How to Have a Green Birthday Party
May 7, 2008 by Deborah Ng
Filed under Kids Birthday Party Ideas
So..you’d like to have a nice birthday party for your child, but you’re not interested in being wasteful. Hey, I hear you. It’s tempting to use paper plates and wrapping paper, but it’s not environmentally friendly. Fortunately, I have a few ideas for a green birthday party.
- Email invitations rather than send them through the mail or use an online invitation service such as evite.
- On the invitation request all presents are wrapped in newspaper, recycled paper, re-used wrapping paper, plastic supermarket gift bags, re-used gift bags, or fabric.
- For a green activity, give kids a small flower pot to decorate, fill with dirt and plant seeds or a tree seedling. These can be re-planted at home and used as party favors.
- Serve food and drinks on plastic or Corelle ware that can be used more than once.
- Decorate using fabric instead of paper or balloons or have the party outside and don’t decorate at all.
Those are just a few of the things you can do to make your child’s birthday a little greener. What are your favorite green birthday tips?
Image: Buy at AllPosters.com
Excellent tips. Also, I love all the posters you’ve been using lately. I have to try that.. Will link this one for sure
I am hoping to have a green birthday party for my son this summer, but it is his first. Any suggestions to tailor this more to a 1 year old’s party? Like crafts or games for him and his older cousins (from 1 to 5)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Kamber,
We’ll give it a brainstorm and see what we can come up with. Younger kids can still paint - tea cups or flower pots - there are lots of kits available. They can also plant flowers and trees to take home.
For our son’s 3rd birthday, in lieu of gifts and cards, we asked party guests to bring a donation for an AIDs orphanage in Zimbabwe. He received plenty of gifts from family (and friends who hadn’t paid attention to the invite), but not nearly the onslaught it could have been. Seriously, we couldn’t think of a single thing he really needed for his birthday. We had the party at a park and decorated the tables with colorful African cloth and real flowers with pinwheels (his kooky idea that I couldn’t resist).