A construction themed party pack that is personalised, cheap and looks good? Count me in!
I had a limited budget and aimed to put together 30 personalised party packs for our son’s 4th birthday and for his pre-schooler friends.
TL-DR, here are the items we got for each pack and their individual prices:
Total – £2.99
Hope that helps. For more gist and the details keep reading!
First, how is it that Jidenna is 4 already! It seems pretty much like yesterday he was born.
His first birthday party was the last one we celebrated with a themed get together which was the Lego Batman Party.
This year, the priority was celebrating with his nursery friends especially since it’s his last birthday in nursery before he moves to big school.
So I wanted it a bit memorable.
A construction themed party wasn’t the first one I’d thought about. I wanted to go with a Mighty Express Theme. It’s this new series on Netflix which Jidenna loves. It’s also a production of SpinMaster same folks who produce Paw Patrol. The lead character Max who leads a bunch of trains is brown skinned with lovely curly hair (representation is so important!). So side bar if you’re looking for a new show for your toddler check out Mighty Express.
Anyway I didn’t go with a Mighty Express theme because it’s a new show so it was pretty tough to find merch and personalised items. And when I thought about it a bit further we kinda had an unofficial paw patrol theme for his 2nd and third! I mean we don’t exactly have a stake in Spin Master so I wanted something much different.
Since he loves diggers and everything construction it was an easy one to do. Plus there’s SO much inspiration on the internet you could very much get overwhelmed!
Ahan back to construction themed party packs for his little friends.
One question was actually how many did I need to make. The options were (i) 15 being the number of toddlers in the nursery on the exact day of his birthday or (ii) 30 being all the toddlers in his class. Those not in on the day would have to get theirs the next day.
I initially thought 15, but an Instagram poll convinced me to go with 30!
Now the average party packs are not a big deal to put together. You simply pick a bunch of toys and sweets and call it a day. You could even get some ready to pre packed ones like this one for about 85p!
In this case, I wanted to personalise the boxes. I love anything personalised but also anything that showcases our names, culture and heritage is a plus for me especially where it’s a non diverse environment. Since Jidenna often chats to me about his very many friends, I imagined a case where his friends may be doing same to their parents but their parents may not be able to fully understand his name (since it not a Tom, Charles or Harry kinda name). It might be a minor point but it I hoped it’ll bring some diversity into focus.
So I got these personalised party packs from this small business on Etsy and it was fantastic! The packs arrived flat and very well packaged and it was super easy to put together. No equipment needed. You could also fully customise what you wanted on it. Eg the one in their sample shop had “Caution Josh is 4”. But I didn’t want the caution language so we went with “Beep Beep. Jidenna is 4”. The size of the pack was approximately 11cm by 10cm so more than enough for mini items.
Each party pack cost £1.25 so this was the priciest item! Kinda sad to think it was paper as would be trashed immediately but I hope it was worth it. The seller called The Party Box Shop also had a wide range of themes and could even design one for you. I was very pleased with the service and totally recommend!
With the pack sorted, what were we going to put inside? I initially started off with a £5 budget for each pack but when we doubled the needed packs from 15 to 30 I had to significantly bring down the budget to £3 per pack.
Since it was a construction party I wanted at least one digger related item in it. I loved this pack of 5 mini diggers in it for £5.99. But that would have come to more than £1 per one which means budget in the mud LOL! I still bought it though but just one pack which we used as props on the birthday cake.
After much searching without any luck I stumbled on the perfect pack! This store Baker Ross is such a gem – the perfect store for party planning. No jokes, you’ll be spoilt for choice. For example this link takes you straight to party bag fillers and there’s a ton of options for you to pick from.
This pack of colourful pull back mini diggers was just the ish for me! And it was cheap and cheerful. It came in packs of 30 for £18.90 which is £63p each! *insert happy dance woohoo*. I also found the 4 pack version on Amazon.
This was the next “big ticket item” sorted.
This meant we’ve spent £1.88 and so left us with about £1.12 to spend per pack.
Next on the list, Crayons! Toddlers love crayons. Also mini packs of 4 crayons are a good sized item that could add bulk to the gift. I found some awesome ones. They really are because I realised I’d seen the exact ones in other party packs we had received!
This pack of 20 (4 in each pack) on Amazon cost £4.99 so that’s 25p per pack! I also saw this pack of 50 for £12.99 which is about 25p per pack.
Side note: I also really loved this pre-packed crayons and construction colouring sheets. But they were £1.47 so outside the budget! They could however be standalone gift bags. I considered printing my own colouring sheets at home but gave up at the last minute.
25p out of the budget left about 87p! And we only had two items inside the pack.
Well then, what else is a great party pack filler for pre schoolers – bubbles!!
Back to my bargain hunting I found these pack of 24 bubbles for £4! I almost could believe it. They’re from HobbyCraft. That’s about 17p for one. They’re so perfect for little hands, colourful well made and honestly just awesome. I bought two packs which meant we had some left over for the boys at home.
Our budget is now 70p left. So far we have crayon, bubbles and a digger in the pack. Not bad!
What’s next?
I’m not sure what I was searching for but I randomly stumbled of these mini play-doh pots and loved them instantly! The perfect party bag size. £5.99 for 15. That’s about 40p. It’s pricey given some of the other items above but I thought it was kinda worth it.
With a huge chunk of the budget gone we only have 30p left!
This pack of Yellow Smiley Stretchy men was a cheap and cheerful and the final addition of toys. Kids are able to have quite some fun with it as it stretches quite thin and sticks to surfaces too. A pack of 20 cost £3.15. That’s 16p for one!
All 5 toys total £1.61 and with the party pack of £1.25, that’s £2.86 of the £3 budget. That leaves us with 14p left!
I could definitely have stopped here, but what’s a party bag without candy?!
I bought four different types of candy (Haribos, Moam, Chupa Chops and Swizzles) from Tesco Grocery about £8 and let’s just say that used up 13p leaving us with 1p change.
So yeah that’s how I put together the construction themed party pack for the kiddos. We had a pretty full pack of toys and candy in a personalised party box for £2.99! Not bad if I say so myself.
Separate from the construction themed party packs for his pre-school friends we had a mini get together at home with the same theme.
I sadly didn’t get many photos (wish I had a pro photographer!) but I loved our tshirts – all 4 for about £50 which was probably the highlight of the day.
Jidenna’s was personalised with his name and age – get it here. Really great service from the shop too!
Other than the piñata which I got from Partyrama, I got most of the other items from my fave store Etsy supporting independent businesses. You can check out my folder here where I saved some of the construction themed party items I loved.
I had such a good time putting this together and I’m super thankful we could celebrate (within budget too!)
Do you enjoy children’s theme parties?
Ope
November 6, 2022 at 12:19Thank you so much for this very detailed guide Kachi!
My son turns 3 in a few weeks time. I recreated this exact party pack and found this to be a very helpful guide.
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November 6, 2022 at 21:56This was so helpful, thank u. My daughter’s birthday comes up in January and this has really helped me In navigating how to get the party packs and ideas to use.