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...of Creative
Frugality
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Creatively
Frugal Party Favors
What fun and frugal ideas
have you used for party favors for events you hosted?
"When my
daughter was little, I loved throwing big birthday parties for
her. Of course the goodie bag was expected; all the kids gave
them at their parties so we had to as well. I bought a package
of white paper lunch bags and decorated the outsides of them
with many colors of marker to make it look like confetti.
I punched holes in the tops to thread ribbon thru, to tie it
shut. To fill the bags I went to Dollar Tree and bought multi-packs
of pencils and erasers, notepads, rings, toys of any kind, then
brought them home and broke the bags down to put one of each
thing in a bag. One year I even collected empty icing
containers from friends and filled them with homemade playdough
to add to the bags. Her friends always loved our goodie bags."
~ Penny
"I
got this idea from a friend who was moving and cleaned out her
daughter's toy box. She evenly distributed McDonald's Happy Meal toys
and other slightly used smaller toys into a decorated lunch sized
paper bag. Each child got a 'grab bag' at the end of the
party. We used the idea at a Jungle themed birthday party. Our
daughters went through their stuffed animals and picked out the ones
they didn't play with anymore. Then we hid them around the yard for
the kids to find and keep. We also make our own games: Pin the nose on
the face (or whatever you make), a piņata out of a shirt box wrapped
to resemble a leopard (add a face and ears with a permanent marker or
construction paper), and water balloons games." ~ Kim
"When my son was young one at one of his birthday parties,
we let the kids make their own hats (actually we made more of a
crown). We cut a shape out of poster board, and let them decorate with
glitter sequins, markers, etc (anything you have on hand). I can still
remember how proudly they wore their hats and how much fun they had
making them. You could use a hair dryer on low to dry the glue faster.
With girls you could make their hats a cone shape and buy tulle (very
inexpensive and 72 inches wide) and let it stream from the top like a
princess. And for favors, I really like bubbles. I don't know
any kid (or adult) who doesn't like bubbles." ~ Sue
"First, I'd like to state very strongly that I think
this whole party favor thing for children's birthdays
has gotten way out of hand. My kids have come home
with favors that cost more than the gift they took to
the party. One child came home once with a pound of
candy in a bag -- I am not kidding.
So, I say if the favor thing is stressing you out or
you are trying really hard to keep costs down, skip
the darn things! Don't let your child see that you are
influenced by what other people think of you! Now, that said, sometimes
I have given favors at
parties and sometimes not. One year I baked cupcakes and decorated them
to match the birthday cake. They had little flowers made of candy and
dyed-green toothpicks sticking up. I sent those home. Or have the kids
decorate giant cookies to take home.
If you really want to do the traditional favor thing,
the trick is to keep your eyes open all year for stuff
marked down on clearance. Cruise after-holiday and
end-of-season sales for small toys, trinkets and bath
sundries." ~ Catherine
"Everyone's definition of frugal is
different. In my high-cost metro area of the country, I consider a
child's party gift bag frugal if the bag and it's contents cost less
than $1 per child. For one of my children's 3-year-old birthday, we
had a Blue's Clues party theme. First I went to www.NickJr.com
and searched for party ideas and printable decorations. For the gift
bags, I started with plain paper lunch sacks. As the kids arrived at
the party, they went to an arts & craft area with crayons,
markers, glitter glue and stickers. They decorated their own gift bags
as one of the party activities and had a blast personalizing them!
While the rest of the party activities progressed (playing Pin the Clue
on Blue and Musical Chairs, eating homemade cake and ice cream),
we filled the gift bags with Playdough (bought at a buy-1-get-1-free
sale, put one can from the 4-pak into each child's bag), gummy snacks
(bought on substantial markdown from a grocery store changing product
lines), crazy straws (bought at the local dollar store, 12 in a
package) and stickers (bought at the local party store from their
markdown corner for 90% off -- kids love stickers of any design and
almost don't care what it is a sticker of). The kids were thrilled
with their loot, and the parents appreciated it wasn't a bag full of
cheap plastic toys that would promptly break and/or get lost. If I
recollect, I believe total expenditures for gift bag supplies and contents
for 12 kids at that party were about $9. The key to success was to
keep my mind open whenever I saw a great sale and stock up when
appropriate with the party gift bags in mind. I think in this example
I picked up the Playdough on sale about 3 months before the party. I hope my example here helps get the
creative juices flowing for another reader." ~ MARCY in
Gaithersburg, MD
"A friend of mine has made soda pop
cans with curly ribbon tops for years. She tapes bubble gum and
small candies to the ends of the ribbons. Even my boys love to
get these because they look so festive. You could buy grape or
orange soda to match the colors of your party." ~ Kelly
"Homemade Play-doh in yogurt cups with lids!
You can glue paper around the cups and decorate them
with your party theme!" ~ Anonymous
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"-Make the paper mache
pinata in your last newsletter - whatever candy
and stickers that fall out goes in their loot bag to
take home. I bought in bulk at Party Packagers.
-Have children go on a
treasure hunt with clues left around the house.
The treasure (pennies and nickels), chocolate coins or
whatever you find a great deal on - there is still
leftover Christmas merchandise on sale for 90% off
goes in their treasure bag as a loot bag to take home.
-Loot bags can be paper
lunch bags that children color and decorate
themselves while waiting for other party guests to
arrive or can be done at the end of the party to wind
everyone down
-Buy a stack of wooden
frames 4X6 at IKEA or similar store. Children
can decorate with paint or glue things like pom-poms
or whatever to them to take home. Where the
picture is supposed to be in the photo frame, place a
piece of paper that says, 'Thanks for coming to
my birthday party, your friend, Lydia,' or other
name." ~ Karen
"When our daughter married last June, we made
bookmarks for wedding favors. Our son took the
engagement photo she and her fiance had made,
scanned it, and made it into an oval shape with the
edges 'feathered.' Underneath that we printed a
saying that they liked, their names and the wedding
date.
I think we were able to print 5 per 8 1/2 x 11
page. We laminated them and then cut them apart with
an Exacto knife, punched a tiny hole at the top and
threaded silver ribbon through them. We spread them
out on tables at the reception for people to pick
up.
The only expense we had was the paper, the hole
punch and the ribbon. We already owned a laminator
and the laminating film. It was very time consuming,
and we had a LOT left over. (We had a lot of food
left over, too. But that's another story
altogether!!) Oh, yes, I *think* we did have them
printed, rather than doing it ourselves, because the
paper we used was pretty thick, and we weren't
sure it would go through our printer without
problems. Not sure, though:
I didn't have very much
to do with either the bookmarks or the wedding
programs. I was busy trying to complete a sampler
for our daughter & son-in-law that they wanted
to display at the reception. (Made it in just the
nick of time, too.) And I was the only one who could
work on the sampler, but there were lots of other
people who could laminate, punch holes, cut ribbon,
fold programs, emboss the initial on them, etc.,
etc.!
Hadn't thought about it in several months, but, WOW,
am I glad that's over!" ~ Anne
in Memphis, who is very, very happy with her
son-in-love
"My Gracie just turned seven. We have
lots of pretty beads purchased at garage sales.
She and I made charms and bracelets from the nicest
ones." ~ Maria in Ca
"When my son had his birthday party at a
bowling alley, I bought an inexpensive set of
plastic bowling pins at Wal-Mart. I then cut
3/4 of the way across the neck of the pin and opened
it up. Inside, we put gum and
candy from the Dollar Tree. We closed the pins back
up with a strip of white medical tape. Then on the
outside, we wrote my son's name, age and birthday
party with the date. The favors were a real
hit and very inexpensive!
For my daughter's 14th birthday party, we bought a
lot of inexpensive make-up, lotions, and nail
polish. Then, during the party, we had a treasure
hunt for the make-up. Whatever the girls found, they
got to keep
and take home with them. We bought the make-up
on clearance. Some were in large sets that we opened
up and hid the individual pieces separately.
This doubled as a party game and a party favor for
the guests to take home with them." ~ Ruth, CA
"I stumbled upon a
Sesame Street/Elmo 'Little Golden Book' at the
dollar store one year, entitled, 'When is MY
birthday?' (centered around Elmo's sister being the
recipient of all the gifts and attention.) Given
that it was my daughter's 2nd birthday, most
children that age don't have a strong grasp on
sharing, so I thought the book was a cute way to
illustrate their day would come, and who can feel
bad about giving a book for a favor?" ~
Kathleen
Editor's Note: Thanks to everyone who took the time to share
his or her ideas!
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