Birthday Swag Bag for 12-yr-old Girl?

[channlluv]

Hi, everyone,

I'm posting this in this forum because there are so many young, and young-at-heart, very cool people here, often with much more experience than I in all sorts of areas.

I'm planning DD's 12th birthday party (martial arts theme, boys and girls ages 11-12, with younger siblings welcome - they're mostly 8 - 10, 6pm - 9pm, with glow-in-the-dark nunchucks - it's going to be a blast) and I'm wondering what to do about the traditional goodie bag you hand out to guests as they leave. She's turning 12. At what age do kids outgrow the goodie bag? And if it's not yet, I need some suggestions for cheap tchotchke stuff that's cool, not babyish, that the kids will like.

You know, kids these days...

I was thinking at $2 gift certificate for iTunes
Candy, of course

Any thoughts? We're expecting about 20 kids.

Oh, and instead of gifts for herself, she's asking her friends to bring donations of dogfood and catfood, towels, and toys, for the local Humane Society. Maybe something animal-related, but not all of the kids invited have pets. Only about half do.

Thanks, all,

Roxy

P.S. She's a cyclist, too, and loves swimming, wants to start tri-training with me when I can start running again, and will be testing for her black belt in October.

[Cataboo]

I've never quite understood the goody bag thing - I guess it wasn't done when I was young, and I don't have kids. But I would think 12 is old enough that you could stop.

The itunes gift certificates sound cool - maybe a USB stick/thumbdrive... especially online you can get those in like a 1 or 2 gb size fairly cheap and in pretty colors. Little LED keychain flashlights?

[channlluv]

Oh, I love the USB idea. Yepyepyep, something they all need for school. Great idea.

Yeah, I don't remember goodie bags from when I was little, either, but it's a tradition here. We haven't been to any older kid birthday parties, though.

Roxy

[Grits]

We stopped giving the birthday swag bags to guests after age 10. Being invited to a party with food and entertainment is gift enough!

[shootingstar]

You might want to give them a choice of ie. LEd keychain (great idea) or something else.

I just wonder at that age, if kids actually just really appreciate something that's given to them/vs. something that they choose.

That's it. Better to have fun games, activities and cool stuff to do together instead. They'll remember that the most.

Presumably you'll hand around a digital camera or daughter has one to take photos of the occasion?

[Biciclista]

I thought the guests were supposed to bring presents... if they wanted. The party was the fun part. ??? Buy some fun balloons and noise makers.. ???


ps your daughter sounds really cool!!

[Tuckervill]

I'd skip the bags, too. But, if you decided to play games you could give away nominal prizes. To camp it up, you could make the prizes just random things from your house. Spread them around the house ahead of time, so it looks like you just said, uh, "here's your prize" and hand them the new toothbrush you just got from the dentist's office.

I do like the flashdrive idea, though.

Karen

[Zen]

Keep the bags at 12, lose them at 13.

[Crankin]

Well, I do remember goody bags as a kid. We gave them out at our kid's parties, through their Bar Mitzvahs, where we gave candy, which was about the cheapest goody bag that group of kids saw . After that, they didn't have birthday parties. We invited 1-2 good friends and we'd go out to dinner. Then they drove themselves!
I mean, a lot of adults give gifts to their guests at important parties, so the concept is not foreign to me.
All of your ideas sound good.

[janeryan1981]

I think that the flash drive is a great idea. I know they have some 4 gb at Office Depot right now for $12.99 that have all kinds of fun designs on them.

As far as candy and treats, have you though about doing Personalized Fortune Cookies? With it being a martial art theme, I thought that could be cool. You can make the fortunes read whatever you like or just thank them for coming to the party.

Just a thought!

[Jones]

To go with the fortune cookies why not just do an all Asian them. I'm thinking paper fans, small mirrored lipstick cases or small "silk" bags, cool chopsticks. There most be any Asian market in San Diego I bet you good find tons of stuff there.

[bikermaze]

I never understood the bags either but it seemed like a good staple. However I'm against the useless junk idea for the contents of the bag though. Perhaps something useful would be good.

Try to pick items that go with the theme yet are useful. Perhaps you could find some martial arts themed notepads and pens? Something that's cheaps and may be bought by the bulk. Keychains and little trinkets that can be hanged and used as decors on a cellphone, ipod, bag, etc can be done as well.

Make it thoughtful yet unique.

The problem with cheap technological gadgetry is they die off quickly. But I'm for the USB thumb drives by the bulk sort as gifts. They seem good enough.