Best party favors for kids under $20 in 2026
The goodie bag is the last thing you buy and the first thing that blows the party budget — twelve guests, five dollars a bag, and suddenly the favors cost more than the cake. The fix is bulk: every pick below is a multi-pack, all seven together come to about $74 for roughly 600 pieces, and each one holds 4.3★ or better. This is the per-child maths, not the pretty-photo list.
Start with the cost-per-child maths
A favor bag needs three or four small things in it, not one. At $12.99 for 150 pieces, the pick below lands at roughly nine cents an item — meaning a four-item bag costs about 35¢. Every single-item favor you have ever bought at a party store cost more than that whole bag.
1. 150-Pack Fidget Toys Bulk, Treasure Box assortment. The best value here by a wide margin, and the one aimed squarely at the 8–12 bracket that most favor packs ignore. Reviewers buy it for classroom treasure boxes as often as for parties, which is the useful signal: it survives being picked over by twenty-four kids rather than being a one-party novelty.
The squishy packs, ranked by price per piece
2. nobasco Mochi Squishies, 30 pack. The cheapest entry on this list at $6.99 — about 23¢ a squishy — and still a 4.6★ average across 5,020 ratings. If you want one thing in every bag and nothing else, buy this.
3. 30 Pack Kawaii Squishies, treasure box assortment. Two dollars more for the same count, and the difference reviewers keep naming is variety — fewer duplicates in the box, which matters when children compare bags at the table.
4. 80 Pcs Kawaii Mochi Squishies, ages 4–8. The bigger box, at 21¢ a piece. Worth it only if you are filling more than a dozen bags — below that the 30-packs win on price and you avoid a drawer of leftovers.
The one that keeps the party going after dark
5. PartySticks Glow Sticks, 100 pack. The most-reviewed item on this entire list — 28,702 ratings at 4.6★ — and the only favor here that doubles as the evening's activity. Eight-inch sticks with connectors for bracelets and necklaces, which is what turns a handful of glow sticks into forty minutes of a garden party.
The biggest count, with a caveat
6. 160 Pcs Fidget Toys Party Favors Pack. The highest piece count of anything here and the lowest rating — 4.3★, and the reviews explain why: the assortment is random, so what arrives is genuinely a lottery. Fine for a treasure box where children pick their own; risky if you need twelve identical bags.
The five-dollar table filler
7. PartyWoo Assorted Rainbow Balloons, 50 pcs. Five-inch balloons rather than the usual twelve — small enough that children can carry one home in a bag without it dominating everything else in there, and cheap enough at $4.99 to double as table decoration.
What to skip
Pre-filled goodie bags. They cost two to three times the per-item price above and the contents are the cheapest possible filler — you are paying for the assembly. Anything with small loose parts for under-3s, which rules out most bulk fidget assortments at a toddler party. And candy as the main event: half the parents will bin it before the car ride home.
The bottom line
For a party of twelve, the honest minimum is one 30-pack of squishies and one 100-pack of glow sticks — $17 total, four items a bag, nothing left over. Scale up to the 150-piece assortment only if you are also stocking a classroom treasure box. Figures above were verified against Amazon on August 7, 2026. Browse the full, always-updated lineup on our Party Supplies category page.