Party Favors for 1 Year Old's Birthday Party

For my son's first b-day last summer we gave out (from the dollar store) a pail/shovel set and a big container of bubbles for each child (they also ranged in ages) and everyone seemed to love it...AND it was inexpensive.
Hope that helps!

At my one year old's party I simply passed out cupcakes with neat candles (unlit) and sent them home in fun little bags with a little "thank you for coming" note card that I had out at each place setting. The cupcakes had been part of a cupcake tree - it was the centerpiece. For the party treat we cut into a large cake and had ice cream. I also put birthday blowers in each bag. I did that again on her 2nd birthday. I'm thinking that's enough - i don't want to start wtih the junk of party favors, and candy is expensive! Good luck!

Just went through this a couple of months ago - we did little gift bags with sidewalk chalk, crayons, and a little drawing pads that we found at Hobby Lobby. I did throw in a bag of M&M's for the older kids (4 & up), and animal crackers for the 2&3 yr. olds. Each treat bag cost me about $2.50 (I only had to do 5 of them, or it probably would have been animal crackers for everyone!).

My opinion is that party favors are unnecessary at any age. Isn't being invited to a party enough? When did this practice start and who started it??

In fact, the latest invitation my daughter (in Kindergarten) received does away with even the birthday presents and instead asks that the guests make a donation of a toy or activity to the MN Children's Hospital. I LOVE that idea and will do that next year for my daughter.

My friend's son just turned 1, and the age range of guests at his party was from 3-13, so she needed to come up with party favors that would suit all ages. She ended up buying an inexpensive wood picture frame for each child from Michael's and some little tubes of washable paint. She spread out a plastic tarp and let each child decorate their own picture frame to take home. It not only kept the kids occupied, but everyone got a little keepsake to display in their own homes later.
One note is that she did let the parents know to send an old t-shirt or paint smock with their child so they wouldn't end up with paint on their clothes.
Good luck with whatever you decide and have fun!

My sister-in-law has a sugar cookie business. "The Cookie Cutter" She decorates and bakes every cookie herself. Not only are they beautiful and creative, but they are the best tasting sugar cookies I have ever eaten! She has a website. www.thecookiecuttercookies.com
You can have your son's picture put on them, they can be in the shape of the #1 or go along with your theme. My sister-in-law packages them all individually and ties them with a coordinating color ribbon. My kids give these as party favors at all of their parties and they are always a hit.

You can also contact my sister-in-law, Suzanne at ____@____.com.

check out http://www.familyfun.com. My friend has been giving me issues of their magazine and they have lots of good ideas. One I saw recently was making coloring books by downloading pictures off the internet and then designing a cover representing the child's birthday party.

I agree with the poster who said favors are not necessary, BUT, if you really want to do some, go ahead! Searcht he web for party crafts, and you will find tons of ideas. DO you have a "theme" for the party? If so, include that in your search terms.

Also, you said you are running out of ideas for the parties...try thinking of it this way, you have already done at least 9 parties, that the one year old was NOT at - 9 ideas you already know how to do ! He will not know or care if you re-use an idea, and really, neither will the other kids, or the adults...Anyone that does think you shouldn't ever have the same thing twice should just keep it to themselves, or offer to plan all the rest of your parties for you!

Just relax, it is not some competition ot have the best most original party! It is a time to get together and celebrate that you made it through a whole year with 3 sons!!!! ;-) CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!!!!

My sis-in-law just gave out bubbles and little things of playdough at her kid's party for kids bout same ages and was a hit, with a sucker and small C. treats. All the kids seemed to like this and they can use these without them just breaking and ending up in the trash, which as a parent i like. Good luck with your party, hope you all have fun!

My friend just had a party for her little girl and gave out side walk chalk and pin wheel's, I thought that was a cute idea and my little boy loved it!

Hi, I have a daughter who will be 16 this month, a 2 1/2 year old sweet little boy, and am due with our 3rd (boy) the end of June. Some things I've done in the past is given terra cotta pots spray painted with chalk board paint and written the date or so-and-so's "1st Birthday" and put some chalk and a packet of flower seeds inside. I've also done gift bags with a soft kushy ball, party blowers and some bubbles. That is inexpensive and makes a wide age range of kids happy. Hope these ideas help.

The last party I went to had no favors, which I am also just fine with! And the last party I threw had no favors and nobody complained...

Are you doing a themed party? Anything small and inexpensive that goes with your theme is fine. For example, if you are doing a Finding Nemo party, pencils with fish on them or fish stickers (Nemo or generic) would work.

I like gifts/favors that are useful, so pencils for school age kids, or crayons, or Crayola washable markers, construction paper pads, etc. A memo pad with the name of each child and a sticker on the cover. Little kids love having stuff that is THEIRS.

if you are making a craft during the party, the completed craft becomes the party favor. Make playdough creations- each kid gets a tiny playdough container and takes home whatever they make. (Also try Cooks.com for edible playdough recipes). Or have the kids make their own colorful name tags (construction paper or notecards, markers, and contact paper to laminate them, string or safety pins to wear them).

A baked goodie is always a nice treat to take home from a party. A cupcake or cookie, a muffin, or baked treat bars like lemon bars or something.

By the way, it's nice that you don't want to send people home with junk. I usually end up throwing away the favors from parties, prizes from the dentist office, carnival trinkets, etc.

I plan on continuing to do themed parties for my son until he outgrows liking them. I did a Nemo for his first birthday and we did a party at Hardee's because they have a ballpit to play in for his second birthday, I made a cake to look like the ballpit, and had planned on giving each kid a ball from the dollar store for a favor (though I forgot to get them!). I like themes cuz they're fun to plan and execute, and they are memorable. And then your party favor is dictated by the theme.

Hope some of that was helpful :)
Have fun!

Hi,
My son's 1st birthday is also a couple of weeks away! We ordered favors from Oriental Trading. We are giving out rubber duckies, beach balls, stickers and animal rubber stampers. They were all very reasonable...I think I paid less than $25 for a dozen of each. We are doing a rubber duckie theme, so we got the birthday duckies and duckie stickers. My three year old loves all of the stuff too!! Check out their website, they have stuff for lots of different themes. I went to a different party where they gave out inflatable animals like frogs, also from oriental trading...they were super cute!

Does your son have any special interest; cars, trucks, etc? You could hit your local dollar store and pick up some small toys as favors. They sometimes sell them in bulk and are super cheap. You might even find several of the suggested items that others have posted. The beach pail is a great idea. I went to a party where they gave out small pails and then in a large pail, they had dirt pudding with gummy worms and they used that as the cake. That would make a very cute party theme. What boy doesn't love to get in the dirt?

When my son turned one, we bought him a sandbox for his birthday. At Walmart they had little trucks, turtles, buckets etc. with sand toys in them for pretty cheap, which is what we gave for favors. Have fun!

One word...BALLS. Kids that age LOVE balls...oh and bubbles, too. Or puzzles, or books.....

For my daughter's first birthday - I recycled jars from the jar foods she was eating. I cleaned them up and took off the labels. I made a personal label - with my daughter's picture (like the Gerber baby). I wrote something like 50% adorable, 40% spunk and 10% mischief for her ingredients. I think I even put her ht and wt on there. I can't remember exactly but you get the idea. We had mostly family and we only invited one young friend. She's the first baby in the family on both sides. I filled the jars with M&Ms. You could put any kind of snack in there if the kids are too young to have M&Ms. All I did extra was put a ribbon around the jar. I noticed that people still have it on display. But, it's a great keepsake for family. Just have fun with it!

playdough (homemade or store bought) and a cookie cutter that matches the theme of the party.

Try looking at Target, right when you come in the doors there is a little section of dollar items.
Also, you could make a cookie with a stick baked into it so it looks like a lollypop. That would be cute with each child's name written on it!
Have fun!

could be something as simple as a stick of rock candy (which you can make) - toys are ... overused and they never get played with anyway.

Little board books were one of the things I used at my 2 yr. olds party, and they had those in packages of three at the dollar store. Also little bubbles would be cheap, your little one would like looking at them, and the older ones could do them themselves.

Hi A., I would suggest going to paper warehouse and picking up things in bulk such as bubbles, stickers, matchbox cars or even playing cards. My daughter is turning 2 soon and loves all of the above! I would recommend putting these in zip lock baggies for easy opening and closing. You can decoracte them with stickers as well!!

Hi, A.!

For the most part, I'm with everyone else who says that favors are an unnecessary expense.

If you're willing and able to do favors, however, how about small musical instruments? Kazoos, maracas, slide whistles, small tambourines and rain sticks can all be found for under $2 and sometimes you can even find a package of assorted ones. They're fun to use at the party and even my 7-month-old loves to shake his maracas! Plus, the kids can continue to use them at home and the parents can't be too mad at you because they don't make THAT much noise on their own. =)

If you have time before your party, check into ordering them online. They are much cheaper, you can buy 20-25 at a time, and sometimes you can even get a little "Happy 1st Birthday" message printed on them. Good luck!

Truly A., one-year-olds don't need party favors... they are too young to understand them. Save yourself some money and avoid buying them stuff made in China that they don't need. Skip it. Their mothers will appreciate you as well.

Bubbles, sidewalk chalk, crayons and color books, Play-doh. Those are all fun and inexpensive.

With that age group I would do bubbles, crayons, play dough and maybe fruit snacks.

Have fun at your party.

How about those grow eggs? There little ceramic eggs with flower seeds inside. The child gets to crack open the top of the egg and water it daily until it's large enough to transplant outside. My two year old loves the one he got for easter.

Party favors can be very expensive. I don't know how much you want to get but you could check out PBS website. They have free party favors to print off from your own computer. They have the cartoons that are on PBS. Hope that helps and good luck.

My daughter went to a party and got a beach bucket with a shovel and her name written on the bucket all fancy with paint. It was so cute I didn't want her to play with it.

Hi, I don't typically do party favors myself, but my girlfriends do. One loves to give a notebook with color crayons. The little kids love to color, and the older ones love to make paper airplanes which they decorate up with the crayons. She also has stopped at a Gumball type machine and bought rubber bouncy balls to throw in the bag. Also, the dollar store near me has great toys for a buck. There are soft foam swords, which my boys love who are 10 and 4 years old. There are Bubbles, punching balloons I saw a pack of six for a buck, and sidewalk chalk, beach balls, or you can get $1.00 gift cards to Mc Donalds so they can go sometime for ice cream cones. My neighbor hands out gift cards for Wendy's for those frozen ice cream drinks at halloween. Stickers are also fun. You can find a variety pack or roll of them and cut is strips for each kid. Have fun with it. I love finding the deals at the dollar store, Big Lots, the Dollar Spot at Target. I actually just bought my boys little Star Wars lunch bags at the Target near us in the dollar aisle which were two for a buck. They were so psyched! Happy Shopping!

Do you have a theme for your party? I always try to go with the theme (we had an Elmo party and I had goldfish crackers, crayons, and downloaded pics off the internet - fire truck party :hats, dalmation suckers, badges). I also like to give bubbles, stickers,& small bags of crackers or fruit snacks. Hope that helps a little. Have fun - I know I love to plan parties and have gift bags - the kids really enjoy it too!