What's in a Party Pack?

My son will turn 4 this year and has been attending preschool since last year. One of the things he enjoys about preschool is the party packs he gets from his friends when they celebrate their birthdays in school. I enjoy seeing him with a party pack because he'd be so ecstatic about it but I also get a headache because he'd be pestering me for the candies inside. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against candies in party packs but I think just one candy in a party pack should be enough to put a child on top of the world. But these days, party packs are filled with at least 4 types of candies inside. I have to say the best party pack my son has received was from his cousin's party - it was filled with a mini box of raisins, an activity booklet which my sister-in-law printed and compiled herself, a pencil, a noise maker and stickers. Best of all it was packed in a brown paper bag which provided some decorative fun with the stickers and is recyclable. Kudos to my sister-in-law for coming up with a fun, yet wholesome party pack. Here are some of my ideas on how to make your party packs eco-friendlier and healthier:

1. Use paper bags or fabric bags.
Paper bags are recyclable and fabric bags are reusable. I make fabric drawstring bags that can be reused as shoe bags, as gift bags, to store little toys, or even used as little handbag pouches for the girls.

2. Choose an activity.
These include, bubble fun, activity booklets you can compile yourself (just search for "children's activity sheets" and you can get pages of fun activity for the kids), colouring books, stickers, finger puppets (Ikea sells them in sets of 10 for just RM19.90), stamps or Ikea's marker with stamps - 6 for RM3.90. You can also come up with DIY craft for kids such as origami (the easy ones)

3. Healthier munchies.
Why not pick raisins, a pack of juice or milk, wafers, rice crackers or seaweed  instead of candies. If you have the time, why not bake some homemade cookies? There are healthier candies in the market too, made of natural colour and flavour.

4. T-O-Y. 
I tend to favour wooden toys and noise makers to their plastic counterparts because they are eco-friendlier and last longer. Examples are like wooden yoyos, castanets, small wooden toy vehicles.

Basically, give the kids things they can make use of, learn from and at the same time have fun with. Having said that, I feel that my son is receiving way too many stationery sets in his party packs. There are usually a few pencils, a ruler, an eraser and a pencil sharpener in a set, and are normally of poor quality. My son can't really write yet and already owns more than 10 sets of these!