15 Plastic Free Party Bag Ideas

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I know that most of us are trying to cut down on our single use plastic. Using some of these plastic free party bag ideas is the perfect way to start cutting down. Since watching the documentary War On Plastic my eyes have really been opened to the problems we are facing with our all consuming use of single use plastic. Our house was full of single use plastic and I've worked really hard on trying to cut it down, but that's for another post!

Back in July it was Little Boy's birthday and I wanted to give his friends party bags after his party as usual but I didn't want to give out the usual plastic 'tat' as I call it so I got to thinking about alternative party bag ideas that didn't involve a lot of plastic rubbish that generally just gets thrown away within a few days.

I asked some other bloggers for ideas and I thought that there were so many great ideas that I would share them with you guys in case you needed inspiration too.

Books

Suggested by Tantrums to Smiles, Anklebiters Adventures and Thrifty Mum

This is the idea that I went with in the end - I got 3 bundles of 10 books from The Works which were on offer for 10 for £10 so that worked out at only £1 per party bag. I wrapped them in brown paper so that there was the fun of unwrapping them and the kids loved them. Another nice suggestion was colouring books, or dot to dot books and you could maybe add a few colouring pencils too.

Seeds

Suggested by Pink Pear Bear

This was a great suggestion. You can get seeds in a paper envelope or seeds in paper that they can plant or even give them little paper pots with sunflower seeds that they can plant at home (perfect for spring / summer parties).

Cake / Cookie Ingredients

Suggested by LesBeMums and Devon Mama

I love this idea and I think it would work really well with slightly older children. You can put the dry ingredients into a paper bag and write the recipe on the front. They will just need to add the wet ingredients themselves when they get home and they can bake themselves a little treat. If the children are older you can jazz up the gift a little by putting the ingredients into a glass mason jar. We did this for Christmas gifts one year and they were very well received.

Felt Masks

Suggested by Baby Holiday

This is another lovely idea. Alana gave out felt superhero masks after her son's birthday party and they went down really well with the children, she said it was lovely to see them all leaving afterwards wearing them, and of course they took home a piece of cake too!

Homemade chocolates

Suggested by The English Family

If you have the time giving something homemade as a little thank you gift is such a lovely touch. It also gives you a great activity to do with your little one and teaches them about gratitude and thankfulness. You can find an easy homemade chocolate recipe or just melt chocolates into silicone moulds and pop them out and pop them in paper bags to give to your guests.

Card Games

Suggested by A Rose Tinted World

Simple card games make great party bag gifts. You can tailor the game to the age of the child. Little ones with like something like Happy Families and older children might like Uno, or you could just opt for a plain old deck of cards so they can play all sorts of games.

Homemade playdough

Suggested by Arthur Wears

A lovely suggestion for smaller children is to give gifts of homemade playdough and flower confetti. Team that with wooden rollers or sticks and you have a great tactile and sensory activity for them to take home.

Re-useable water bottle

Suggested by Twinderelmo

My daughter had a personalised water bottle as a party bag gift the other day and she has used it every day since. You could also fill a reusable water bottle with sweets which would be a hit I'm sure! I love that this idea also encourages the further use of the water bottle therefore saving more plastic from disposable bottles.

A Football

Suggested by Emma Reed

This is such a great idea, especially if you are having a football themed party. A really easy gift for everyone at the end would be to give them their own football. If you are having a swim party you could gift everyone a new swim bag instead.

Linen bag of gifts

Suggested by Dirt Diggers and Dinosaurs

Emma suggested a reusable linen drawstring bag with all the party essentials: eco glitter, a stainless steel/paper straw, and a slice of the birthday cake in either a waxed paper (reusable) wrap or paper napkin. You could add in sweets in a paper cone, colouring pencils or a takeaway activity like a wildflower seed bomb.

Wooden Animals

Suggested by Two Hearts One Roof

An eco friendly wooden toy to take away is such a lovely idea and Chantelle suggests the Lanka Kade animals which are perfect and very reasonably priced. It is so lovely that a toy that will be played with time and time again will be a great memory of your little one's birthday too.

Filled mugs

Suggested by Big Family, Big Fun

This is a great idea for older girls - give mugs filled them with sweets & ‘pamper items’ such as nail varnish, hairbands, sweets etc. You could wrap them in organza or a cheap headscarf.

Make the gift one of the party activities

Suggested by Mama In Progress and A Beautiful Space

If you are having a party at home or in a hall one of the activities you do could be to have them make the gift they are going to take home. They could decorate paper bags with their names and stickers and colouring pencils and use the bag to take home sweets or biscuits and cake. Another suggestion was to get initial letters from Hobbycraft or somewhere similar and have the children paint them at the party and then they get to take them home at the end.

Wooden gifts

Suggested by The Incidental Parent

A lovely party bag idea included a little paper bag including a seed card, a wooden keyring, a piece of wood with the child's name on and the obligatory piece of cake.

Bag of fruit

Suggested by My Parenting Journey

How about an eco-friendly reusable shopper bag filled with fresh fruit. They will enjoy eating the fruit and be able to keep the bag for using for their shopping. Totally plastic free!

With all these ideas there is definitely no excuse for buying any more single use plastic for party bags! If you have any other ideas please leave a comment below, I'd love to hear them.

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