For Our Littlest Guests

To me, weddings are about family: blending two families with unique histories to create a new family unit.  As a consequence, I never considered having an adults-only wedding, even though I have a large family and dozens of cousins, and it would have helped shave down the guest list.  That said, weddings can be boring for kids, and I've noticed that oftentimes, for whatever reason, parents don't really watch their kids at weddings.

That just happened.

So, I thought it would be nice to put together some welcome bags for the kids to keep them busy and happy.  Our venue offers reduced meal prices for kids under 6, so I thought that would be a logical target range for the kids' bags, and a way to keep count of them.  I wouldn't want to make separate boy and girl bags, because I think that toys are needlessly gendered, so everything should be appropriate for both sexes.

Here are some ideas I've seen or come up with so far:

Animal figurines
Bubbles (fun for the dance floor or a mess at the table?)
Cards (like jungle-themed Crazy Eights, Uno, or Old Maid)
Christmas books
Christmas cookies (our venue doesn't allow candy in the main hall, but other food is ok)
Coloring supplies

Crazy straws
Mini etch-a-sketch
Glow in the dark necklaces or flashing light necklaces (fun for the dance floor?)
I Spy for weddings, along with a disposable camera

You can print this one from Martha Stewart Weddings.  So cute!

Igloo or tent (so that play space is not centered on using the cake table as a base for tag)

Lego sets (they make very small super hero kits)
Mad libs
Matchbox cars
Puzzles
Sleigh bells (like the Polar Express) as decorations on the bags and ornaments at home (too noisy?)

Snacks (peanut butter crackers, animal crackers, goldfish?)
Indoor snowballs (I thought these would be cool, but probably not a good idea in a room full of candles...)

Stickers (maybe not...)
Super hero tattoos
Table games like mini checkers

Let me know if you have any other suggestions, or insights into what would work and what we should avoid.  I want the kids to have fun, but I don't want to give them anything too disruptive, messy, or flammable(!).  Obviously we wouldn't include everything on this list, but rather just pick a few things that we think would go over well.  Let me know what you think!