Obviously, the theme of the week is birthday party planning. My daughter’s birthday is Friday and so I have been busy pulling together everything I need to prepare for her family party on Friday and her “friends” party on Saturday. Today is my day off and on the list of “to do’s” is loot bags, bake the cake for Friday and cupcakes for Saturday. I won’t decorate them until closer to the time, but I generally bake ahead and freeze the cakes.
What to Put in a Loot Bag:
When my kids were younger, the loot bags were almost entirely theme related. As they have gotten older, the “themes” have definitely become less of an emphasis. When pulling together these loot bags, I tried to think of the “snow” theme, party decor colours and of course, what the girls might like.
Although I don’t always stick to it, many years ago I adopted this thinking when purchasing stocking stuffers and I loosely follow the same thinking for loot bags.
- something to do
- something to wear
- something to eat
- something to read (not this time!)
- something to watch or listen to (for stockings I often get an iTunes card, CD or DVD)
Here is what I came up with for Eden’s loot bags this year:
1. I made little “Snowman Soup” baggies. I didn’t include the poem as the one I usually use is more “Christmasy”.
2. I found these little packages of white elastics and thought they would be perfect for our “snow” theme. The girls are really into making those little looped elastic bracelets, so my thinking was they could go into the loot bags or if they wish, the girls could make a bracelet at the party! Last night, I stopped at the dollar store (AGAIN!!) and they were just putting out these little loom/elastic sets. I couldn’t resist and bought the looms to go with the white elastic set.
3. In addition to the loom and snowman soup, I added soft white fluffy gloves, blue nail polish, Mentos and a chap stick.
I am planning to make cake pops for the loot bags as well, but they will be a last minute addition ~ if they turn out! I have never made them before, but thought I would try a few for the girls to take home. We’ll have to wait and see how they turn out!
Creating a Loot Bag:
I try to tie the loot bag into the theme as well. Sometimes I am able to purchase something that works, but most often the purchased “theme” bags are a bit “too busy” for me. I will often purchase “loot” that serves as the container for holding the goodies (eg pail for a beach party, cowboy hat for a western party, etc.) Otherwise, I purchase plain bags that follow the colour scheme. For these bags, I bought plain “butcher paper brown” gift bags at a cost of 3 for $1 and then upcycled them a bit to fit with my theme. I used the same snowflake prints that I had used for the birthday banner, added a button, some glitter and a little homemade “thank you” tag.
Well, that’s one more thing off my list of things to accomplish today. I had better get baking!
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