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Eco-Friendly Birthday Parties for Kids
April 9, 2009 at 11:44 AM by Cafe Kim - Comments (3)
How do you throw a green birthday party for your son or daughter? Here are some great ideas for an eco-friendly celebration...
CafeMoms in the Green Natural Simple Living Group have several suggestions for keeping kids' birthday bashes simpler and greener:
- Choose a "green" location. This could be a place that your child already loves; a place that is fun but not expensive (like a room in a church or community center); and, weather providing, invokes the great outdoors and the environment (like a backyard or a park). For example, TealsMommy is having her daughter's first birthday party at a farm. She can even use produce from the farm as decorations and centerpieces.
- Invest in reusable tableware. Mommygoose and Corbinmom purchased inexpensive silverware, plates, and glasses to use at parties instead of paper goods. True, it's more money up front; but you save cash (and the environment!) in the long run by using these things over and over and over again.
- Serve delicious but healthy food. Low-sugar, naturally dyed cakes or cookies are a good idea for kids' birthday parties. Nuts, fruit, veggies, and real fruit juice are also healthy for kids. Meganhead had a creative idea for natural food that doubles as a beautiful centerpiece: Thread fresh fruit onto wooden skewers, then stab skewers into artificial plant foam to look like flowers (see photo):
Photo by Meganhead
- Plan fun, green activities. J9Mommy suggested making a recycled table-runner out of paper bags strung together with yarn and having the kids decorate it with recycled crayons. Meganhead thought making bird-feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter, and seeds, OR leaf imprints with recycled paper and crayons would be fun. And TealsMommy is having the kids decorate canvas bags with markers for a treasure hunt.
- Ditch the traditional goodie bags. Instead of the usual plastic goodie bag filled with sugary candy and cheap, plastic toys, go for a more creative take-away. I love SanDiegoMaxMom's idea to give the kids seed packets as favors.
Thank you to all the CafeMoms for their very creative ideas! Do you have any tips for throwing a green birthday party?
FILED UNDER: kid parties
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carrot cake is a great option! Those are some awesome ideas... I love it!
One key is just to remember to recycle.. with ANY party. Plastic plates and cups and silver can be rinsed clean and recycled just like any other plastic. Paper decorations can be recycled... instead of throwing everything right in the trash, if we all just paused for a second and considered our waste we would save alot of trees and oil right there! And helium balloons... I know its been said before but... they are really bad for the environment.. if everyone would stop using those, or only get ONE for the birthday kid and make sure they dispose of it properly.. we could save alot of wildlife.
LuminousMom Apr. 9, 2009 at 1:25 PM