DD2 is having her "friends" birthday party today. In an effort to "green" the process, I have implemented the following: no paper plates, cups or napkins; no plastic cutlery; no disposable party decorations. Her party is starting to sound kind of boring! :)
However, I have also added: a party at my house, including a camping theme (tent, sleeping bags and sleep over!); a craft using a lot of natural materials (build your own campfire - using twigs, stones, sand, recycled CDs, glue and tissue paper); no plastic loot bags - instead they are getting bandannas with flashlights, glow sticks, granola bars and a craft kit. The craft kit, flashlights and granola bars have plastic or plastic packaging, but it's hard to get away from it.
The girls will be able to party with games, puzzles and our karaoke machine; we'll also be playing some outdoor games (weather permitting), including flashlight tag and name that star.
Breakfast will be homemade pancakes and bacon.
Not a perfectly green party, but I don't think it's too bad.
The inspiration for this blog came after reading Vanessa Farquharson's book, Sleeping Naked is Green, and wondering if her new eco-lifestyle was really applicable to a family of 5 that was already fairly environmentally friendly. At the urging of a friend, I took on the challenge of trying to improve my family's "green-ness", using the book as a template. This blog will record our attempts to improve our environmental foot-print one small change at a time.
I like it! Some neat ideas here- and ones that could be incorporated into parties for all ages.
ReplyDeleteHope the party was a success!
Yeah for green parties! It's not boring not to throw a bunch of stuff away. I like to have parties at the public pool (my kids have summer b-days). I bring snacks in big bowls with covers, pitchers of juice and water and a bunch of cups from home. We always bring our silverware with some sort of container for people to put the dirty silverware in. It's really not too bad. We usually have a lot of kids and use paper plates, so that's not the greatest... although if we are at home we use the real thing.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun party :)
Thanks for your comments ladies, we had a great time. No one seemed to mind that there weren't any disposable plates, etc. They all LOVED the craft and the loot bags, so it just goes to show us that kids consume and expect cheap junk because we GIVE them cheap junk.
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