Parties And Gift Giving In Panama—What To Give And How Much To Spend

Hello everyone, 

Last night I received an email from a reader and friend, asking a question that would probably stump most people moving here from a foreign land. How much should you give at a birthday party? She and her family just recently settled down in Panama, and already, her daughter was invited to a birthday party for a classmate.

If you don’t have kids, don’t worry, I’ll get to adult party gift giving a little later in this article. For now, let’s stick with the kids.

First, it’s important to know that in Panama, it’s very common for kids to have birthday parties at school. Where I come from, this would be forbidden. Sure, you might bring a gift for your best friend if you found out it was his or her birthday, but you'd never see an all-out fiesta. Here it’s totally the norm. And with four kids, it seems someone is always needing to take a gift to school.

What should you give at a party? 

With my sons, in Kindergarten (a class that’s mixed with Pre-K and has about 30 kids in the room), you can imagine how many birthdays take place. It seems there’s at least two a month, sometimes more often. Some school parties consist of just snacks, a cake, and canastitas (goodie bags), while some even include a piñata.

Speaking of canastitas, if you ever throw a birthday party here, whether in your house, at a party salon, or in school, you have to have canastitas. They’re expected. The kids will be very sad if they don’t receive one.

Goodie bags are a must in Panama  

So, when your kid is invited to a party, what kind of gift do you give, or how much should you give in cash or on a gift card? Most Panamanian parents will write on the invitation what they’d like to receive for their child. Here’s what you might see:

• Lluvia de Sobres, which translates to “Rain of envelopes”. This means they’d like to receive cash. 
• Talla 12 “Size 12,” or whatever size the child is, means they’d like to receive clothes.
• GC might be written to mean gift card, or they’ll just write (or place a sticker) of the store they’d like to receive a gift card from. Poppy’s is a popular kids clothing store here, similar to a Gymboree. We’ve received several invitations with Poppy’s stickers on them. 

You never just see the word “toys” written on an invitation, or juguetes in Spanish. I’m old fashioned in the way that I usually buy a toy for the kid. Marlene and I argue about this all the time. She likes to stick with what the card says, but I remember being a kid and excitedly opening presents to find only clothes. It sucked! I just wanted a Transformer (or was it a Go-Bot?) or a new G.I. Joe action figure (never a doll, never!) or even a pack of freakin’ Garbage Pale Kid trading cards (those were awesome).

Who wants clothes? None of the boys do, I’m pretty sure. I doubt the kid is shouting over mom’s shoulder as she writes out the invitations, “Please, mom, not toys again…just write size 12!" 

The look on Nico's face would be totally different 

if this guitar had been a pack of underwear

Plus, I imagine all the other parents bringing size 12 clothes. All kids want at least one toy for their birthday. So, if I tick off a parent, but put a smile on a kid’s face, I think it was well worth it.

If you’d rather just give a gift card or participate in the rain of envelopes and give cash, this is the way it’s played out in Panama. You have to consider how much the parent is spending on the party. If it’s a simple house party or a party taking place at school, spending $10 on a gift or giving $10 cash (or gift card) should be fine.

If it’s a party at an expensive party salon, at Chuck-E-Cheese, or something like that, where you know the parents are spending quite a bit of money on each kid invited, it’s a good idea to spend/give at least $25. 

A party at this place in Punta Pacifica isn't gonna be cheap

Now, if we’re talking about a quinceaños (sweet 15), that’s a little bit different. A quince is a very important time in a young lady's life, practically as big a deal as a wedding. Imagine that TV show “My Super Sweet 16” with a little bit of salsa and tipico dancing thrown into the mix. Everyone dresses very formally (unless there’s a different kind of theme) and you should give at least $50. Really, anywhere from $50-$100, depending on your relationship with the girl and your level of comfort (income level). Aunts and uncles will probably give at least $100, maybe more. Friends of family will usually spend somewhere between $50-$80.

Back to kids’ parties. It’s probably a good idea to use this space to mention a few things you should be ready for if attending a birthday party in Panama.

1. Where is everybody? The party will usually start out empty. Being tardy is a Panamanian thing (sorry all my Panamanian friends, but you know it’s true). If you arrive at 2pm, the exact time printed on the invitation, don’t be alarmed if you’re the only guest there. People will show up, but probably at around 3 (or later).

2. Just pretend you know the song - Happy Birthday will be sung in both English and Spanish (this is very common in Panama, unless somehow you find yourself at an all-American or English-only party). So, during the Spanish version of the song, you’ll need to figure out something to do to make yourself not stick out in the crowd. Fidget with your camera, or bend down to fix your kid’s hair, haha.

Being the one behind the camera is a good way to camouflage yourself

Or, better yet, just learn the words to the Spanish version. Check out this Kidpats video we put together about birthday parties in Panama. During the singing of Happy Birthday, I added Spanish subtitles to help people learn. Check it out by clicking HERE.

3. You want me to do what? At Panamanian parties being animated by a clown or host, there's a good chance you'll get called out for a game. It happens to me every time. Gringos tend to be part of the entertainment sometimes. One host thought it was hilarious that I didn’t speak Spanish and kind of picked on me through the whole party.

Here I am, unwillingly participating

Honestly, at just about every party I’ve been to, I’ve ended up as one of the non-volunteering volunteers to play the games with the kids. 

Even at a baby shower (there where was beer 

in the bottle though, and I won, so it was all good)

If this happens to you, don’t get upset. Be happy to be included in the festivities. Just laugh it off and have a good time.

4. I’m starvin’ ova hea! Never go to a party hungry. Most Panamanian parties will include arroz con pollo (chicken with rice), plantains, potato salad, etc. At some you’ll find only appetizer treats. Usually, the food won’t be served until well into the party. This happens for two reasons. The first, as I mentioned earlier, most people show up late. Second, once the food is served (as with most parties anywhere) people start to disappear. So don’t go to a party thinking, “Oh I’ll just eat at the party.” Do yourself a favor and eat a little something before you leave the house. 

Moving on to adult parties. At an adult birthday party, you’d probably want to spend between $20-$30, unless it’s someone very close to you, then you can spring for a little more. Same goes for cash or a gift card. Here's a tip. With an adult party, you might want to go with a present so it’s not so obvious how much you spent. Unless, of course, you’re ready to give $50 cash, then I’m sure you’d look alright, lol. 

Weddings cost a lot, so it's polite to give a nice gift

Weddings are a lot like a quinces. Spending wise, you’d follow the same rules. One thing you need to know about weddings here, is it’s customary to give cash. It’s not like in the U.S. where people show up with gift wrapped toasters, blenders, and foot massagers. 

On a random side note (you know me and my tangents), Marlene and I once received a wedding gift that was re-gifted to us. How did we know? When we unwrapped it and opened the box, we found a beautiful card, wishing our friends the best of luck in their marriage. It was a note to them from the original purchaser. Apparently they’d never opened the gift and just passed it on to us. We had a good laugh and never told our friends.

Be ready to dance at weddings too!

Back to the wedding gifts. At all weddings in Panama, somewhere near the entrance to the reception, you should see some sort of envelope box, usually a fancy contraption with a slit at the top. Just put your cash-filled card there. 

On a final note, I’ve also received emails about dinner parties and whether it’s necessary to take a gift with you if invited to one. Panamanians are very fun-loving people and it seems there’s always a friendly get together, which means the hosts are spending money on food and drinks. 

So, the answer is yes, if you’re invited to a party at someone’s home, for whatever reason, it’s always nice to bring either a bottle of wine, or some sort of dessert. Just stop by the supermarket and grab an apple pie if you’re not sure what to bring. 

Or…the absolute best…pick up one of those chocolate cakes from the Rey supermarket, the ring shaped one. It’s one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever eaten. Love that thing. 

I'm talking about these chocolate cakes!

Man, now I need to go eat some more sugar-free Jello (they really need to make Rey-supermarket-chocolate-ring-cake-sugar-free Jello). Seriously. 

Well, I think that about covers it. As always, I invite readers to write in with their comments and anything I may have missed.

If you haven't stopped by our main site at www.PanamaForReal.com, please do. I just recently posted a video on The Real Deal on Banking in Panama, which you can see by clicking HERE. 

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And if you like our videos, subscribe to us at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6N7Ih2bjD0FjOBnDg_-Flg

A New Video for Expat Kids

Hello again,

This is going to be a really short post. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but my kids were so excited to be a part of Panama For Real, that Marlene and I were thinking it would be great to give them their own project. As much as we love including the whole family in our videos when we travel, we don't want the location reports to become Powers family vacation videos. So, how could we get them more involved?

Our new video even shows you the words 

to the Spanish version of Happy Birthday

Well, after reading through tons of emails from young families relocating to Panama, we figured out the perfect project for our kids. Oftentimes young business owners, with online companies, are content with being virtually present, meaning it doesn't matter where they are physically. So they plan an early retirement, chillin' out beachside while they conduct business on a laptop. That, or young people are often brought to Panama to assist a Panamanian business. This means, the spouse and sometimes even young children are kind of forced into an overseas move. That can be downright scary. Can you imagine? At a young age being told that you're going to leave your family and friends and go to a country where everyone speaks a different language? 

The kids had a blast making this new video

(Victoria and Nico on the right)

Well, that's the reason we started Kidpats. Estefania (11), Victoria (9), Matteo (5), and Nicolas (5) have been living that reality. They've had it a little bit easier with Marlene's family being here, but the girls didn't even speak Spanish when we moved here (the boys were infants and didn't speak much of anything at all). They've learned to make the best of this new lifestyle and our Kidpats series is aimed at helping other kids do the same. The idea is that you'll be able to sit your kids at the computer and let them see how our kids are handling a life in Panama. 

We just put our second video on the website, yesterday, and I wanted to share it with you guys. This one is all about birthday parties in Panama. You'll find our first video, with the kids hanging out at Parque Omar, on the site as well. We really hope you enjoy these. The kids are bugging me to do another one, so we should have others out soon. 

For some reason blogger is giving me a hard time embedding the video here in this blog, but if you follow the link below, it'll take you right to the page of our site that has the video. You can also see it on Youtube. Here's the link to the new Kidpats video:

http://www.panamaforreal.com/kidpats/kidpats-birthday-parties-in-panama/

Getting Wet and Wild in Panama

 My twin sons playing at Jungle Falls

One thing Panama is seriously lacking in, is fun things to do with the kids. Aside from the rivers and beaches, there’s very little to do with your kids. Gamebox, in the Multicentro Mall, is probably my favorite place to let the kids unwind indoors. There you’ll find a full arcade (you have to purchase a refillable card in order to pay for the games), bumper cars, a Vikingo ship ride, a couple other carnival style rides, and a jungle gym play area for the younger kids. 

In addition to Gamebox you’ve got Kids Planet located inside of Bennigan’s Extreme Planet on Avenida Balboa. There aren’t as many activities for the kids at Kids Planet as there are at Gamebox, but Extreme Planet does have a nice (although somewhat expensive) bowling alley. Albrook Mall has a Space Play or something like that, with arcade games and things like that, but no one has really done in right. We need a good, clean, well-maintained Chuck E Cheese or something like that.

Something else that’s lacking, and really surprises me since it’s a hot, tropical climate so close to the ocean, is the lack of water parks. When I lived in Chicago (one of the coldest places on Earth during the winter) they had several great indoor water parks. My kids had a blast living in the Chicagoland area. Even Anchorage, Alaska, has an indoor water park.

My four kids (Victoria, Estefania, Matteo, and Nicolas

I finally found an outdoor water park here in Panama, but it’s in bad shape. I took my kids last weekend to the Jungle Falls water park, which is owned by the Avalon Grand hotel chain, and is actually connected to the Avalon hotel here in Las Cumbres. One of the pools, and several slides were closed during our visit, so we only had to pay $5 each. Kids under 4 are free. The usual price is $7 per person.

The park looked dirty, old, and kind of rundown. Rust covered many of the overhangs. However, although not the prettiest water park in the world, my kids had a blast. The toddler pool has a couple of small slides, like in the picture below.

Estefania on the big kid slide

The lunch counter serves items such as hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken fingers, each about $4-$5 with fries and a soda. The lazy river is short, but nice for the whole family, and the guys running that part of the pool are very friendly. They helped us get our kids into the innertubes, and immediately searched for a larger tube for me. One large pool is available for the whole family to swim together, and up the hill a ways is a set of 5 slides, for the bigger kids. Only my daughters used these slides, but they had a blast. 

I wish someone would invest some money in this park because it actually has potential, and it’s the only one around that I know of. Some fresh paint, a little more cleaning of the pools, and just a general spark of some sort; some activities, or something to make the place more lively would really turn the place around. At the moment, the place is only animated by a DJ playing reggaeton music from gigantic speakers. Well…until someone creates something better, I don’t mind taking the kids for some fun in the sun for only $7 each. 

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Conveniency in Panama

The other night, while shopping for gifts for my sons’ birthday party, we went to Farmacia Arrocha, which is similar to a Walgreens or CVS in the States, but in my opinion, much better. Where CVS or Walgreens has a small toy aisle, usually with generic toys that were never sold during the late night infomercials, Arrocha has several aisles of real toys (Barbies, Max Steele, Transformers, skateboards, coloring books) plus, of course, dishes, pots & pans, DVD’s, magazines (sometimes books and magazines in English, depending on which branch you visit), soaps, tons of Christmas ornaments (during that time of the year), and of course medicines and vitamins. 

We happen to have an Arrocha right down the street from my house, and I have to fight tooth & nail with my wife to keep her out of that place. She’ll go in to pick up deodorant, and two hours later come out with a new perfume, a wallet, a purse, body sprays, jewelry, you name it. 

Anyway, I've mentioned before that Los Pueblos outdoor shopping center is one of the cheapest places to find pretty much anything you might possibly want or need. The Farmacia Arrocha in Los Pueblos is one of the best in the city. It definitely has one of the largest toy sections. So we stopped by Arrocha while we were out picking up party supplies, just to find a few toys.

It wasn’t until after we paid that I remembered how great it is to shop in Panama. In the States, if I were to buy a few toys for my kid’s birthday, I’d also have to pay at the minimum $5 for a roll of wrapping paper, then buy the tape, and the bow that would go on top of it. Then…you have to hope that you don’t run out of wrapping paper or tape. In Panama, at least at Arrocha (and a few other stores), when you purchase something, you can take it over to the gift wrap counter and have it wrapped for free. Usually you have to take a ticket and wait in the sitting area until your number is called, but still, it’s well worth the wait. 

We had all of our presents wrapped, with a bow, for free. This is any time of the year. I know in the States you see that kind of thing in the malls and in some stores during the Christmas holiday, but at Arrocha, it could be the middle of June and you can have all of your gifts wrapped. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a birthday, or a barmitsfa, or a wedding…they’ll wrap it, no questions asked…as long as you show them your receipt. I usually tip the person who wraps my gift $1, and they seem very surprised to receive it. I’ve never seen anyone else tip them, but I figure, even if I’m broke, she’s working a lot harder than I am at the moment, probably for very little pay, so an extra buck for a break-time soda is probably appreciated.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Butt Naked Piñatas

My twin sons will celebrate their 4^th birthday tomorrow, and they’re into The Avengers right now. Matteo loves Iron Man and Nicolas “Nico” is into Captain America. So I went out last night with my wife in search of piñatas and party supplies. The best place to find birthday stuff in Panama, is the cheap, outdoor shopping mall called Los Pueblos, across the street from Metro Mall if you’re traveling down Via Tocumen, or across from McDonald’s if you’re on Juan Diaz. 

Next to the large Felix Juguetes Outlet (Felix Toys), which is the closest thing to a Toys R Us here in the city, running along the same wall of the shopping center, you find several stores, all side by side, that are Chinese run party supply stores. Panamanians often just refer to these as Chino stores or Chinos. 

In one store we found an Iron Man piñata, which cost only $6.50. We also picked up an Avengers tablecloth for $1.95 and a few dollar prizes for party games. Next door, we found the Captain America piñata, also $6.50 and a bunch of cheap treats for the goodie bags. 

In the third, and final store, I found much more than I expected to find. We were only looking for more Avengers stuff to add to the goodie bags. I was looking up at the piñatas, when I found, next to some of the children’s piñatas, the photo you see below. Notice the beautiful children's Disney princess castle in the middle.

I’ve been carrying my camera around a lot more often now that I’m writing this blog, always hoping to find something worth writing about, and this fit the bill. I just burst out laughing. My first thought was, “What the hell is that?” My second thought was, “Thank God I decided not to bring my 10 and 7 year old daughters along with me (they’d begged me to tag along, but I knew that would mean also being begged to buy them something at each store we entered). I don’t think, anywhere in the U.S., you’d find naked bachelor and bachelorette party piñatas hanging anywhere near the kids’ piñatas. 

In fact, this had happened to me once before when my daughter went with me to pick out party supplies for her own birthday, but it was a different store. She’d looked up at the piñatas, and lodged in between Kung Fu Panada and Elmo was a well endowed naked male piñata. She’d looked up, right at the piñata, but fortunately for me, she’d just seen Kung Fu Panda 2, so it was the cuddly bear that caught her attention and not the gigantic penis dangling from the ceiling. I noticed though, and whisked her away immediately. 

So last night, I’m with my wife, and after chuckling at the wild piñatas, we get to the counter, and right at a child’s eye level, in the glass counter at the cash register, there was an onslaught of penis and boob memorabilia (Souvenirs? Treats? Paraphernalia?). They had penis straws, light-up shot glasses with a little penis at the center of the cup, those little martian-style headbands for women to wear (but with little penises dangling at the ends of the springs, and lollipops, and necklaces with boobs hanging down, and a bunch of other women’s breasts (not sure what half the stuff was). Here’s a photo, but it’s not so clear. There was a reflection off the glass, plus I was trying to discreetly take a picture without looking like a total hornball. I think those are penis and boob bracelets. 

Ha, I don't think I've ever used the word "penis" so much in my life. You could probably play a drinking game with this blog post. Everyone take shot each time Chris says "penis."

So the moral of the story is, be careful where you take your kids here in Panama. In a place like a party supply store, where you think you’d be safe to take your kid along to pick out candy and piñatas and toys, you might find your kid staring face to face with a penis shaped sippy cup. Be careful.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

A kiddie wonderland in Chitre

When I first moved to Panama I would complain about the lack of fun stuff for kids to do here. I still feel that there's a great opportunity for business-minded folks to slide into the family-friendly market right now. Other than a place called Game Box inside the Multicentro Mall on Avenida Balboa, and the  Kids Planet inside of Extreme Planet right next door, there aren't many Chuck E. Cheese like establishments.

That's what I loved most about living in the Chicagoland area. From the suburbs out near Naperville and Aurora to the city itself, there was never a lack of fun things to do with the kids. Here, in Panama, outdoor activities abound (you've got rivers, and beaches, and walking trails), but what do you do on a rainy day? Finally, the malls are starting to get this.

When I first visited here, 11 years ago, most of the malls didn't exist. Now there are 4 major indoor malls here in the city, and a couple more on the way. Even 3 years ago, when I moved here permanently, indoor play areas were unheard of. I believe Multiplaza might have had theirs in place. I'm not sure. Now, however, Multiplaza has a nice indoor play area, Albrook Mall has a couple of different kid zones, Multicentro has only the Game Box, which you'll pay to entertain yourself there, and it's not all that cheap. I just noticed the other day that Metro Mall has ripped their play area apart. I'm hoping it's to clean it up and build onto it (the carpet was getting a bit raggedy).

I was amazed to see the play area in the photo above, when I visited the Paseo Central Mall, in Chitre. This is one of the coolest I've seen, and it's in a little mall in a small town out on the Azuero Peninsula. Other than during carnaval time, you don't hear a lot about Chitre. During carnaval it's almost all you hear about. There and nearby Las Tablas. In a mall that isn't very large, this play area takes most of its top floor (the 3rd floor), and right behind it is a small arcade.

Hopefully Panama will continue to build more family-friendly establishments. Someone open a Chuck E. Cheese (I'd love to eat a pizza and just let the kids go nuts). Even a Build-A-Bear would probably do great here.

I'll write soon about some of my favorite outdoor parks. Thanks for reading.