When you’re looking for party bag fillers there are so many things to consider: how many kids; how old are the kids; the theme of your party and of course the small matter of cost.
Even if you’ve saved by picking a cheap party venue then buying a £1 yo-yo, £2 book, 50p of sweets and a balloon, multiplied by 20+ kids soon adds up to a chunk of change.
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Then, after you’ve got all that stuff you may recoil in horror at the sheer amount of plastic toot you’ve just shelled out on. 20x bags (themselves usually plastic) full of short-lived, non-recycled, broken-and-in-the-bin-with-five-minutes junk is a lot of plastic waste.
If, like us, you’re trying to reduce your carbon footprint and live a little more ecologically then this post is for you.
Plastic free party bag fillers
There are loads of great ideas to help reduce the level of ‘plastic cr*p’you put in the party bags, including the party favours and toys you include.
Some of our favourites include:
Plastic-free bags
Why not start with the bags themselves? These ones from Amazon start at just pennies per bag – showing that being eco-friendly doesn’t have to cost the earth:
Eco friendly gift bag
How about making the bag the party favour gift itself? A gift of a bag?
Often the ‘party bag’ itself is a) made from horrible non-degradable plastic itself and b) is the first thing to be thrown away, (once the toys and cake have been extracted).
These ‘Love Island themed’ tote bags – from our favourite small-size seller’s marketplace Etsy – are made from cotton and canvas and the font is available in 18 different colours too.
At £4.75 a piece they’re cheaper than many plastic-packed options but will last far longer. And the new owners (once they’ve eaten their slice of birthday cake) can re-use them as a PE kit bag, laundry bag or for when they pop to the shops etc.
Better yet, if your budget can stretch that far, for £5.75 a piece you can get them personalised on both sides.
Add the name of the event or party – or even get each one custom made for each child that’s invited to the party.
You can get up to 100 characters on each side, so something like:
CLAIRE
ThriftyParent’s Party
2021
would fit on fine (with bags of room in fact). So you could really get the ‘Wow’ factor for your kid’s party by sending everyone home with a personalised, eco-friendly gift – without breaking the bank!
Personalised party bags
If you really like that idea, you can go even further.
We think these personalised name ‘definition’ bags are terrific:
At £8.40 each they’re a little more expensive but the personalisation is gorgeous and fabric party bags are way more eco-friendly than plastic ones.
Each recipient gets their name and a fully customisable ‘dictionary definition’ of their name. This sort of thing would go down an absolute treat for a sleepover party!
Next level personalised bags
You want more?
These are a-may-zing:
Made by Etsy favourites SYDANDCO (based in Carlisle in the north of England) these plastic-free tote bags take ‘customised’ to a whole new level.
You can get each of your friends/hens/attendees ‘drawn’ onto their bag, with their name.
Choose from 4 different skin tones; 12 hair colours; accessories; lip colours; glasses… the whole lot!
Oh – and you can get their name on the bag too.
If that isn’t making the gift bag into the gift we’re not sure what is! They’re £22 but sure you’ll agree, these are really special. Perhaps not for every kids party – but for a special occasion or as part of a sleepover/slumber party (with fewer guests) your budget could stretch to these.
SYDANDCO do a whole host of additional items too – from make-up bags to pyjamas and t-shirts.
Do check out their full range.
If you think these options are a all a ‘bit girly’ for your child’s rugby themed party (or you have some especially squeamish boys attending that will baulk at anything even closely resembling ‘girly’) we like these simple initial tote bags.
They’re black and white (so utterly gender neutral!) and having a custom bag with your initial on, writ large (literally) is pretty cool in any kid’s language.
Plastic free balloons
Every kids party needs balloons, right?
But all those burst balloons (or worse, the sad, wrinkled deflated ones that have to be ‘euthanised’ after the event) stack up to a load of long life, slow to breakdown landfill.
That’s why we love these eco-friendly party ballooons:
They’re crocheted!
And they come in a range of colours too. And at £7 for 6 we think they’re brilliant.
They ‘inflate’ with water – making them ideal for paddling pool parties or water-fights etc. and they can be used over and over again.
Each balloon fits in an adult palm, so they’re the perfect size for little hands.
You can pick the colours you want when you order – so if you’ve got a blue-theme; rainbow; pastels even black and white – you can get whatever you want.
Handmade Wooden spinning tops
Speaking of rainbows, these handmade wooden spinning tops are just beautiful. And made by real crafts-people too – as their promotional video shows:
Again, you can get them in all sorts of colours and can agree with the Etsy maker which colours or ranges you’d like.
They’re £4.30 a piece (so £43 for ten) which isn’t cheap – but then, mass produced plastic is cheap and that’s what we’re trying to avoid, right? You want fewer, quality items that’ll last longer than plastic junk and look at them…
they’re gorgeous!
Personalised wooden name jigsaw
On the topic of lovely things – how thrilled would you be as a kid (or even a grown-up!) to get one of these:
A personalised wooden name jigsaw!
With these you’re paying per letter (so make sure you don’t invite too many Anastasias or Augustines! Or get nicknames!). It’s £1 per letter – so you’re looking at £5-7 per child.
You can pick from primary colours, shades of blue or shades of pinks and lilacs to better suit each recipient.
Personalised, pre-filled and eco-friendly
If all that seems too overwhelming – too much choice or just too much like hard work, this idea is for you.
Personalised, eco-friendly, plastic free and pre-filled party bags!
You can get them without the personalisation – but it’s only 30p cheaper and at £3.30 each, fully personalised we think these are an absolute bargain.
Each bag comes with the recipient’s name (written on the cloud) and comes with:
- A mini glass jar of (handmade) rainbow coloured play dough
- A wooden spinner toy (in a variety of colours)
- A hessian bag with a glass counter travel game (with black and white counters)
- Three two-tone, heart-shaped rainbow crayons.
The bag itself is paper so every element is made from entirely natural ingredients and/or will completely bio-degrade – but we think the recipients would be so thrilled with these, nothing would go near the bin anyway!
Last update on 2022-05-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API