Feature/General
Going Green on Your Child’s Special Day
By NatureMoms.com
Sep/Oct 2008

Green Planet Events put together this “Beach Party” with organic “goldfish” cupcakes, smoothies and “beach sand” fun.

Having a green birthday is actually easier than you might think. But first, you might need 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. 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.

Invitations
There are quite a few options for eco-friendly birthday invitations nowadays. Aside from using invitations made from recycled paper, there are also seeded invitations where each piece of paper is embedded with a mixture of annual and perennial wild flower seeds. 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.

Gifts
One option is to request on your 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. 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.

Supplies and Decorations
To start, use reusable dishes, utensils, tablecloths and napkins. All of these can just be washed instead of being tossed. 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 and use them.

There are also a lot of green options for decorations. Instead of a plastic tablecloth, why not use cloth? If you have goody bags, then ditch the plastic and go with fabric there, too.

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. Japanese-style paper balloons are an eco-friendly substitute.