The 90’s children’s birthday party aesthetic is making a coming back. The bright primary colors, lots of crepe paper and simple paper bag favors feel refreshing and calm to many of us right now. For a while there, social media was pushing a trend of children’s birthday parties looking like corporate productions – the kind of event you’d see a public relations company put together to promote a new product release.
I’m so glad Gen Z is shifting us to simplicity and the buzzword of the year, “whimsy”. (Y’all need to be more whimsical” repeats in my head. It’s the voice of an American man whom I don’t know but hear all the time because his audio is trending on Meta.)
So I present to you these Piñata Favor Bags – simple paper bags decorated with fringed crepe paper as a nod to everyone’s favorite birthday tradition: the piñata. Use this craft idea for a birthday party, fiesta or any type of celebration where you want to have whimsy.
The Classic Birthday Party Favor Bag
As an actual child of the 90s, I can tell you that parents didn’t do much favor bags prep in advance. It was part of the birthday party event timeline to make your favor bag. At one birthday party I went to, the birthday girl’s mom set out brown paper lunch bags and we each decorated it with markers, glitter pens and stickers – making sure to write our name on it. Once decorated and dried, we filled it up with the treats we acquitted from the piñata!
Now as simple and beautiful as this may sound, it got old really fast. Put yourself in the shoes of a 7 to 9 year old invited to a birthday party every few weeks. You’d be whining “I’ve done this before…” too. That’s why parents and magazines got creative when it came to party favors – not necessarily to “show off” or “be better” but from the necessity of keeping kids entertained with fresh ideas. Birthday parties built community and were an excellent way to socialize for children. Moms didn’t want kids opting out of them because of boredom.
A Fresh Take on 90’s Birthday Party Favor Bags
My piñata favor bags are a fresh take on the nostalgic lunch paper bag favor craft. I’m using colored small favor bags instead of standard lunch sized brown paper bags. This adds a pop of color but also keeps the craft manageable since using a smaller size means kids can complete it within 30 minutes to an hour depending on scissor skills.
I recommend cutting strips of the crepe paper in advance to keep the activity on schedule for the kids. They can cut the fringe on the pre-cut strips. Just that little prep gives kids structure, providing the space they need for their own creativity. Cutting the fringe allows children to practice their scissor skills (if it’s a younger group) and it’s a low-stakes activity which eases the mental load and allows kids time to chat away as they cut. The repetition is almost meditative.
Once the kids are done making their piñata favor bags have them fill it up with the loot from the birthday piñata. Don’t forget to take a group picture of the children holding their piñata favor bags around the piñata! Those are exactly the kind of memorable photos they will (hopefully) look back on.
Materials
- Small paper bags (I went with the colored variety in hot pink!)
- Bright colored crepe paper (I chose orange, red, two shades of yellow, pink and blue but you can also match the crepe paper of the piñata at your party or your party theme colors.)
- Scissors (a pair for every child)
- White glue (each child needs access to their own)
- Tape (can be shared by the group)
- Hot glue (optional)
Steps
- Pre-cut strips of crepe to be the same length as the width of your paper bag. So if you’re bag is 5″ wide, cut your paper strips 5″ long. The strips should be about 1″ to 1.5″ in height. This gives kids enough space to make snips on the fringe without cutting to the top. If you’re worried they’ll cut through, then make the strips taller in height, maybe even 1.75″.
- On a table, lay out a space for each child to work. Place a paper bag, a pair of scissors and glue for each child’s place. Place the crepe paper strips in the middle of the table.
- Have kids figure out the pattern they want to make on their paper bag. Make snips on the edge of the strip to create a fringe.
- Have children glue the strips of fringe in their preferred color pattern.
- I left the top 1/3 of the bag empty (no decorative fringe) to make it easy for me to fold the bag and seal it. I decorated the top flap with a crepe paper rosette.
To make a crepe paper rosette: fringe two pieces of crepe paper as shown by the blue crepe paper in the image. Line up the two pieces of crepe paper perfectly and then using the non-fringed end, roll them up tightly. Tape it together so it doesn’t unroll. Fluff out the fringe to give the appearance of a flower rosette. Hot glue to secure the rosette to the paper bag flap.
Don’t Lose the Joy of Childhood
Now although this idea is presented here for children, you can absolutely make this piñata favor bag craft with a group of adults or older adults. In fact, for my 25th birthday party the theme was “25 going on 5” and we did the classic 90’s decorate a brown paper bag idea. We later filled it up with the loot from the piñata we smashed and everyone in attendance was in their late 20s. It was honestly the most we ever laughed – like laughter therapy to reconnect with those memories from childhood. So don’t let age hold you back from simple joys!
Want more piñata ideas? Learn how to make a mini Mexican Star Piñata.
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