What are some "non-goody bag" goody bag ideas for a 5 year old's party?

Little cans of Play-Dough, Silly Putty, Bubbles, penny whistles!

Since they are only 5, most kids love some of the useless junk. I know my nephew and his little friends, male and female love temporary tatoos, stickers and bracelets (like snap bracelets and silly bandz). My adult cousin is the queen of goody bags and all of my neices and nephews love the stuff she puts in there including inexpensive digital watches (with spider man or cinderella on them) coloring books with a small set of crayons, maybe a small license plate with each child’s name on it, a sticker book, a card game set (like Old Maid or Go Fish) or bubbles. You could also put a small inexpensive gardening shovel (like you get in the dollar bin at target) along with a packet of sunflower seeds to plant later.

All I know is that little kids want something they can play with immediately.

Don’t go with party favor fish.~

Our son’s birthday is also coming up. We usually do a plant or seeds, or anything that gets the kids doing an activity outside.

I prefer to give something that is a) Consumable and b) Educational

For past parties/gatherings we’ve given maze/activity books, garden tools tied to a bucket filled with potting soil and seed packets, inflatable globe balls, glow sticks/bracelets/necklaces, flashlights…

We’ve also done our own homemade activity in a bucket/ziploc/(whatever I find that’s cute/useful at the dollar store or in my house…basket-etc). I include photos for inspiration on the instruction sheet I print out.

Activity kits we’ve given:
*Wooden spoon puppet
*Sock puppet
*Wooden birdhouse (cheap section of the craft store) given with either paints or markers
*Rainy day box (filled with enough art suplies for a couple of crafts & instructions).
*Book with a bookmark to make/decorate.

Cute ideas I’ve seen for little girl parties:
*Nailpolish (pretty light pink color) with a homemade sticker over the label (Given with a cute pink emory board & Tied with a coordinating ribbon)
*Rubberband balls on a lollipop stick wrapped in celophane & tied with a bow
*Flower hairbands “planted” in a terra cotta pot

No matter what we give, I always personalize it with homemade (computer made or by hand) labels with a “Thank You for Celebrating My Birthday With Me!”...Usually on cute paper tied with a grosgrain ribbon or raffia, etc. Even dollar store items look better when personalized.

Dollar store colored plastic containers in different shapes the kids can build mini terrariums with. Set up bins with much, sand, pebbles, sea glass chips, baby succulents, herbs or other mini greens along with shells, twigs, moss and mini plastic critters.

Aaaaah! We must put an end to this goody bag nonsense. It’s a complete and total scam designed to make us buy more junk. Are the kids getting to come to a party where they will have fun and eat cake and ice cream? Why isn’t that enough anymore?
Fun: good
Cake: good
Ice cream: good

If you must Must MUST get them something, then make it a single item worth less than $1. And to help end the nonsense, make it something ridiculous.

Thanks for coming, here’s your copy of Sarah Palin Goin’ Rogue
Thanks for coming, here’s your 20 year-old Xmas tree stand
Thanks for coming, here’s your coupon for 15% off any Roto-rooter service over $100.

Do you mean that the birthday girl has to give her little guests party bags? What a peculiar and bad idea.

Uh, scrap my answer then. I thought you were looking for things the party goers could do while at the party.

The best goody bag items my kids ever got were books. You can pick up inexpensive children’s books at a used book store, at a library used book sale, or even less expensive new ones at Big Lots types of stores. This is also the time of year where schools are having their by one get one Scholastic book sales.

@gailcalled: It’s a very popular thing for the birthday child to give out goody bags at the end of the party, the way weddings have favors on the tables and holiday parties may have little prizes on the table for guests to take home as a memento of the party.

I don’t give out treat bags anymore. It’s just gotten to be too ridiculous. They got invited to the party, right? They had fun playing, and got to eat the cake and punch I paid for, right? That’s good enough.

I have noticed with my three little nephews (7 -2), that they are inundated with junk that breaks, gets lost, or fails to entertain.

My sense is that they would be far better off with fewer toys and gifts, making them less jaded and nonchalant.

I still remember the best thing i got at a party when i was little was a very small box of lego.

Back then they sold these boxes that had almost nothing in them and costed about 5 bucks, thing is they had few pieces but very peculiar ones. I for one got a box with pieces to build a wizard and a hollow log with a chest inside. All in all it must have been 2×2 inches, but boy was it awesome.

Does she have a theme?
I’ve given out small Spiderman thermoses with candy in them. Squirt guns and kites both with small bags of candy and stickers. If you have a Dollar Tree or a store like it nearby, they have great, inexpensive things.

Money always works. 100 pennies, or 10 dimes maybe.

I always liked to do a “make and take” kind of thing, based on the theme of the party. One year, we had a garden-themed party, and the activity was planting flowers (not seeds, actual flowers) in a little cup that they decorated before planting. (If I had it to do over again, I’d have used little clay pots for that one.) I much prefer to give a bigger item than 10 little crappy ones, and if it’s an activity they can do at the party, that’s a bonus. You could decorate cookies, have them make a craft, whatever suits your theme.

If you really want to do a more traditional goodie bag, how about coloring books and crayons?

I’m with @Thammuz on the lego – I just had a tea party for my birthday, and for the fun of it did party bags, despite there being no children at the party. Amongst the stickers, plastic penny-whistles, novelty erasers, sweets and daft bracelets, was 8 pieces of (replica) lego. Turned out to be just enough for people to make either a dog or an aeroplane with, and yes, just about everyone did :-)

I love your idea of seeds and plant pot; I would just make sure the seeds are for something really easy to grow. Things kids can actually use for more than five minutes, like small boxes of crayons, cute pencils, novelty erasers… books, bookmarks… in the ‘junky toy’ category, kids always seem to love those little parachute toys. (Ninjas!)

I agree with @Kardamom . My kids loved the useless junk, and were excited to get it. A few pieces of candy, slap-on or rubber bracelets, pez dispenser, whistles, balloons, fake tattoos, put-together crackerjack-type toys. If the kids didn’t love them so much, MacDonalds wouldn’t be selling so many Happy Meals.

The party is at the end of May, so it’s about 3 weeks away. I am going to start shopping tonight, first at the Dollar Store. Let the hunt begin! In the meantime, keep those suggestions coming.

The Update Lady will definitely update!

Set up a photo booth (digital camera and photo printer) with props (whatever’s laying around).

Most kids are narcissistic and love pictures of themselves. (I blame the instant gratification from digital photography.) Plus, it’ll be cool (for kids and parents) to look back on in a few years. (Kids grow up too fast!)

@fluthernutter What a cute idea!! And so easy. I would have never thought of it.

@Skaggfacemutt Easy is good! I’m sure you’ve got a gajillion other things to juggle. :P