How to Find Inexpensive, Fun, and Unique Birthday Party Favors

Finding great party favors that are original, fun, and inexpensive can take some thought and planning. Here are some creative and less expensive birthday party favors that the kids are sure to enjoy.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. When choosing party favors, find favors geared toward the ages of the children and any possible theme for the birthday party. Party favors can be home-made, store bought, creative, expensive, or in-expensive. This list of party favor options should give you enough ideas to create the right favors for your special birthday party.
2. A good all-around party favor that is sure to be enjoyed by everyone is a free ticket to a local movie theater. It can be given to children of all ages and genders. Check with your local movie theater to see if you can purchase movie ticket passes for children.
3. An in-expensive book is also another type of party favor that can be enjoyed by children of all ages and it could easily be theme related to your party. Bookcloseouts (http://www.bookcloseouts.com) often has discounted children's books. One year, I purchased a set of "Make Your Own Golden Book" books for 1.00 each from Bookcloseouts. Their selection does vary, so check to see what they have available.
4. Some memorable party favors my children have enjoyed are a whoopee cushion, an old fashioned paddle ball, an ice cream shooter (push the button and the foam ice cream ball pops up into the air. It is attached to the cone with a string and can be reused over and over again.), light-up jellyfish yo-yo's, pinata candy, glow sticks, and sunglasses. Many of these fun party favors can be purchased inexpensively from online retail stores such as www.smalltoys.com.
5. There are many creative ways to make personalized party favors. With a computer and a printer, you can design and print creative messages such as "Thank you for coming to 'Joey's' birthday party!" with a photo of the birthday child. You can print these designs so they will fit around a candy bar such as a Hershey's Bar, and hand them out as party favors. For younger children, you can create a design that wraps around a bottle of bubbles. With t-shirt transfers, you can design an image that can be ironed onto t-shirts for each guest of the party. These are a few easy ways to create unique memorable gifts for the guests of your party.
6. For themed parties, here are some more birthday party favor ideas.
   Pool/Water Parties : an h2o squirter (a long thin tube that you suction water into by pulling the handle and then squirt the water out). This was a huge hit with all the children. It is great for pool parties. These inexpensive water squirters can be found at Dollar Tree stores.
7. Pirate Parties : Each child can receive a small pouch with their name on it. You can write their names with fabric pens. The bags can be filled with plastic gold coins, chocolate coins, or gum coins. Bags of gold nugget chewing gum would also be good for pirate parties.
8. Space/Rocket Parties : A foam rocket launcher. There are many variations of these foam rocket launchers that can be found at many stores such as Christmas Tree Shoppes and Dollar Tree stores.
   Space food such as Astronaut Ice Cream is another option.
9. Music Parties : For young children, an echo microphone would be enjoyable. The Dollar Tree stores frequently have these.
10. Goat Zoo/Animal Parties : A good old box of those old fashioned Animal Crackers would work well.
11. Carnival Cake Circus/Carnival Parties: A bag of cotton candy. This is a seasonal item and can be found in wholesale stores and Dollar Tree stores. Carnival style prizes such as inflatable things, marbles, tattoos, stamps, stickers, rubber snakes, and drinking cups would also work well. These in-expensive types of items can be found at www.smalltoys.com, www.orientaltradingcompany.com, and other stores.