Goody Bag Paradise: The Dollar Bin

Goody bags themselves have always presented a conundrum to me. On the one had, apparently it is a sin to send kids home from a party without one. On the other hand, they are usually filled with junk that ends up cluttering up geekette’s room. Goody bags at our house have been known to disappear and then mysteriously reappear with only the useful things still inside. I call it the goody bag yeti. My daughter was convinced we had a yeti living in our backyard when she was little so let’s just go with that. (She used to be convinced we had an ice troll in our freezer too, but that is another story).

Ergo, when I buy stuff for the inevitable goody bags I try and find things that fit the theme, are fairly cheap, AND will not end up as clutter. To that end, we pick our party theme several months in advance and I start scouring dollar stores and bins around our town as well as the web for good ideas. Here is what we came up with for our Star Wars party. These were all found in dollar bins except for the manual which cost printer paper and ink:

• Decorative Tin Pail: the ones at Target were Yoda and one with Luke, Vader, Emperor, Yoda, the Death Star, and the Millennium Falcon.
• A stress ball in the shape of C3PO’s head or Vader’s head. C’mon, first grade can be stressful.
• A pair of ink pens: one with Yoda and one with Obi Wan Kenobi. When you click the button, it scrolls through several of their respective quotes.
• Light up Yoda yoyo. Say that 5 times fast.
• The 501st Imperial Cadet Training Manual: these I printed off, rolled up, and tied with some jute string.

In addition to these items, each child gets to take home their own pool noodle lightsaber. If you really want to up the ante for the saber battles, print off some masks for the kids. They have characters from the original series, Revenge of the Sith, and Clone Wars. For Star Wars specific goody items, you can check out the craft pages at StarWars.com. They have a ton of ideas not just for goody bags but also crafts you could do as activities at the party. Today’s Mama also has some excellent ideas on goody bag fodder for other themed parties.