Ideas for kids party "lolly" bags

For Milo's birthday party, I wasn't going to have lolly bags, but DH and mum are horrified that the older kids won't have a lolly bag to take home afterwards.

Has anyone got suggestions of what I could put in them other than lollies -- i really don't like the idea of sending the already hyped up kids home with their parents armed with a bagful of sugar!

Another first birthday party I went to had a plastic noodle box, with a prima and like a golburn valley fruit tub, so that sirt of food might be OK, but I'm on the lookout for any suggestions!

Perhaps you can get some little trinkets to put in there too? Like stickers or plastic bracelets for girls or i saw a a 2 dollar shop they had these plastic watches that had little ball puzzles in the rather than the watch for the boys. Just another idea to fill them.

Gingerbread Men - you can get 9% fat free ones
Sultanas Boxes
Quelch Fruit Sticks - like zooper dooper ice blocks but they're 99% juice
Jellies - you can get the premade in little shaped plastic moulds
Mini Jatz / Ritz
Fruit Sticks
Balloons to blow up

(We made some for a BBQ we were at yesterday ).

How about little bottles of bubbles, stickers, balloons/water bombs , crayons/coloured pencils, post it pads/note pads, little glitter vials (thier parents will love you for that ), stamps and so on. The kind of stuff that encourages a bit of creativity. You can buy a packet of pencils or crayons and just divide them up and the bottles of bubbles are pretty cheap if you get them from a $2 shop (you can buy party packs of them).
What about little face masks.

ETA - Sarah's post just reminded me of a party we went to a while ago with a pinata and the kids had to fill thier own bags. When the pinata broke DH told Yasin to go and fill his bag. Yasin saw what was up and then came up with a really cunning idea. He ignored the scrounging on the floor and went straight to the snacks table and filled his bag with carrot and celery sticks ROFL. After he nearly tripped on a choclate bar on the way back to DH he put that in too.

So far Lindsay has received in his this year; balloons, matchbox cars, old maid/snap cards, marbles (not impressed with that one), coloured gel pens, rubber spiders and snakes, party favor trinkets, those streamer popper things and surprisingly few lollies. maybe you could tailor make them to suit the ages of the kids too if you can.

LOL at Yasin!! I can imagine Zander doing the same, he'd prefers fruit over lollies!

LOL Dach, thats priceless!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

For Ashlea's birthday we made baby party bags because there were 4 babies, all aged around 8 months. Their bags included a balloon to blow up, a little sandwich bag with a few arrowroot biscuits in it, rusks, and a little teddy bear

The older kids bags had bubbles, blower things, a balloon, little water pistols, note pad, stickers, glitter pens, bouncy balls, monster finger things and a few lollies

I just went to the cheapy shops and got little packets of things that could be devided up and put in the bags

we went to a party recently where they gave cute little bags of popcorn to all the kids as they were leaving

For Ivy and Noah's first birthday we had normal party bags for the older kids and baby bags for the littlies.
The baby bags had in them;
A fruit stick,
Some baby food,
A baby juice popper,
A bib.

Everything went in a little bag! It was fun!

These ideas are all so good, now it will be hard for me to choose!

thanks everyone!

If the party is late in the afternoon...glow sticks are a huuuuuge hit. You can find tubes of 20 sticks that can be linked to make necklaces as well as being worn as bangles. They're usually only about $2 a tube.

some fantastic ideas in here!

I put in a book (eg Mister men, Little Miss), a toy (eg match box car or girly purse) and a box of sultanas. I could not bring myself to put anything unhealthy in.

Ge i never thought to do bags for Chelsea's first birthday....i thought it was a bit to young to be doing it. Have to re-think the idea now!!

Just give em each a home made toffee apple - enough sugar to appeal to kids with the added bonus of FRUIT!

We've also done glow sticks and those plastic glow-in-the-dark stars you can put on your bedroom ceiling.

this is fabulous girls! i am about to have a 5th birthday for my eldest and always hated buying all the lollies. the arty stuff and books, toys and bubbles are fab ideas!!! now im all excited. maybe it will start a new tradition inparty bags and the adult men wont ask for one and DH wont eat half the supplies before the big day! gee i love this website!!!

For Brandon's Bob the Builder birthday party, I didn't put much in the "bags". I made a stick of dynamite out of a party popper and some red cardboard, and put two lolly snakes in it. Then they had two glow sticks, and the hard hats they wore during the party, and the scratchies they got at lunch. It all went into the toolboxes they painted before lunch, that we hot glued wooden letters for their names to.

With Anna's Wiggles party next month, I am printing up some shopping bags to say Thanks for coming, with a Wiggles picture on it (like the green bags at the supermarket, only white ) In them will go all the craft items they make at the party, as well as wiggle soaps (bratz for the older girls) and some sort of toy/novelty. I try to tailor these, but I only have 9 kids come to these parties, as at this age it's just family. I was going to throw in some lollies, but now I think I'll give them a juice box instead - great ideas guys!