Parenting Tips

When we think of birthday party gifts, the first thing that comes to mind is the gifts that guests bring for the birthday boy or girl. But it's also nice to send the guests themselves home with a small gift. It's a nice way of expressing appreciation for their attendance.

If you're playing party games, gifts could take the form of prizes. But unless you come up with a way for every child to win something, you'll also need some party favors to give everyone. Here are some ideas for inexpensive take home gifts for birthday party guests that won't break the bank.

Party Favors

You can often find inexpensive party favors to use in grab bags at your local dollar store. It's possible that they'll even have something that matches with your theme. If they don't have items that have exactly the same theme, you can almost always find some more general favors like costume jewelry, bouncy balls, or toy cars.

Some nicely packaged candy is an appreciated and inexpensive favor. You'll just need a large bag of candy, some small cellophane bags or tulle, and some ribbon to tie them up with. You can also add shaped beads or other decorations if you like.

Letting kids make their own favors provides a fun party activity and a unique favor to take home. It's even better if you can find a project that fits well with the theme. For example, girls at a princess party could make tiaras out of construction paper or poster board and decorate them with markers, paint, or stick-on gems.

You could also use more general items for projects. For example, you might buy inexpensive items such as plastic visors and provide paint for the kids to personalize them with. These types of projects are inexpensive, easy and fun.

Prizes

If the kids will be playing games for prizes, offering something a little more elaborate than the standard party favors is in order. It doesn't necessarily have to be more expensive, just something above and beyond what everyone is getting.

Filling a jar with jelly beans, hard candy, or some other small treat provides both a game and a prize. Guests can write down their guesses as to how many of the items are in the jar, and the one who gets the closest can take the jar home to enjoy. Or, if you prefer, you could provide another prize and let everyone have some of the candy from the jar.

The dollar store should also have some good items to give away as prizes. Small stuffed animals, jump ropes, and other inexpensive but fun toys work nicely as prizes. You could also get a few even less expensive items and put them into a gift bag or basket for a special prize.