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I have had quite a few emails from the Nature Moms blog readers about doing an article on how to host a green birthday for kids.
Nothing has a natural mom cringing more I guess then the thought of a conventional birthday party with the enormous amount of garbage they generate from torn wrapping paper and cardboard boxes to the disposable cups, plates, and napkins that are often used. Kids are hyped up on sugary birthday cake, and they get lots of toys that frankly they just don’t need.
So what can you do? Having a green birthday is actually easier than you might think. But first you might to change your thoughts about what birthdays should mean for you and your child. You can plan an event without the tears that may arrive if you tell your child that you will be serving apples and peanut butter instead of cake and giving a goat to an African community in their name rather than giving presents. There is great joy to be had in helping all kids learn the joy of helping others AND protecting our planet rather than tearing through gift boxes and getting sick from candy favors found in the goodie bags. The key is to combine green values with party themes that kids love. So I have some tips for you on hosting a meaningful birthday party packed with fun.
So what makes a birthday party a birthday party? Let’s start with invitations. There are quite a few options for eco-friendly birthday invitations nowadays. Some of the options I found while surfing online were invitations made from recycled paper of course, there are also seeded invitations where each piece of paper is embedded with a mixture of annual and perennial wild flower seeds. Most often these would be used for green wedding or bridal showers but I think they would be just perfect for a birthday party. There is also the tree free paper option. Tree-Free paper is exactly what it sounds like, paper that is made without ANY cuttings from trees, directly or indirectly. Instead the paper is made from more sustainable materials. But if you really want all the guests and their parents to understand what you are trying to do at this “green” birthday party you might want to purchase some recycled paper and make your own. Last year my children and I made some invitations from paper we had lying around the house. We cut out usable squares from envelopes we got in the mail, and then we pasted those to a larger cut section of newspaper. They turned out rather well and we recycled the materials ourselves.
Now on to presents…. Traditionally the birthday child is showered with presents. The presents are usually wrapped in delightful shiny paper that gets torn to shreds and tossed on the floor. So what is wrong with this picture?
Well, I don’t know about you but my kids already have too many toys. A toy hay day is just not necessary and it sends a message of consumerism that that I just don’t like. Furthermore, many of the common gifts will be plastic toys are full of toxins and chemicals that have harmful effects on children and plastic breaks quite easily, then because they’re non-recyclable, they end up in landfills.
So maybe you could request on your recycled invitations that guests bring your child a used book or a gently used toy from their own home. Many parents would be appreciative of this. Or perhaps you could have guests bring a gift to donate to a worthy cause. For instance, I read about a woman that orchestrated a puppy-themed party for her child to benefit a local animal shelter. She made dog-bone shaped oatmeal cookies for snacks and In lieu of birthday gifts, guests brought donations, dog food, leashes, water bowls and toys for the abandoned animals. All the kids and especially the birthday boy LOVED it and the animal shelter brought puppies for the kids to play with. I also read about an Africa-themed party, where kids built a grass hut and collected donations for African children. These parties were fun and they taught the guests a valuable lesson about helping others instead of the usual birthday message of “help yourself.”
Oh and if you liked that adopt a goat idea I was being serious. You can adopt a goat used to provide milk for poor families and gift the adoption to anyone of your choosing. Gardenharvest.org is one such place that offers this.
You can also create a registry list of eco-friendly gifts that your child would appreciate such as wood toys, cloth dolls, laptop lunch boxes, klean kanteen bottles, etc. There are a lot of options.
Okay, so we discussed gifts but what about wrapping paper. This one is pretty easy. Ask on the invitations that all gifts be wrapped in newspaper or fabric. The newspaper can be recycled and the fabric can be reused for a variety of other things. The picture above shows a great product from Lucky Crow. They are stylish and reusable gift bags.
Next up is supplies and decorations. First off, use reusable dishes, utensils, tablecloths, and napkins. All of these can just be washed instead of being tossed. If you MUST use disposables then go for the Preserve disposables available at Amazon. They are made from recycled yogurt cups. You can also buy compostable utensils. And if you do have any plastic, aluminum, or glass waste at the party, set out labeled recycle bins for the guests and encourage the kids to identify them and use them.
There are also a lot of green options for decorations too. Instead of a plastic tablecloth why not use cloth? If you have your heart set on a themed tablecloth then you could pick up some themed fabric at the fabric store. Even a themed sheet would work. If you have goodie bags then ditch the plastic and go with fabric there too. And what should go in the goodie bags??? Well, I REALLY like these natural wood wands, if the theme is appropriate magic wands are an essential for any new up and coming princess, fairy, magician, or wizard. I also suggest homemade play dough. I have several recipes for it on the NatureMoms site.
You could also give out Mini Lucky Bamboo plants.
Avoiding conventional balloons would also be a good idea. When the ground is littered with deflated balloons this spells trouble for local wildlife that could be killed after ingesting them. I don’t anyone wants to thinks that their child’s birthday celebration could cause untold animal deaths so Japanese style paper balloons are an eco-friendly substitute.
Okay, so now we arrive at the issue of food and specifically birthday cake. How about baking a batch of delicious healthy cookies? There are a few healthy cookie recipes in the Dr. Sears book called the Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood. I have tried them and they are all good. Also, what about a home-baked, low-sugar apple pie or a healthy carrot cake. I posted a recipe for a healthy carrot cake that is sure to be a hit at any birthday party.
So are you ready to throw a green birthday party bash? I hope I have given you some good ideas that will help you plan accordingly. If do end up have a green birthday party make sure to send me an email tell me all about it. And if you have already had one I want to hear your experience too….you can comment below. So now that you have a strategy go party!
Check out the latest installment of Green Birthday Parties for Kids.
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I LOVE your ideas. My husband and I decided that this year we are not going to shower or allow others to shower our kids with all kinds of gifts (most that get donated anyway). You green party ideas are awsome! My LO’s thought they sound fabulous. We will be asking for donations to our local children’s hospital for one party and making fleece blankets to donate as well. My other LO loves the idea of a Puppy party (I hope our local shelter will be willing to bring a puppy or two over). Fabulous ideas…..just fabulous
This is Ken Maciora with Vegetarian’s Blog. We are interested in promoting your company on our blog. Please call me at (917) 670-9541
Hi!
I’m interested in throwing a green party for my soon to be 3 year old and I would like to request guests to bring a used book or toy as a gift. Any suggestions on how to word this without sounding preachy? thanks!!
Kristen
My son’s birthday is April 27th (awfully close to Earth Day) so, we had a B’earth’day party for him one year. One thing I did was made a little bento box lunch for each of the kids and included a drink in a reusable drink container with a lid and straw that happened to match the containers that I found at a local dollar store. We served lunch in these containers, and the kids were able to take the containers and the leftovers home with them. The containers were their party favors. We used old birthday cards to make postcards. We cut off the front part with the picture/image and used the back of the picture to write the party information and address. This also saved on postage as post-card stamps are cheaper. There were other things we did, but I can’t think of them at the moment
I am loving a new company called Green Planet Parties-
http://www.greenplanetparties.com
they have hand made heirloom birthday banners, green lootbag items, and as green as mud Piggy Nail Polish. Its a great site for greener choices.
Nothing has branding clutter-
Thank you for the great web site – a true resource, and one that many people clearly enjoy. Keep up the good work.
Great ideas. We try to go very low key for birthdays because we don’t want the kids expecting the same type of party every year.
We’ve had two nearly-zero-waste birthday parties this year, and have two more to go. One thing I’d like to add: We are having a huge family reunion this summer and will need to use disposable plates (which is like nails on a chalkboard to me!), and we’re going with the bagasse (sugar-cane) plates. They’re compostable. But one thing that seems to get overlooked often is that compostable or biodegradable items DO NO BETTER in the landfills. They must be properly disposed of. The bagasse plates and cutlery break down in 3-6 weeks, but ONLY if they are composted. Our family reunion is in a small, midwestern town that doesn’t offer city-wide composting like our California town does…So I called the hosting town about options and they said the neighboring town has a composting site. So we will be set up with a bin just for food scraps and compostable tableware and take it in directly. Throwing compostables/biodegradables in the landfills is NOT recommended.
I like your idea of using a reusable cloth bag to “wrap” gifts in instead of wrapping paper or paper gift bags. It got me thinking of one of my favorite gifts to give for children – pillow cases. Instead of changing the theme of my children’s bedding every time a new character becomes a favorite, they have neutral bedding and I just get them a new pillow case with the latest favorite characters on them. So that made me think why not “wrap” a gift, whether new or gently used, in a funky new pillow case? I am so glad I came across this blog. Keep up the wonderful info!
I got so tired of searching for eco friendly party alternatives that it prompted me to start my own business. I wanted to provide other busy parents with a store that provides a unique combination of products, to make it easier to host an eco friendly kids party. Please check it out at http://www.meggiemoos.com. All the wooden party favors and gifts are made of wood that comes from sustainable source, and I have tried to source products made in the US where possible. All the cotton gift bags and decorative banners are all handmade in the US too. Now I just need to try and get the word out there….
Hi Kerry,
I was surfing the interntet in search of wholesalers and manufacturers of green party supplies, because I’m starting also on online partybox business.
I’m located in Europe and just wanted to have some advice from you.
Thanks lisa
Great tips! I’m trying to “go green” with my son’s party this year so your article has been very helpful.
“Let’s Help Keep Our Earth Stay Blue and Green” – that’s the theme for my son’s 2nd birthday. Yup! I hope to instill the idea that our Earth needs our attention, and that we need to do something.
I’m doing my research now about how to prepare and throw an earth-friendly birthday party. I’m thankful to have found this site. To Tiffany, and all who contributed their ideas – Thank you so very much! I love you!
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[...] fantastic article on a green birthday party is found at a site I am new to, naturemoms.com. Seeded invitations (with actual seeds in them) [...]
thank you! i’ve done parties the past three years for my eldest…we always buy little pots and seeds and have the kids plant a sunflower or pumpkin etc at the party and take home for their gift. works well for older kids. my boy is turning 1 and we were stuck for some ideas for ‘grab bags’…we did email invites to save paper – good luck to others on your green parties!
ps – the other issue going green is also cost – sure, little cloth bags are cute but also cost abut $3.50 each – add that for 10 kids then fill them…ahhh! i’m determined but sometimes it feels like we just can’t win when trying to do something good for the world.
You can buy re-usable shopping bags at Toys R’ Us for $1.50 each with cute pictures on them (I got monkey, tiger & elephant bags for my son’s birthday) to use in lieu of paper party bags. Still a bit more expensive but they can be used for grocery shopping when the kids are done with them!
How about making the gift bags? I opted for recycled paper bags.
Not sure if someone already posted this idea because I didn’t have the chance to read all of the comments…EVITE.COM is a great website for sending FREE invitations for any type of event & it is a way to go completely paperless! Also, I suggested that guests look for a present for my son at yard sales, flea markets & consignment shops if they didn’t have any old toys at home that they could re-use. I’m glad I found your blog!
Giving the gift of time is always welcome. When my 6 year old son received an invitation that said gifts were optional, we gave the birthday boy a movie date. It’s a wonderful way to emphasize relationships over things.
Excellent ideas! Don’t forget kids long for unstructured play outside. Boys and girls love to play in nature discovering creepy critters in the leaves, inventing games using natural objects, or even cloud watching.
I am a birthday entertainer, teacher, and show performer of science using live rescued animals. At nearly every performance a child tells me a story about something they saw in their backyard. A memorable birthday may very well be playing in the dirt!
Great ideas may be found nature crafts and activity books found in libraries. Don’t forget websites for teacher’s, national parks, natural resources, wildlife, and environmental organizations have great ideas for parties.
I am collecting ideas from parents and posting on my website as well.
Jennifer – Curator at Reptiles Alive LLC
http://reptilesalive.com/birthdays/birthdayactivities.html
Thank you very much for such an amount of fantastic ideas for the eco birthday party. Especially I liked the seeds invitations. Surely, I’ll use some for the birthday parties of my kids next year. It’s amazing, how easy it an be.
As a Mom of three kids I don’t want another cheap bag of plastic toys that won’t be looked at within a week after the party! But, even when it is something useful…it is still another “thing” in our house…so iI’m not doing party favors for my daughter’s 6th birthday. Instead, I’m going to buy a flock of ducks (well, actually, my daughter is going to decide what we buy!) in honor of all the kids who attended her party. We’ll write up a little card saying this and staple it to one strip of (duck?!) stickers. It is the only idea I can think of that isn’t a “thing” … I’d welcome any other suggestions… Thanks!
Keep up the awesome work. These were some great ideas!
Wow! Wonderful ideas. I’ve gone shopping in the toy stores for birthday fun stuff, and what a bunch of junk – a total waste of money not to mention the plastic used, which will end up in the trash – often at the end of the party. I can’t wait to try out some of your ideas at my grandson’s next birthday party! Thanks!
this year it’s my daughters first Birthday, and since they don’t know the difference anyway (she’s my third, the other two fell asleep before we ever made it to the presents) we are asking everyone to clean out their closets and toy boxes and meet us at a local homeless shelter to give away all the stuff. There are alot more homeless families in this economy, and giving in honor of my Daughters birthday seems like the best way to be thankful for all we have.
I was inspired by greenplanetparties.com too. We are celebrating the 3rd and 7th birhdays of my son and daughter, together. We are requesting NO PRESENTS but if anyone wants to make a SMALL donation, we are accepting donations for my children’s “adopt an endangered animal” fund through World Wildlife Federation. The birthday child will receive a small stuffed animal and adoption papers for $40 and a charity tax reciept for $30 for each adoption. My husband and I will then give each child a sum of money to purchase their own toy… something they want. I am using reusable plastic plates and cutlery that I purchased ages ago for a party, and I am giving seedling trees I got free from a replantation nursery who disposes of trees that don’t fit the standard, and gift certificates for an ice cream cone from a local store. I have had a bit of negative feedback about the donation part and no presents, but this is what we truly believe in, the kids are very excited about “adopting” an animal and helping save the endangered species, and are looking forward to a party with lots of kids and fun all around! We rented half of a local gymnasium with access to gym equipment such as balls and hockey sticks, little tike cars etc for the younger ones, so we don’t need decorations or games! I am very excited about it! Good luck to everyone doing this and congratulations on making an impact! Even if ONE person likes the party idea and copies it, think of all the Made In China toys that won’t be purchased, the plastic packaging etc that won’t be in the landfill, and the trees that won’t be used for wrapping paper!