Healthy and Eco-friendly Kid’s Party Bags
The party bag. The lolly bag. The loot bag. The bane of parents!
Let’s eat heaps of junk for two hours and…… if you still haven’t had enough, here’s a bag full of sugar and plastic to take home with you.
How did that all happen?
Anyway, it doesn’t have to be like that. You can certainly still participate in the party bag tradition in a much healthier and eco-friendly way. The parents will thank you too.
Okay so here are some of my top tips for Healthy and Eco-friendly Kid’s Party Bags:
The bag.
Think outside the square. You don’t have to go and buy plastic bags that end up in landfill. What about…..
Paper bags. Get your kids to decorate and add their friend’s names. Use stickers or stamps in keeping with your theme or just drawings! Fun and personal. You could even put a little eco message ‘recycle me’ on the back! I love these mini wooden dolly pegs too – super cute!
Fabric bags. If you are clever on the Janome, whip up some little cloth drawstring bags – these can be re-used by the kids to store their treasures. If you are not so good at sewing (like me), just cut some circles of fabric, load your goodies in and tie up with a pretty ribbon or string.
Noodle boxes. Again decorated by your child or you can also use this as a craft activity at the party. (Can you see how good delegating is?!)
Paper doilies. Fold large paper doilies up into an envelope or cone shape for the goodies.
Snack pockets. We love these little snack pockets for our lunchboxes, but they also work well for parties! They are 100% cotton and canvas fabric, ethical and eco-friendly. The Natural New Age Girl is in love with the little birdy print! Visit the website here.
Paper cups. Decorate paper drinking cups and add a cute little string handle. Get them from as cheap as 0.29c each from Eco Party Box.
The goodies.
Here are some ideas that don’t involve lots of sugar, artificial stuff and cheap plastic. My tip is to not go overboard. A party bag is just a small token to say thanks for coming.
Popcorn Butterflies. I love this cute idea from Collette at Cut out the Crap. Take a look here to see how to do them. This in fact can be the party bag!
Mini boxes of dried fruit. Try to find organic ones as regular dried fruit often contains sulphur dioxide.
Home-made treats. Pop in a biscuit or some chocolate coated nuts (pictured).
Organic, good quality packet snacks. Here are some good ones – Berry Choc Chunk Bars (lots of superfoods) or some organic biscuits and bars from Organics on a Budget.
Organic or additive-free lollies. I don’t serve usually serve lollies at the party, but pop one or two into the party bags. Check out Organics on a Budget for some healthier lollies and chocolates.
Playdough. So easy to make a batch of homemade playdough – colour with some beetroot or spinach for a really natural dough!
Organic seeds. Cute and eco-friendly! Find them at Gardening 4 Kids. They have lots of other cool things as well.
Colouring-in pages. Print off some colouring in pages to suit your theme, roll them up and tie with string.
Bits and Bobs from The Eco Party Box. Crystals, eco-balloons, alpaca wool finger puppets (pictured) pencils, notebooks and wooden whistles. Browse the goodies here.
Wooden Click Critterz. Eco-friendly beechwood with lead-free paint from Biome.
Or do something different to a party bag and try:
Lucky Dip. Wrap small toys in some tissue paper or recycled gift wrap and put in a box!
Little Golden Books. You can buy these so cheaply and you can inscribe in the cover – “Thanks for coming to my party, Love xx”. They also make an awesome idea instead of a birthday card, but I digress.
Craft. Get the kids to make something crafty at the party for their take-home gift.
I always think it’s a nice idea to include a thank you note in the party bag too. It’s old-fashioned, but it teaches kid’s good manners and to focus on the fun time spent with friends, rather than just presents!
A tip if you don’t want your child to have a party bag from a party, is to tell them you will swap it for a healthy treat at home. How else do you handle this?
I would love to hear what healthy and eco-friendly things you put in your party bags !
Wow Sonia, all this stuff is going to be so good as a ready reference on your easy to navigate blog! I’m loving this healthy stuff party series!
the pressure’s on now to have a big party for baby boy’s number one!!! 😉
Fabulous ideas Sonia & what a great reference to have. Thanks!
For my son’s Lego Party, the party bag was a Lego Minifigure!
A handball is a great one for sports parties!
Oh they are great ideas Jo 🙂
Awesome! I have hungry caterpillar theme with paper bags matching… The popcorn butterflies will be perfect!! I was thinking some homemade biccies/ shortbread, crayons and we are going to finger paint some caterpillars at the party as a take home gift. Thanks for all your ideas! Bought my cake mix today so will attempt it tomoro- wish me luck! I’m hardly a baker!! 🙂
I have seen so many beautiful hungry caterpillar parties! Have fun 🙂
For Master2’s birthday we had a wiggley circus themed party. The (wiggles-coloured paper) loot bags had a bubble stick, homemade playdough (the 4 wiggle colours in snack size zip lock bags), unpopped popcorn with instructions how to make on stove, circus stickers, reusable & recyclable plastic cups with lids, and homemade ribbon twirlers (chopsticks with wiggle coloured ribbons and bells attached at the ends). They were a huge hit, no lollies, chocolates etc. Definitely more effort to hand make everything, but at least they were all longterm keepers, my son gets bags of lollies and I dont let him eat any of it 🙁
Also, if you can find some good yoghurt covered berries or sultanas are like chocolate to little ones!
They are fabulous ides Lorraine – I would love a ribbon twirler!
Fab ideas, as always! Makes me want to have a party ……
Thanks Lou and thanks for the playdough recipe!
Hi, great post, will keep it handy! I recently gave a balloon and small bottle of bubbles to the kids who came to my 3 year old daughters party.
Great idea Alice – it’s all they need!
Excellent ideas! I can still remember the first ‘party’ we had for my son (now 7) and how dissappointed the children were when they found organic dried fruit and carob inside their paper bags and not ‘junk plastic’ toys and bright coloured lollies full of FD&C colours. But having said this I too remember how relieved the parents were that they didn’t have out of control children after consuming the contents. My son has been trained to surrender party bags for scruitinizing by us and generally substituting with healthy treats when we get home 🙂
Good on you Monique!!
Loving the kids week themes NNAM 🙂 I have some reading to catch up on as I have been away for a few week! You have given me a great new ideas for hosting our eco friendly parties! 🙂
awesome Jess!
I have just ad 7yr old son bday party. Made fabric with zip up bag. Treat inside where, eraser, pencil, mini lego set (of ebay), stickers, printed of a Star Wars Activity Book, Organic lollie pop and small pk of Ovaltinies. He did not want any other lollies in it. I was very proud of him!
Fabulous Rachael!!
Some lovely ideas here. Something I’ve done in the past for party bags is buy a box set of small books and divide it between the bags. Thanks for the ideas!
that is a great idea Lizzie – the post office ususally sells great quality books in cheap packs 🙂
Thanks for the ideas!
Found this site too – I particularly love the pencils that you plant when you’re finished with to create a herb/veg!
Great suggestions! We have really down-sized our take home party bags as it was simply too much sugar and candy. Now we hand out a really minimal little jewellery bag sized candy bag with just one chocolate and one sugar dandy. The children really appreciate it and eat it more mindfully.
Thank you
Bren