It used to be that a child's birthday party was a time for the special boy a girl to get gifts -- and sometimes lord it over friends and neighbors.

Gift Ideas: What To Give

That tradition lives on -- unless parents request otherwise, or go for a book exchange -- but more items change hands now: many children expect to go home with a bag full of goodies, even if just small items they will play with for 10 seconds and forget.

Along with cake, decorations and your own presents for your kids, putting together a package of treats can add to the expense of your celebration.

But you can contain the costs.

HappyNews.com suggests friendship bracelets as a cheap filler. You can go with the classic braided thread or just buy the new-fangled rubberized ones printed with appropriate messages.

Several sites think that good ideas can be small and somewhat useful, including pencils -- perhaps with name of each child or of the birthday kid -- fancy erasers, toy jewelry, bouncy balls, balloons to blow up later and small notepads.

Another creative loot bag idea is to have the guests make a craft project that they can take home. You have to pay for the supplies, but you also get an activity that can keep the kids occupied when they're not watching Junior opening presents or snarfing down cake.

And if you don't want to spend anything on favors, a message board for parents at the University of California-Berkeley suggests that nobody will think twice if you skip it altogether.