Funeral Favor Ideas: 18 Keepsakes Guests Actually Keep

A funeral favor is only worth giving if people keep it. The test is simple: would a guest still have this in a year? Seed packets, candles and printed keepsakes pass. Branded trinkets end up on the chair.

Favors are entirely optional — most funerals have none and nobody minds. But at a celebration of life, or in families where they are traditional, they give guests something to carry out of a hard afternoon.

• 1. Seed packets — wildflower or forget-me-not, with their name and dates on the packet. The most popular favor by a wide margin, and cheap in bulk
• 2. Seed paper cards — plantable card embedded with seeds; the card itself becomes flowers
• 3. Bulbs — daffodil or tulip bulbs in a small bag. They come up every spring, which is the point
• 4. Small succulents or cuttings from their own garden, if they had one. Costs nothing and means more
• 5. A tree sapling for a small gathering — memorable, though bulky for guests to carry

• 6. Votive candles — lit during the service, taken home afterward. Simple and quietly powerful
• 7. Tealights with a printed tag inviting guests to light it on the anniversary
• 8. Matchbooks paired with a candle at the table

These are the ones that survive longest, because they carry words rather than just a thing.

• 9. Memorial bookmarks — a photograph one side, a poem or verse the other, with a ribbon tassel. Kept in books for decades. Note that poems and song lyrics are often still under copyright, so check before printing one in quantity — the U.S. Copyright Office explains what is protected
• 10. Prayer cards — wallet-sized, the traditional keepsake and still the most kept item of all
• 11. A printed recipe of theirs, on a card guests can put in a kitchen drawer
• 12. A photograph — a small print of one favorite image, in a paper sleeve
• 13. A quotation card — one line they always said, printed and nothing else

Sizes, stock and wording for the two most common of these are in our guides to funeral prayer cards and, for lines to print on them, in loving memory quotes.

• 14. Their favorite sweet in a small bag — the mints they always had, the toffees from their pocket
• 15. A forget-me-not pin or small enamel badge
• 16. Tea or coffee sachets of the blend they drank
• 17. A charitable donation card — a printed card saying a donation was made in the guest's honor instead of a physical gift
• 18. Nothing, said well — a line on the back of the program thanking guests for coming is a perfectly good substitute, and costs nothing

• Order for expected guests plus 15% — fewer people take favors than take programs, but latecomers and children still want one
• Seed packets — roughly $0.50–$1.50 each in bulk, the best value here
• Bookmarks and prayer cards — about $0.40–$1.00 each printed on card stock
• Votive candles — around $1.50–$3.00 each, the usual upper end
• Set them out, do not hand them out — a basket by the door or on the memory table lets people take one if they want one, which avoids anyone feeling obliged

A basket on the memory table is the natural home for these — our funeral memory table ideas cover how to set that up.

• Anything perishable that has to be refrigerated or eaten the same day
• Fragile items — guests are carrying coats, orders of service and often children
• Anything with a company logo on it, including the funeral home's. If you are buying keepsakes through them, those are merchandise charges and must be itemized separately (FTC Funeral Rule)
• Overly cheerful novelty items unless the family has explicitly chosen that tone
• Spending money you would rather put toward the reception. Favors are the first thing to cut and nobody will notice