Birthday Party Gift Bags: Why?

Whether you bake your own cake or order it from a bakery; whether you play homemade party games or go for the "party in a box"; whether you decide to serve lunch and cake or just cake....no matter how you slice it (pun intended), children's birthday parties ain't cheap. Which is why I find myself rebelling against the idea of party gift bags.

See...if I'm spending oodles of cash on decor, balloons, food, drinks, games, prizes, and other items...why, I ask, should I also fork out even more $$ for frigging post-party favors? Especially since those favors, nine times out of ten, will end up lost or broken mere minutes after the guests leave. Who's idea was it to introduce party favors to kids parties anyway?

I cannot, for the life of me, ever recall a birthday party I hosted or attended as a child that included a parting gift bag of any sort. There were definitely games and cake and sometimes prizes. But I never once walked out the door clutching a bag filled with crap I simply did not need. And you know what? I survived to tell the tale.

I have a theory about gift bags and it goes something like this: kids' birthday party bags were invented by wealthy parents who wanted to add a little je ne sais quoi to their darling's soiree. Something to make the party--and birthday girl or boy--stand out more. Something to remind the guests that Payton's mommy and daddy are loaded, and don't you forget it. Seriously, who else but people with more money than sense would come up with the idea to hand out a few dozen individually bagged, color-, gender-, and theme-coordinated parting gifts for a CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY?!

Favor bags for weddings and showers, I get. They're little mementos from a very special (and hopefully, in the case of a wedding, none too frequent) event. But kids attend several parties a year! No kid is going to hang on to a gift bag and its contents for longer than a few hours...and they are definitely not going to cherish said bag as a reminder of a party they attended days, weeks, or months ago:

Little Suzie, gazing at a glow-in-the-dark ball at the bottom of a bright pink and slightly worn gift bag, "Ah yes. This was from Sally Smith's party back in March. Boy was that fun! Although whoever thought buttercream frosted carrot cake was the way to go is clearly in need of therapy."

Now I have a prediction, which--should it come to pass--you can say you read here first: as long as the economy is in the shitter, children's birthday party favor bags will (and should!) go the way of the dodo. And I plan to be at the forefront of that trend.

That said, it's not easy to zig while everyone else zags. Full disclosure: I happily went along with the gift bag trend for M's first birthday. And now I feel pressured by myself, my peers, and a tsunami of upscale party ads on the web and in party supply stores to succumb to the siren call of the parting gift. "It's just a little bag," they say. "A few cheap toys, all carefully aligned with the theme of your party. It's a way to provide closure to the kids as they walk out your front door and head back home. It's a memento of a wonderful time had by all. Just do it, everyone else is!"

But I shall resist. Instead, like legions of parents before me, I will provide cake, fun games, prizes (and a pinata!). And then, a week or so later, I'll send a thank you note.

Viva la revolution!