What age guests would you give a party favor to?

[crunchy_mommy]

Ha that is a horribly-worded title, sorry!

I'm having a party for DS. Most of the guests are 1.5-4 years old so that is who the favors are geared toward... but there will be a couple of newborns & older infants, so do I give them a favor too? Or no favors for the under-1's (they all have older siblings who will be getting favors)? I wouldn't normally even think of giving newborns favors but the older babies (~9mo) make me second-guess that. Maybe I should I do something baby-specific for them... like.... I don't know what??? I'm making the other favors & trying to keep the cost down so I guess it would need to be something on the very cheap side (but not junk). Is there a certain 'starting age' for receiving favors in your opinion???

ETA: Nevermind... I'm still curious to hear opinions but I think maybe we'll go a different route & use what I planned as a craft for the kids instead of pre-making it as a favor... OK really I guess I'm just confused because we are doing a book exchange (and have requested no gifts) but I really want to do goody bags but maybe everyone will think it's weird if I do goody bags after asking for no gifts???? *Sigh* I already bought the materials too. :-/ Haha I'm getting way too worked up over this party...

[musikat]

Kids under 1, or even 1.5 likely won't notice or care that their sibling got something. I usually only give favors to age 2+.

[pianojazzgirl]

I would probably do party favours for all the kids, unless they were a baby.  Even 1 or 1.5 I might give something to (not necessarily the same as the older kids if it wasn't age-appropriate) because, while they might not notice being left out, there is the chance that they would notice - esp if they have an older sib who's getting something.

[deditus]

Depends on what you come up with! We only had one "big" b-day celebration for dd and that was her first b-day and dp's 30th (both born on July 1). We had kids of various ages and I got them all bandannas as their favor. Cheap and fun, babies to tweens liked them!

[Spring Lily]

I haven't given favors to newborns, but if they're sitting/crawling I'll buy them a ball. A cheap board book would work, too, especially if you are doing a book exchange. It would keep with that theme.

[crunchy_mommy]

Hmm maybe I can come up with something... I know the newborns won't notice but the older babies might... I did see some cool wooden teethers I could try to make if I can get the supplies in time & cheaply enough! For the toddlers I was going to do beanbags, crayons & a coloring page, and maybe stickers and some other small things. But now I'm worried everyone will think it's hipocritical to ask people for no gifts & then give their kids a bag of favors (in addition to the book they'll already exchange)? What do you think? Would it be appreciated or 'going overboard'?

If I shouldn't do it as favors, I was thinking I could pre-sew the beanbags & let the toddlers fill them as an activity (then just stitch them closed during the party, most of the moms sew & can help but maybe that would be too time-consuming?) Then it wouldn't be awkward to not give the babies anything (or their moms could make them a bean bag too if they were comfortable with it)....

This is the first "kid" birthday party I've thrown (1st year party was just a small family thing) so I am trying to make it fun & special!!

[Lisa1970]

I would just have on hand enough favors for all the babies. A good host goes the extra mile to make sure her guests are happy. It is better to just plan on giving to the little ones too. Good luck!

[pumpkin]

Around 9 months DD starting noticing if kids got something she didn't. So favors for older kids and not her would mean a tantrum. Therefore I try to make sure I have something for the babies that is similar, but age appropriate.

[crunchy_mommy]

Ooo I could make crinkle squares! Out of the same fabric as the bean bags... Would it be weird to just give the babies just one thing instead of a bag of goodies?

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

Ooo I could make crinkle squares! Out of the same fabric as the bean bags... Would it be weird to just give the babies just one thing instead of a bag of goodies?

no, it would be VERY appropriate. I think it's a good idea to have something for every child. It's weird for the kids if you don't, but age appropriate things are better than "one size fits all." (even if it's one item vs. a small bag of choking hazards).

We had one huge party where I did one kind of bag for the little kids, a slightly different bag for the big kids, a board book for a baby, and totally different 1-item gifts for two teens who were being drug along with their younger sibs. No body minded that they got different things, instead, they all thought it was cool. The teens really though it was cool because they expected nothing.