Planning an escape room birthday party is already a brilliant idea for a birthday party. And for an escape room party, you can have a lot of fun picking favours that feel mysterious, clever, or just really cool to use at school on Monday morning.

Back in the ’80s, a party bag would always contain a balloon, usually a packet of fake chocolate cigarettes, and a bouncy ball! If you were lucky to get an invite to a posh party, you might even get the holy grail of party favors “a mini notebook”. Those were the days!

Roll forward a few years, and the humble party bag has grown into a beast! When it all boils down to it, your choice of favors should always include sweets. Just saying, kids love sweets, and so do the adults who inspect the party bag first to make sure its contents is safe, haha (not that I have swiped goodies from my kids’ party bags, honest!).

Let’s explore some ideas that kids will actually use (and that won’t end up forgotten at the bottom of a bedroom drawer).

What Party Favours Work Well?

Escape room parties are all about solving, discovering, and feeling like a hero. So the best favours are the ones that let kids:

• Keep the adventure going at home.
• Play with ideas from the party (spy tools! puzzles!).
• Feel like they’re taking part of the mystery home with them.

And yes, sweets are still absolutely welcome, it’s a celebration, after all!

Printable Decoder Wheels

Decoder wheels or “cipher disks” are one of my go-to escape room party favours because they are:

• Easy to assemble
• Reusable
• Genuinely fun to use

Print them on cardstock, attach a split pin in the center, and the kids can create and crack codes at home long after the party has ended. This is one of those favours that feels like an activity, not just an item. Grab the free printable at the bottom of the page.

Chocolate Bar Wrapper

How about these chocolate bar wrappers, complete with a mini mystery to solve. Print out onto paper and add your candy bar (I used a 40g Hershey’s bar).

I think these are a fun addition to a party bag. Each bar becomes a tasty treat with a mini mystery to solve. On the front, kids will find a mini mystery puzzle where they have to work out who stole the cake, when it happened, and why. It’s a fun little challenge that keeps the escape room theme going when the kids get home.

Chocolate Craft

If you’re feeling crafty, you can absolutely make your own chocolate party favours. I’ve done this a few times when I wanted treats that matched a very specific theme and couldn’t find anything suitable, so I just made them myself! I’ll be honest, it does take a bit of time, so this is more of a “I’m enjoying the creative process” project rather than a five-minute shortcut. But the results can look fantastic.

Party Bags That Need to Be Unlocked

Here is an idea I think you will love for an escape room. Turn the party bag itself into a puzzle. Instead of just handing out the treats at the end, the kids have to solve a clue to open their bag and get to the treasure inside. It’s simple, but it makes the whole thing feel like the adventure continues at home.

When I did this, I attached a three-digit “lock puzzle” to each bag. The players had to read the instructions and figure out the code before they could open their goodies. I originally used a paper lock tied around the handle (my real locks were still somewhere on a boat, life in a remote location!), but ideally, you can hole-punch the bag and attach a real lock.

The lock becomes part of the party favour. Kids adore something they can take home and play with again later, and these colourful three-digit flexible locks are perfect for that. They look fun, they’re easy to use, and they make the party bags feel like treasure chests waiting to be cracked.

Morse Code Secret Message Bracelets

I really like these Morse code bracelets. These are such a fun escape room party favour. Each bracelet is made using Morse code, so the beads spell out a hidden word, only the wearer knows what it says. It might be their name, a spy alias, or a word like BRAVE, MAGIC, or AGENT.

You can package the bracelets individually to pop straight into party bags, or make it part of the party itself and let the kids design their own secret message. It’s creative, personal, and it’s a keepsake they’ll actually wear, and it fits perfectly with any mystery, escape room, or adventure theme.

Mystery Chip Bags (Like a Modern Lucky Bag!)

When I was growing up in the UK, you could buy lucky bags, little mystery packs with sweets, stickers, badges, temporary tattoos and maybe a tiny colouring sheet. My sister and I were obsessed. The fun was in not knowing what you were going to get. These chip bags gave off those vibes for me.

So when I saw the trend of custom chip bags, my first thought was: these would make amazing mystery bags. You can absolutely fill them with crisps or cookies, but I really love using them to hide small surprises, anything that ties into your escape room party theme.

The design has a secret puzzle printed on the side, so the packaging becomes a mini game. And because the templates are editable in Canva, you can personalise them with your child’s name.

Individual Mini Metal Puzzles

These mini-puzzles are a fun addition to your favor bag. I like gifts that will last a little longer and actually have a purpose. These will get the grey matter firing, which is a win-win scenario.

Grab yourself a jumbo pack of puzzles to add to your escape room party favor collection. 

Puzzle Eraser Party Favor

Erasers are always a great hit in a party bag, both my children love getting these and my daughter has a rather large collection of all kinds of erasers she has collected over the years. These are useful and inexpensive and likely to actually be used by the kids.

Time To Get The FREE Cipher Disk

Ready to print your free party favor? Use the download button below to grab your free printable and enjoy!

• A PDF 8.5″ x 11″ page with two cipher disks.
• Instructions

Pro Tip: Print on bright white card for best results.

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