Eco-Friendly Kid's Birthday Parties…Do as I Say Not as I Do

The Freen's 4th birthday was last month. He had a party at school, a small celebration at home on the day of his birthday and a party with a friend from school with over 50 of our family and friends. Three parties later I'm thinking we may have over done it a bit, but on the bright side if the economy gets any worse we will be able to trade toys for food this Christmas.

My initial plan was to hold a Cars themed environmentally friendly party. Yes - I see the irony. I planned to make the invitations and decorations, give away eco-friendly favors, serve organic snacks, and play environmentally conscience games. However, the day I handed out our home-made invitations at his school, I found out that I had scheduled the party on the same exact day and time as one of his friends. So instead of rescheduling and having two separate parties we decided to combine them and my plans for an eco-friendly party were quickly forgotten. I justified my decision to go the more traditional Oriental Trading Company route with the fact that we had eliminated the waste of an entire party by combining the two parties. So there I was online at OTC ordering up the little plastic favors that I had promised myself I would not buy knowing that each little toy would interest our guests for the car ride home and then slowly one by one each parent would toss each little piece of junk in the trash when their child wasn't looking.

I had pizza delivered and ordered a cake from the local bakery “Cakes by the Lake”. I asked them to try to combine the Cars and Spider Man theme which they did incredibly well and the cake was delicious.

By the end we wasted a whole lot of paper and plastic and fed and gave the kids a whole lotta junk…regardless of my Sustainable Mom guilt everyone had a blast.

Preceding the decision to combine the parties I did a whole lot of research on how to throw an eco-friendly birthday party and so it doesn’t go to waste…I’d like to share all the great resources I found with you so that you may throw your own eco-friendly birthday party.

Invitations & Thank You Cards

Make your own invitations and thank you cards with a color printer, stickers and pre-made cards available at Michael's, Target, Staples and Amazon.

Michael's has card stock available

Amazon also has a plain stock version, bright multi-colored card stock, and pastels

My Good Greetings Offers a variety of post-consumer recycled options as does Cards Direct.

Disney's Family Fun site offers some printable templates as well.

Decorations

Yellow Label Kids offers wonderful keepsake fabric tablecloths and birthday banners that can be used year after year. While a little pricey they are so nice they can be used for every family member, year after year. By far my favorite find and a great gift option for first birthday's.

Service ware
Recycline offers the preserve everyday collection made from 100% recycled materials.

Eco-products offers compostable cups and service ware.

No matter what you do there is going to be trash Biobag USA offers biodegradable and compostable garbage bags.

Games & Activities

I like the idea of doing something creative. Green Party Goods has unpainted wooden airplanes which would make a great favor/activity.

Disney's Family Fun site offers a number of great ideas and they sort them by age.

Amazing Moms site has some great ideas and The Big List of Birthday Party Ideas has some great examples that can inspire some fun original games and activities.

Food & Beverages

For a race car themed party without any children with nut allergies and I like the idea of this Checkerboard pb&J using organic ingredients of course.

If you have peanut allergies in the group or just would prefer to be safe here are several sandwich ideas and you can use white and wheat bread to create the same effect regardless of what's inside the sandwiches.

The Freen loves Annie's Cheddar Bunnies and they make a great kids finger food.

Disney Family also has a decent site that includes some healthy recipes for kids.

Other's recommend Dr. Sears' book The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood for ideas for healthy kinds snacks and meals. I have to admit I don't have it and I prefer to just troll the Internet for recipes than clutter by house with cook books but if you like cook books this one might be right for you.

Goody Bags

I like the idea of using plain crafting paper bags with stickers or even better have your little freen create his own image for his friends.

In addition I like these plastic bag alternatives

Chinese Food Cartons

Muslin Bag

Girls Purse Box

Although a little more expensive reusable options include Organic and recycled cotton bags from Ecobags or for older kids Envirosax's Greengrocer series makes a nice favor on it's own. You could also support the Captain Planet Foundation and offer a reusable Captain Planet shopping bag.

Another idea is to offer a reusable gift bag like those offered by Lucky Crow or Lagniappe Gift Bags.

Favors

This is a tough one. I think my favorite option is coloring books and crayons and stickers. Although not inherently eco-friendly they are far better than little plastic figures and kazoos destined for the land fill.

Green Party Goods does have a selections of eco-friendly favors including finger puppets, wooden kazoos and wooden castenets but they would be pretty pricey for a large party and while nice are likley to end up at the bottom of a toy box soon after the children return home.

Because every kids expects a healthy dose of sugar in that bag Yummy Earth offers a great selection of individually wrappped organic treats including lollipops which are a Freen favorite.

Beautiful Sweets sell pre-made cookie favors but you could also make your own.

I hope this is helpful and I welcome you to add any ideas and suggestions you have for eco-friendly kid's parties.