Oriental Trading Company

Full review
My first introduction to Oriental Trading was the really thick catalog I'd receive in the mail about once a month.

What exactly is Oriental Trading? It's is a party store, a junk store, a 5 & 10 ¢ store all rolled into one fun place. There's everything from party decorations, party lights, goody-bag toys, bean bags, pens, pencils, religious themed goods, crafts, jewelry, and so much more.

Oriental Trading is s a place to find all those little goodies your children go crazy for - and some of the gems you can remember from when you were a kid. One of the treasures I have found here are foam airplanes. I can remember having a whole host of them. I think all of them ended up on the roofs of houses around mine, but what a great time!

Another find which brought back memories was the parachute men. Remember those? Plastic men with what seemed like plastic baggies attached to them - you'd throw them into the air and if the string didn't get tangled, your man would slowly drift down. Hmm. Seems he also landed a lot of times on the neighbor's roof or in the neighbor's yard.

We use Oriental Trading all the time for our party supplies. Last year for our block party, we did a luau theme. I purchased two dozen plastic cups which look like coconuts with straws coming out. Cost was only $14.95 per dozen. Lei's started at $1.95 per dozen and went up from there depending on the style. A few grass skirts (starting at $3.95 each) some palm tree decorations (also $3.95 each), and flamingo-lights ($5.95 for 8 foot long string) and our theme was set for about $40.

The tchochkes's are also great for children's parties - whether you are giving out prizes or just goody-bags. I also frequently buy the glow-necklaces and glow-sticks from here that my kids like to wear. For $49.95 I get 50 glow-necklaces. I know I pay about $3 each when we are out and they want them. The glow-sticks are $11.95 per dozen - normally I pay about $2.50.

At our school, the PTA frequently gives out stickers as a reward for participation in various programs. From Oriental Trading it typically costs me $2.49 for a roll of 100 stickers. A wide variety of themed pencils are available to dress up a book bag starting at $1.95 per dozen. These make a great treat to give out at Halloween!

During the year, Oriental Trading issues holiday-specific catalogs and the merchandise for these is also just as wonderful. Last year I spent $50 buying Halloween decorations for a site-decorating contest at a campground, and for that little bit of money we did pretty good. Unfortunately, I had anticipated having more trees, so I didn't get the effect I was going for. But the decorations lasted well through the holiday at our house, and most of them can be reused the next year.

My daughter is graduating from grade school this year, and the graduation items just came out. I bought personalized bubble necklaces to give out as favors - Oriental Trading will do the imprinting for you.

The selection of religious goods is also wonderful. As a church office manager, I know how hard it is to find little items for church picnics that are nice prizes for the kids. The latest catalog contained 15 pages of various religious-themed goods!

Crafts are now in a separate catalog titled Sensational Crafts. These make great projects for brownie troops or classes as well as just around the house. For Christmas last year, my older daughter made wreaths to give to people from a kit. My younger daughter's class made snowflake picture frame magnets as little gifts to their parents as well.

My only caution here is to keep in mind the price you are paying for these items. I have bought my kids glitter lamps and blinking traffic lights for their room that have held up well. I have also bought plastic bowls that are so flimsy they won't hold anything other than the lightest potato chips. Durability is not a high priority with the items here. I have bought things that have fallen apart rather quickly.

I have found the website - www.oritentaltrading.com - to be great, but have had a problem finding something there if I was searching without a catalog in front of me. Key words don't seem to be consistent; besides which, what exactly do you call those parachute men? There are some things that you might see but are somewhat hard to define here. Trying to find the selection of red, white & blue glow-sticks recently was a chore. Usually, I make sure I have the catalog and order on the website using the numbers I have in the catalog.

The shipping charges are reasonable. If you subscribe to the newsletter, from time to time I have gotten promotional codes for free shipping. Shipping is done via UPS. I would caution that normal shipping generally takes at least two weeks, so this is not a place to order from last-minute.

Oh, and while you're there, don't forget the beach balls and plastic water guns. Have a fun time this summer!


© 2002 Patti Aliventi
revisions © 2004 Patti Aliventi