Laylee’s birthday party is coming up soon, really soon. Like, how soon? Is it today mom? Is it lasterday? Does it touch today? When is it? Very very soon.
For some reason she only wants to invite people who are at least a year older than she is, she wants the party to be about faeries and beyond that she doesn’t much care. This is good because although I care deeply about 4-year-old faerie birthday parties, I care more about saving money to replace my roof.
So, I’m planning to do things on the cheap…er…on the creative. I’m going to tell faerie stories, read faerie facts, sing faerie songs. We will play “pin the wings on the faerie” and then go out in the yard and build faerie houses out of sticks and tree branches. There will be a faerie cake and faerie bingo. I’m thinking about ripping out the children’s teeth, forcing them to take naps and then putting quarters under their pillows. Too much?
I need to do something for treat bags and here’s where you come in. I don’t want to give the kids a ton of cheap junk. I can’t afford to buy them a ton of expensive junk. I want the bags/favors to be themed, having something to do with, say, faeries. I’m open to giving them each one decent gift or bag of goodies.
Whoever gives me the best party favor/bag idea for these little 4-year-olds will receive a Daring Young Mom T-shirt (sizes M-2XL available).
I’d love activity and game ideas as well. Seriously, ya’ll, I need your help.
I don’t know how much time you have, but Orietnal Trading company has cute 3-D faerie wings, $9.95 for a dozen, so less than a dollar each. That would be cute all by itself. Here is the link:
http://www.orientaltrading.com/application?namespace=browse&origin=searchMain.jsp&event=link.itemDetails&demandPrefix=12&sku=57/6144&mode=Searching&erec=0&D=fairy%2Bwings&Ntt=fairy%2Bwings&Ntk=all&Dx=mode%252bmatchallpartial&Ntx=mode%252bmatchallpartial&y=0&N=0&x=0&sd=3-D+BEAUTIFUL+BUTTERFLY+WINGS
Actually, it looks like something you color, so maybe that is an activity as well?
If you are feeling really crafty, Family Fun has instructions on how to make faerie wings. Here:
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10258
Other than that, I don’t have any other ideas. I have only done one little girl birthday party and it was a “superstar” theme. So I gave all the girls ring pops and cheap sparkly sunglasses.
However, if you don’t mind going beyond the faerie theme, you could just give the girls cute kid stuff, like lip gloss (Lipsmackers or something for little girls), or the individual pouches of play-doh or something along those lines.
Wow, I wrote a lot, but I don’t think I was much help…..
“…ripping out the children’s teeth, forcing them to take naps and then putting quarters under their pillows…” Seriously, where do you come up with this?! haha
Am I first? Just know, any ideas after this were inspired by mine…right.
Some dollar stores have fairy wings for kids to wear. You could buy each kid one of those, give them a sachet of “fairy dust” (glitter) to drive their mom’s crazy with, and maybe a headband or a wand with some fake flowers glued to it to complete the outfit. Throw in a few pixie sticks and you are good to go!
Sorry if that was lame. I’ve never done a kid’s birthday party. Have fun!!
There are some great fairy books for young kids you can buy used online (if you have time for them to be delivered) or try a used bookstore. Amazon has many books from the 2 fairy series by Daisy Meadows (Weather Fairies and Rainbow Magic) with used books in the $2-$3 price range, so it would be very affordable to buy each girl a book to take home, and books are great favor gifts. They will actually get used. Also, if you do any kind of contest/game, a great prize for the winner would be a DVD of the movie Fairy Tale: A True Story. This movie is a personal favorite.
Instead of buying fairy wings, a good idea would be to have the kids make their own fairy outfits. Buy some poster board and cut out wing patterns ahead of time, and have them decorate them with markers and glitter. Also, you could easily make some wands with a big star at the end they can decorate as well. This is also something they can take home with them.
I do like the idea of making your own fairy houses. This is a fun activity. You might want to consider gathering things ahead of time in case the weather isn’t good and give the kids a chance to make the houses inside. These again could be things they could take home with them to put in their own yards, and everything in your backyard is free. Just have a piece of cardboard they all use for a base for the houses to carry them home.
Oh, I forgot one more thing. They can write their own fairy story or fairy tale, and that would go along with the fairy book idea. There are websites where you can do a fairy tale mad libs or give you the start to write your own fairy tale. A couple to check out are http://www.apollowebworks.com/russell/java/madlibs/madlib1.html
http://cinderella.nycopera.com/create_your_own_fairy_tale.php
A fun and cheap craft….get some old fashioned clothespins (I think they have them at superwalmart in the craft section)…the kind that are all in one piece with “legs” and a bunch of tissue paper/fabric/fake flower leaves/etc, plus glue and colored pencils and yarn(for hair) and maybe some glitter and whatever else you can find. Have them make their own fairy. This could be the party favor, too (wrap up all the stuff in a cute bag with instructions to make it at home).
My daughter at age 4 became obsessed with all-things-fairy and LOVED the movie Kristen’s Fairy House. Which is, by the way, based on a real place…an island off the coast of Maine where there is a forest filled with naturally-made fairy houses. So, if you don’t want a new roof you could just take them all there (ha ha)!!!!
Have fun!
Oh! And get the book Fairy Wings by Lauren Mills for inspiration…GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS and a cute story.
Well, Mary beat me to the fairy dust idea, but the Disney store has Tinker Bell party favor kits for 5 bucks a pop. They also have little fairy dolls for 7 bucks. And I think wal-mart also has little fairy dolls, probably cheaper.
Wal-Mart had super cool magic wands for cheap (maybe $1.50 a pop), giant confetti from the craft dept. makes good fairy dust, but my fav. is what we did at BabyGirl’s first b-day. Since everyone was older than she was, we made “crowns.” I don’t know the technical name for it, but it’s like tinsel wrapped wire (they have it for every holida) that can be loosely shaped (usually for decorative trim). We took it, wrapped it around their little heads and then strung yards of curling ribbon down the back. Once curled they made lots of little girls very happy for very little. (We used to see them at Rennasance Festival every year for $5 a peice…please!)
You might also want to check out Oriental Trading’s web site. Lots of cheap ideas for any party theme.
The ideas for favors are good. I thought I would share what I do with goodie bags. I try to give the kids something useful that will not require Mom’s attention or drive her crazy. I usually buy a party pack of crayons and a notepad, and maybe some fruit snacks. But, the best part of my goodie bags, at least for me, is the thank you notes. I write a short note on card stock that says something like “Thank you for coming to my party. I’m so glad you could share my special day with me.” and put my child’s name at the end. That way we have already expressed our appreciation for their presence, just in case we don’t get the thank you notes written in a timely manner when it comes to gifts.
Sounds like you have a fun party planned.
These stores are in London but, even if there isn’t time to order from the website, it might give you some ideas:
http://mysticalfairies.co.uk/section.php?xSec=57&jssCart=da68bc34ee43727772d254cf47b7bcb6
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/fairy_parties_3.html
This lady is like a serious over-achiever, but she has some cute ideas. I like having the girls come in leotards, sprinkling them with the body glitter and calling it fairy dust (also putting some in the invitations.) This lady went all out with the skirts, but you could buy a few colors of tulle at the fabric store, cut it into bands strips for small-people skirts, and use the little adhesive velcro strips to attach it around their waists. Wands with little stars and ribbons glued to them would be a very cool favor. And you can’t beat the “LIVE fairy tv” idea. Have fun!
For an activity, you could put food coloring in bubble liquid and have the kids blow bubbles onto a piece of paper. They’ll pop prettily colored fairy “auras” on the paper for beautiful artwork. Could also put bubbles kits in a gift bag, maybe with a container of fairy glitter and a fairy stamp and/or stickers – at the craft store, I bet you could find all that for pretty cheap – er – a pretty inexpensive cost. Good luck!
Maybe some sort of coloring book, sparkly crayons (those are always fun), definitely fairy dust and you have to have a crown of some sort (flower crown, possibly), small lip gloss? I would hit the Dollar Tree and Big Lots. Those stores are so great for random stuff like that.
Good luck! I’m sure it’ll be a magical party and a good time will be had by all.
If you go to familyfun.com and look under party themes there is a whole section of Faery party ideas. There are some cute flower faery crafts that would be easy and inexpensive to make, as well as other ideas. Having the kids at the party make their own faery wands to keep would be fun as well.
Now for the gift bags, you could give them each a small clay or plastic pot for planting (or even better those little planter pots that are made to be planted right in the ground later), their own flower seeds, and an inexpensive trowel or gardening tool to get them started making their own faery garden. Choose flower seeds that will attract butterflies and hummingbirds. They can start their flowers inside and then plant them outside in spring. You could print up directions for their faery garden, and even include a ziploc bag with the dirt for them to use (or get a set of planter pellets that you add water to, plant the seeds and then plant directly outside when the plant is big enough…this would cancel out the need for planting pots). It would be a gift they could take home and have fun with, and it wouldn’t be junky or wasteful. You could include some kind of treat to eat in it as well. The pixie sticks someone mentioned would be a good idea there. I hope this all makes sense.
Hi –
It’s me again – the bubble lady. 🙂 I noticed my link didn’t work correctly, so I fixed it here.
Have fun!
Amy 🙂
Here’s a link to some faerie paper dolls. You could print them on card stock. They are black and white so they could either decorate them as a party activity or add them to the loot bag with some crayons, sequins etc.
Lollypops with long sticks could be made into wands with some ribbon and beads.
For loot bags you could buy some tulle fabric and make little bags.
Print out fairie pictures and stick them to sheet magnets (you can get this at the dollar store)
My favorite loot bag item though were book lights. I found them at the dollar store. My kids love them they were cheap and USEFULL!
Godd luck with your party.
I love the flower seed idea!
You could print paper dolls on card stock and give them crayons and sequins to decorate them.
Make loot bags out of tulle (see through fabric)
Lolly pops with long sticks could be made into wands with ribbon and beads.
You could make faerie magnets by printing pictures and sticking them to magnet paper (available at dollar stores)
For my son’s birthday I gave out book lights (also from dollar store) the kids loved them and they are great for reading in the back of the van on long trips.
Good luck with your party!
This will probably sound stupid, but my daughter LOVES pretty rocks. She’s five now, but has always loved sparkly rocks. Maybe find one of those souveneir stores and get some sparkly fairy rocks? other than that, all the other suggestions I had have already been said…good luck!
Every fairy princess should have a frog… so a little plastic frog would be a must for the goodie bag. You can find a container of these cheaply at walmart or a toy store!!!
I think all you need are wings and maybe a bottle of bubbles (glue a flower or something to the top of the bottle if you want to be fancy). You could make some cheap and easy wings with tulle and elastic. Let them decorate with glitter glue (put down a cheap plastic table cloth first you might want to spray it with Pam or something so the glitter glue won’t just glue the tulle to the table. The decorating activity itself could be 1/2 the party…the running around letting their wings flap in the air is the other 1/2.
This reminds me of my ongoing arguement with my 5 year old, he doesn’t believe in Fairies and I do. Maybe it stems from his early childhood days of me sprinkling “fairy dust” on him and telling him to think happy thoughts and jump off the couch to see if it would work. When it didn’t I just reminded him that his thoughts weren’t happy enough.
So that’s what I think you should do, have a couch jumping contest, first throw some sparkles on them, and the person that gets the farthest had the happiest thoughts and gets a prize!
That is much more humane then the tooth fairy scenario. Which by the wat made me laugh so hard I tinkled.
I totally win the prize don’t I? I’ll take a medium, you can drop it by any time today. 🙂
Oh! We did a fairy party for three years in a row with my oldest daughter. Our favorite party favour, ever, was homemade glittery playdough shaped into a heart and put into little ziplock bags – fairies love glittery playdough. We also tossed in chocolate coins (fairy money), and pictures of the girls dressed up like fairies that we taken and printed out during the party.
I think wings would be super fun. My little girl was Tinkerbell for Halloween and wings were part of her costume I made and they were super easy to make. I made mine with tissue paper and clear plastic wrapping paper. http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6538/1825/1600/PB030032.0.jpg
You could even do this idea with cardboard and just use ribbon to make shoulder straps so they can wear them, and the girls can decorate their own with markers, glitter glue (curse to real glitter! if you have ever used this in a group, especially with kids it makes a mess especially on carpet) and whatever else. For goodie bags you can make a memory game with different fairies or fairy related objects on them. My 3 year old love matching the cards. You could put bubbles in there also, what little kid doesn’t like bubbles, you could even go with special bubble wands for the fairy wands. You can even have them make their own wands out of wooden dowels and staple ribbon on them and a star that they can decorate, or you can make star sugar cookies and when they come out of the oven and put a skewer in them and they can decorate their edible wands. You get some cheap beads and have them make their own bracelet or necklace. You get ring pops or those candy necklaces. Walmart has way cheap lip gloss, under a $1 that has stars and other glitter things in them, which don’t come out during use, just there for looks. Here is a website of games you can play that are fairy related. http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/party-game.html
I don’t know if you plan on making her cake either, but here is a site with cakes other have made and picture of them that are fairy related. http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/fairy-cake.html
Good luck with everything.
My daughter is from fairyland. They just let us borrow her for a little while. She didn’ have a fiary party (we did flowers) but she did just go to one. They had them come in leotards or other fairy attire (because seriously, every little girl had some sort of dress-up) and they gave them wings, a skirt, and a wand.
Then they took pictures of each of the kids and that was the main part of the goody bag, a picture of my fairy-attired child in a paper frame that she had decorated.
We did that for the flower party too – only we face painted a flower/bee/butterfly on each person, then they decorated foam frames with glitter glue, then took the frames and pics home. The foam frames were $.99 for 30 of them at a craft store.
(Unfortunately, the glitter glue did not dry in time, and these kids were 6, so for four year olds I say just do markers, and maybe you can sprinkle a little glitter on them.)
So, take a pic of each kid in face paint or wings, decorate frames, and send them home. Cheap and cute.
Or another idea: We sent home silk flowers (again, SUPER cheap, just get a dozen fake roses and cut off one for each kid) and the kids loved it. I don’t know what that has to do with fairies, but fairies love flowers, right? You could have them sprinkle fairy dust on the flowers.
Oriental Trading is always a good idea 🙂 They have little stuffed bears that are dressed like faeries for $14.95 for 12 bears. Another thing that might be fun would be a little charm bracelet. Either give them a little bag with the beads and charms, or have them make it as an activity there. Again, Oriental Trading is a great place to find things like that. They have a really cute bracelet kit that has flowers and butterflies. I think it’s $7.95 for 12 kits and usually they come with a few extra pieces in case one gets lost. Jewelry is always fun 🙂 You could also get headbands and glue flowers and ribbons on them… or let the girls make wands with wooden dowels and streamers and flowers… so many fun ideas! Good luck!
We are big fans of The Spiderwick Chronicles at our house and they have a new book out, The Care and Feeding of Sprites. The website, http://internationalspriteleague.com/ has a few downloads and pictures to color and you can even join the international sprite league and print out a membership card with your name and sprite on it. Maybe you could make something similar for each guest and use some of the ideas in the book for building fairy houses and info for caring for the fairies and they could take it home for their own fairy. Good luck. Elizabeth
My friend just did a fairy party for her 6 year old. My daughter came home with a wand, a pair of wings (probably from the dollar store, but oh, how cute!) and this little fairy (found on this link) http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11049
I think they made the fairies before, but you could also do it as part of the party, and they take their own dolls home.
p.s. Some folks mentioned skirts, the Target by us (in Maryland, so maybe not in Washington State) has little ballerina type skirts in the dollar section. Gotta love the dollar section.
For my daughter’s birthday, I downloaded songs from iTunes and made everyone a CD of fun, kid songs for party favors.
I am going to be the birthday grinch and suggest that you “bag” the goodie bags altogether. It sounds like her faerie par-tay is going to be fun and memorable to the max – I say that is enough.
There is a website that is all about simplifying birthday parties that has some interesting ideas:
http://www.birthdayswithoutpressure.org/
ps.
I think face painting would be a way that they could take a little bit of the party home with them at little or no expense and zero on the clutter factor.
Buy some lunch bags at the Dollar Store, get some stickers and some markers while you’re there, and let them decorate the lunch bags. Get a pinata from Oriental Trading company, or make your own (which I would tell you how to do if I, uh, actually knew. But they did it at my kid’s preschool, so it can’t be that hard), let them whack it, and put the candy in the bag they decorated with cheap-o stickers. That’s what we are doing for my kid’s 5th birthday party. But there will be less fairy stuff, and more Star Wars stuff at my house. And probably more blood as well. Ah, good times.
Give them little containers of glitter labeled “Fairy Dust”. If she’s really into fairies check out my post http://stopmonkeyingaround.blogspot.com/2007/02/nightlights.html
and http://stopmonkeyingaround.blogspot.com/2007/02/nightlights.html
Oops that second post was supposed to be
http://stopmonkeyingaround.blogspot.com/2007/02/flower-fairy-craft.html
A single item from the dollar store is what does the trick in the Chaos household. I’m always a little shocked at the treasures you can pick up for a buck.
How about fairy bubbles? Fairy wands and Fairy sweettarts.
I have made a pinata before. It was a ghost for Halloween, though. Blow up a big balloon, make a flour and water paste, applying paste to each piece of paper you put on cover the balloon in a few layers of paper. Let dry. Apply crepe paper with glue when dry. Cut a flap in the top to put in treats (popping the balloon in the process, so take it out). I know that I also must have applied some type of cording to hang it from in the first stage, but I honestly can’t remember what I used. It has been a few years, sorry.
How about a little kit to take home – you could supply them with little flowers cut out of felt (which is way cheap), some string or yarn, and a little baggy of fairy dust (glitter) to make a fairy head wreath? Or you could use that as an activity during the party. Anything glittery would be great as a party favor, as you can call it fairy – sorry FAERY – dust.
😉
Oh, Barb beat me to it!!!
Okay – an attempt at my own unique idea here… I feel like I have a reputation to uphold aorund you, lol! Another cute idea is to give them a “fairy sized” baggy of trinkets… a few little gems perhaps (i.e. rhinesones).
I make faery wings by taking wire clothes hangers and forming them into wing shapes, then you get some old tights, you know the ones with the feet all soiled from a little after-church puddle-jump? and holes in the toes…
any way, take those things and stretch them over your framework and then tie off the feet, and tie off the top/waist…cut them off and leave the knot in place.
Now for your craft paints…and glitter. you now take just regular acrylic craft paints, dilute with water, and paint glittery wing designs on it. Set it in a nice warm place to dry.
I use elastic to tie it on with, you just make a loop and it goes up behind the neck and around the shoulders… my kids helped me think that up.
These take some time to put together, so you should do them in advance. you could save some minor decorating for them to do themselves, for an activity, but this is definately not a project to undertake with 10 4-5 yr olds bouncing around your house.
If you are doing them for an entire group you could get those little knee high nylons in white or cream that come in the little balls for like .33 cents each at walmart….it would take 2 pairs per set of wings, I think though.
If you can get enough tights or old nylons for free, there is no expense except for the elastic, and if you have any old underwear laying around you could sabotage them…!!!
If you don’t have craft paints they are super cheap, (unless you go in for the whole color spectrum all at once…. something I would do…) Hope you have fun! Shannon
If you need Tights, do as i do …go for the Thick Black 60 denier opaque ones that are worn by the younger genaration..you dont mind cutting them up for crafts as they are of no use to you.