As a child, a birthday party is a sort of rite of passage. Unfortunately, traditional birthdays can be sometimes be very wasteful and, even worse, detrimental to the environment. So instead of sticking to tradition, let’s be a good example and throw a lovely green-inspired kids birthday party.
Simple Changes Make a Difference
There are small things that we can change in our plans to make the party more green. For example, serve whatever food you plan on having using your normal home dishes, and everyday utensils instead of plastic, disposable ones. Instead of paper napkins, use cloth. Instead of plastic decorations, use natural and/or reusable ones, like plants and candles.
Send emails and Facebook invitations rather than sending paper invitations. By utilizing your reusable items, you decrease the waste exponentially and save money. Just think about how many more trees are standing because you didn’t buy paper plates, napkins, and other party supplies.
Pay it Forward
You can go a step further in your eco-friendly plans by helping the people on this planet of ours that are less fortunate. Instead of showering your child with gifts that he or she probably doesn’t need and probably won’t use, give them one or two and ask your guests to bring donations for needy children and later take your child to donate them, this will be a great learning experience.
Take the time to explain to them the importance of counting your blessings and being a help to others. Children have the habit of surprising you, so don’t think that they won’t understand the need that others have; sometimes they understand even better than our grown up minds do. They will definitely jump on board.
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Eco Friendly Food
To make the load of throwing a party easier on you, you can have guests that you are more familiar with bring some of the food. If you don’t want to ask others to help with the food, that’s okay, too.
A way to “go green” with party food is to buy locally grown, organic food and put them in reusable containers. The reusable containers save both time and money. Keep the lids close by, and as soon as the party is over, just close them up and take them home! Or, you can send extras home with parents who helped you throw the party.
Go-Green Goodie Bags
At the end of most parties, the host usually bids the guests farewell with goodie bags. The goodie bags, however, are usually not good for you, your environment, or your teeth. Plastic-Candy-Waste: no thank you! Since the rest of the party hasn’t been traditional anyway, simply nix the goodie bags and go for a better, more eco-friendly party favor. One fun idea is to have the kids decorate totes as reusable grocery sacks to take home with them. I’m sure these will be put to good use, and they are a fun craft to occupy time during the party. Another good favor is a packet of seeds and instructions on how to plant them. This gives the kids a head start on learning to be green and replenishes some of the earth’s beauty.
Think of the Future
Having an eco-friendly birthday party is not that difficult when you apply a little bit of imagination. It also sets a great example. There’s no downside! Keep in mind that the whole point of going green is to preserve what we have left of the earth for the generations still to come. It is important to teach our children to live healthy, natural lives. So start where it counts – with yourself and with your children.
Thanks for the great list of ideas,
Out of all of the ways people often live less than green, children’s parties are one of the biggest culprits. I love your idea of inviting via Facebook and other online methods. The second biggest thing is the gift bags. I love your idea for them, as the normal ones are generally filled with lots of plastic toys that either break or are forgotten in a couple of days.
Wow, I rather wish I’d had this kind of info when my kids were small.
I was always trying to balance my green ideals with the demands for a Totally Awesome birthday party, and could definitely have used some of these tips.
Ah well. At least I can pass this on to my fellow green goddesses who still have small people at home.
Bliss-ings,
the goddess known as Jacqui
Very cool ideas. I love the one about having guests bring gifts for the poor and then the birthday child takes them. Seems like this is not only eco-friendly, but great for character development as well!
I very much like your second point about helping the homeless. I have been seeing those ideas pop up more and more as i’ve been looking for party ideas. I think i will discuss that with my wife; because honestly whether or not the child would like the gifts they don’t 30 brand new toys all at once. Additionally it can serve as a great learning opportunity as we take the child to help donate the money/gifts.
@Paul – Very true. Those little plastic toys are annoying and dangerous because smaller kids can choke on them. Creating online invitations is fun, earth friendly and saves us money (which is always good lol).
@Jacqueline – There are simple things that we can do that make a big difference in going green when planning a party. Not only are we helping the Earth we are also developing our children’s awareness of the need to “go green”. Hope your friends like these ideas.
@Sherry – Yes! Using birthday parties as an occasion to teach values to our children makes it all the more special. Birthday parties also help the child develop their self esteem. This is why I always try to throw a party for my kids every time I can.
@Dan – Yes helping others is a great thing. If you get the child inspired and motivated and let them choose to give the gifts, this will help in developing their sense of making a difference in the world. (Which also develops their self worth.) Sit down and talk to your child about it. You’ll be amazed at how willing they are to help the needy.
It is brilliant read like these which make us realize to what extent we can go to save the environment in our own sweet ways! By doing these things we can let our latter generation enjoy the bliss of nature too!
Great tips! “Let’s Help Keep Our Earth Stay Blue and Green”.I’m trying to go green with my son’s party this year so your article has been very helpful.
In additionally it can serve as a great learning opportunity as we take the child to help donate the money gifts.