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The party bag has quietly become one of the most stressful parts of hosting a children's party. Somewhere along the way, a few sweets and a slice of cake turned into a small gift shop in a carrier bag. It doesn't need to be that way. A realistic target for a lovely, personal bag is £2 to £3 per child, and plenty of families do it comfortably for less.
Before you shop, work out two numbers: how many children are coming, and how much you are willing to spend on each one. Write it down. Ten guests at £2.50 each is £25 — a figure you can plan around rather than discover at the till. Once you have that number, every decision gets easier, because you are no longer asking "is this nice?" but "does this fit?"
The bag itself is where most people overspend without noticing. Pre-printed, character-themed bags can cost several pounds each and leave you very little room for anything inside. Plain brown kraft paper bags, small cotton drawstring bags or simple coloured paper carriers cost pennies by comparison, and they take decoration beautifully.
Better still, they look handmade rather than mass-produced, which is exactly the feeling you want. A kraft bag with a name written on it in chunky marker, a strip of patterned tape along the top and a ribbon handle instantly looks intentional. If you are using cotton bags, they double as a useful keepsake that will survive long after the party — a genuine bonus for the parents too.
The single biggest saving is to build the bags yourself. Ready-made party bags are convenient, but you are paying someone else to do the assembling, and the contents are usually thin. Buying your own items in multi-packs gives you far more for your money.
Split bulk packs with another parent if you are both hosting parties that term. It halves the cost and stops you storing forty whistles in a cupboard.
A single homemade item lifts the whole bag. It costs very little, it looks generous, and children notice. Shortbread fingers, chocolate cornflake cakes, small squares of fudge, mini fairy cakes or a couple of homemade biscuits wrapped in greaseproof paper and tied with string all work beautifully.
Bake or make the week before and freeze where you can. Wrap each portion individually so nothing goes stale, and add a small sticker with the child's name or a simple "thank you for coming". If baking is not your thing, a small jar of drinking chocolate mix layered with marshmallows is just as charming and takes minutes to assemble.
One important note: always ask parents about allergies when they RSVP, and keep a couple of non-food bags aside. Label anything containing nuts or dairy clearly. It takes seconds and means every child can enjoy their bag without worry.
Personalisation is what makes a cheap bag feel expensive. A name written clearly on the front in a bold marker takes five seconds and turns a plain paper bag into something a child will carry around proudly for the rest of the afternoon.
Other low-cost touches worth having in your kit:
Assemble the bags in one sitting, ideally with the birthday child helping. Set everything out in a line — bags, then each filler, then the treat, then the tags — and work along the row. Twenty bags take about half an hour this way.
Buy your fillers in the sales or after a big seasonal event, and keep a box of generic supplies for next time. Reuse what you already have. And remember that the bag is a small goodbye, not the main event — the games, the cake and the chaos are what the children will actually remember. Get the bags done, keep the cost sensible, and put your energy where it counts.
The Party Penguin shares practical, down-to-earth guidance on creative children's parties and family celebrations for readers across the UK.
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