A lot of parents have had enough with the goodie bags — those bags full of trinkets and treats typically given out at the end of kids’ birthday parties or sent home on holidays like Valentine’s Day or even after youth sports games. Many parents feel the bag of party favors is a waste of money and resources, and while kids may enjoy the little gifts momentarily, they quickly forget about them.
So, are party favors even necessary? When we asked parents in our community, “What’s an alternative to goodie bags at birthday parties?”, some parents thought favors could be done away with all together, while others had suggestions on what to offer guests as a parting gift or experience instead. Some even had ideas on what to do with all of the goodie bag trinkets their kids have received.
Here are some of the responses from parents:
- “Normalize nothing! Please! Save the money and the landfill space!”
- “For my daughter’s birthday, we started a new book swap tradition. Bring a book, take a book!”
- “Make a craft as a party activity and then bring it home.”
- “How about a good time, a piece of cake and a balloon. When did we start to put more pressure on parents? Let’s go back to flexing musical games, party themes, fun togetherness, and cake for wishes. It’s the simple life.”
- “One year I did $5 gift cards to our local ice cream shop and said let us know when you want to get ice cream together!”
- “A book. Believe it or not, it costs less than your typical assembled goody bag.”
- “A high five and ‘thanks for comin’!’”
- “I gave a potted plant to each child. Environmentally friendly and gender neutral.”
- “My daughter had a movie night at the theater and I thought it was a cute idea to give a blanket to each kid!”
- “We always have a photobooth set up for digital photos in lieu of goody bags. Less waste, more memories.”
- “Oooh…maybe a cute Polaroid of them from the party!”
- “I save the goodie bag toys all year and hand out at Halloween, kids love it!”
- “Personally I hate goody bags. Fills my house with more plastic junk that I don’t have space for. I understand the kids like it for about five minutes and then it’s over. I’ve started giving flower seeds instead of Valentine’s goody bags at school!”
- “I make royal icing sugar cookies with the theme of my children’s birthday as giveaways.”
- “We recently did a KPop Demon Hunters party and we did small reusable baskets with a variety of Korean snacks from HMart.”
- “Kids break a piñata and take home the candy.”
- “Adopt a plushie (but using secondhand plushies).”
- “The forgotten R (yet most important) of Reduce Reuse Recycle is REFUSE.”
- “Literally nothing, start it and you’ll see others follow suit. Someone usually has to take the first plunge.”
