloon tied to a full sized candy bar, nail polish, or light saber.

Nail polish would be cheap and girls love that.

I just cruised by the dollar bin at Target for my son's 9 year old party, and found:

light "sabers" for $1
light up bounce balls
fake mustaches
that and a piece or two of candy and I think I'm set.
Using bags from last year. We are having 10 kids so not too crazy a cost.

One year I didn't have bags and a kid (age 7) came up to me and said "where's the goody bag?." (NOT COOL, but strangely I felt bad for not having one!)

Also it helps end the party, if people see the bags going out, they know to start leaving!

We usually go to party city, and I let my birthday kid pick out stuff for the goody bags.

Dd11 still does them. Some toys are timeless. Tattoos, crazy straw, couple of ring pops, tiny thing of bubbles. I was worried when dd picked out the bubbles, but every kid loved them and happily blew away.

Anonymous wrote:Goody bags are over-rated. Especially if you are providing entertainment for the kids (bowling). You really don't need to give a goody bag.

That having been said, I'm a fan of the paperback book for that sort of thing, as a PP mentioned. At age 9 though, it could get kind of pricey if you've got a lot of kids coming. I prefer something useful as opposed to crap that will be thrown out. Even a full sized candy bar would be better than a bunch of plastic crap.

Yes. Yes. Thank you for your response. We have all the junk possible. It's no longer "exciting" for my child to get goody bags and I don't want to waste money and time looking for something that will be quickly forgotten and maybe left for trash. Two years ago, my dd got a bag full of cheap plastic stuff that you can get from a gum machine; she didn't know what to do with it. You can't even recycle it. I like to provide something useful for the money that I spend to give as gifts.

I just don't want to buy more useless junk. Thanks for your responses.

Goody bags are over-rated. Especially if you are providing entertainment for the kids (bowling). You really don't need to give a goody bag.

That having been said, I'm a fan of the paperback book for that sort of thing, as a PP mentioned. At age 9 though, it could get kind of pricey if you've got a lot of kids coming. I prefer something useful as opposed to crap that will be thrown out. Even a full sized candy bar would be better than a bunch of plastic crap.

Bowling party sounds fun. I think you can skip the goody bags.

Look for paperback kids' books on sale--one book per kid, and no goody bag.

I am the only one who hates goody bags. We already have enough junk in the house. If you must send something, try a small themed cookie or something.

I skipped the goody bags at my 10 year old's party--was already spending an arm and a leg on the location and didn't have time to deal with it. It was totally fine.

Op here. We will be bowling

If they do an activity or craft at this age, they can take it home.

Do you still provide goody bags for kids at this age? My 9 yo dd will have mostly girls and a couple boys at her party. Don't know what more stuff to get for kids that they don't already have and them toss as soon a a they get in the car. Thanks for any good, creative, productive ideas.