Birthday Party Favor With a Bonus!

Birthday party favors are lovely, but what will you do with them when you get home? Usually, you forget about them and shove them in a drawer somewhere. If they're lucky, you'll sell them someday at a garage sale. If they're less lucky, you'll toss them out next time you're doing spring cleaning without giving them a second thought.

That's why I've always been a fan of useful party favors. This may seem counterintuitive at first; you may be thinking, "why would I want a useful party favor? Aren't they supposed to be fun?" I'm going to demonstrate today how they can be both useful AND fun in the paragraphs below.

If you're ever at a loss for a fun birthday party favor that people of all ages can enjoy, why not try cookie cutters? They can fit in with any theme you've chosen for your party, be it cartoon characters or someone's 40th birthday and how they're "over the hill" or any sports team (or sport) of your choice! You can make or buy festive little bags for attendees to keep their cutters in, and you can make a bunch of cookie dough ahead of time. Everyone can cut out cookies and decorate them and eat them at the party, or take them home for later!

Another similar idea is candy molds. Though a little more expensive than cookie cutters, they too are available in an infinite number of varieties to fit whatever theme you'd like. Fill some squirt bottles with melted chocolate or other meltable candy buttons, take them for a brief spin in the microwave to melt them, allow your guests to squirt their candies of choice into the molds, and voila! Everyone's got some delicious candy that they've just had the unique and fun experience of making themselves!

If the birthday party is taking place in the autumn months, something similar could be done with candied apples. Everyone attending gets a bag filled with caramel, a packet of crushed peanuts (or dry roasted peanuts they can crush themselves), an apple, and a stick. Then everyone gathers around the kitchen table to make candied apples. If everyone at the party likes coconut, you could substitute some shredded coconut for the nuts and make coconut apple snowballs in the winter.