This is Day 170 of the Green in 365 series!
My little guy is turning 4 today! And my baby girl turned 1 a few weeks ago! So to celebrate, I thought I would share some ideas for throwing a Green Birthday Party!
To be honest, I’m not one of those moms that’s into Pinterest worthy, themed birthday parties. I don’t have anything against them, they look beautiful and fun, but I’m just not good at stuff like that. We keep our parties simple, and usually just with family. My daughter’s 5th birthday last year was the first time she had a friend party. And we’ve decided on a policy of a friend party every other year, again just to keep things simple. That’s just what works best for our family.
When your throwing a birthday party though, whether a small one with family, or a large one with lots of friends, there are lots of ways that you can reduce your waste, save resources and be kind to the planet, and your bodies – in the case of cake and ice cream! Here are a few ideas:
Throwing a Greener Birthday Party
Invitations
Send out online or email invitations to save paper, and allow parents to more easily RSVP.
Games and Favors
Play simple, classic games that don’t involve too many props or create waste. An outside obstacle course or scavenger hunt would be super fun for a summer birthday party! Good thing there’s lots of inspiration on Pinterest!
Instead of sending home cheap plastic favors or goodie bags, do a craft that party guests can take home with them and actually get some use out of. At my daughter’s friend’s party a few years ago we made cute and easy pinecone bird feeders.
At my daughter’s party this past year, she and her friends spent some time just coloring and drawing pictures. They also made beaded necklaces and bracelets to wear home. They loved it!
Decorations
I really love the idea of having a reusable banner bunting that you can use for decorating every year. It may cost a little more than disposable decorations at first, but it will save money in the long run!
One thing I love to do is hang streamers and balloons from our hall doorway for when our kids wake up and come out of their room on their birthday morning, but I haven’t come up with a good non-disposable option for that. Anyone have any ideas for me?
Gifts
When our kids have parties they can invite their friends to, we have a no-gift policy. We like to keep gift-giving simple in our family, and don’t want our kids to come to expect a bunch of presents from friends for their birthday. I’ve also been to enough kid birthday parties to see the waste and excess that comes along with guests bringing gifts!
Our kids get birthday presents from our family, their grandparents, and aunts and uncles, and they recieve more than enough. Honestly, I can’t imagine bringing all the extra toys into our home from a birthday party with gifts! Craziness!
Also, when we wrap presents for our kids we try to use either recycled paper, like newspaper or art projects that the kids have done, or we also like to use reusable gift bags. Actually, I need to invest in a set of birthday reusable gift bags because usually I pull out the ones that are the least Christmas-y and use those!
Dishes and Tableware
Like always, it’s best to use real plates, cups, and silverware instead of throwing away disposables after just one use. Make sure your dishwasher is empty and ready to be filled up after the party, and clean up will still be pretty easy! Try to also use real table linens like a tablecloth and cloth napkins, if you can. Cloth napkins will work better to wipe those sticky, frosting covered hands and faces anyway.
Speaking of cake, be sure to come back on Monday to find lots of ideas for healthier birthday cake and dessert options. Mmmm, I want some cake right now! Good thing my son’s party is tonight!
How do you throw a greener and less wasteful birthday party?
Find all the Green in 365 posts.
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I love the idea of the doorway decor for the birthday celebrant! I’m thinking, you could make something with the kids as a random summer craft (http://spoonful.com/crafts/dangly-doorway-decor) and then hang it for each of their birthdays. You could get the a few big punch balloons to hang on it, too. We have great luck with tying and untying those for many uses.
I recently read about the Montessori birthday celebration ceremony and loved it for its simplicity. This site explains it (http://mariamontessori.com/mm/?p=1889) though the version I saw was just a taped circle on the floor that the child walked on instead of all the paper months. I feel like it would add a sense of calm to the celebration and be a great way to usher in the cake!
(While you know I absolutely love throwing themed parties) I am completely fed up with presents at birthday parties. I spent over a hundred dollars this last year on birthday presents for my kids’ friends (and that’s at less than $10/present). My girls get gifts from relatives and us, so when you add 10+ guests bringing gifts as well, it gets ridiculous. So we’ve started giving the girls a choice: ask guests to bring one book for a book swap OR collect toys for a local charity. I’m really hoping this catches on in our community, but even if not, I feel like it’s a lot healthier for our kids. AND they’re really excited about the idea! 🙂
We have reused the same birthday hats for literally years – I did a post once and figure we have saved hundreds if not more over the years – and we have also not created yet more waste –
http://frugalcrunchychristy.blogspot.com/2011/02/quick-birthday-savings-tip.html
lots of great tips here! Thanks!
Great tips! Christy’s about reusing party hats is a good one, too–we do that.
My son is having his party tomorrow. For decorations, we made a bunch of paper chains: Just cut paper into strips (ours were about 8″x1″), pour some white glue on an old yogurt lid or similar surface, dip one end of a strip in the glue, bend it into a circle, and stick. Put the next strip through the first one before you stick it so that they are linked. When I was little I loved making these from old wrapping paper. This time we made them from a bunch of assorted colored paper with printing on one side that I pulled from recycling bins at work a decade ago to use as dividers in binders; as I’m transitioning to paperless filing, I’ve been setting aside the colored paper for my son’s crafts, so each sheet is getting 3 uses!
He’s excited about giving the same unusual, repurposed party favor he did last year; it was popular, and the guests happen to be only one of the same kids as last year, so there won’t be cries of, “Again?!” We’ll have to think of something else for next year.
P.S. The paper chains are compostable when you’re done with them–unless you used metallic wrapping paper.