The Makings of a Green, Urban, Birthday Party

Felt Birthday Hats, you can also find them on Etsy.com

Pelé is turning 2 next week and so are many of his friends. This post is not a judgment in any way– growing up, I happily received party bags with plastic 5 cent bubble gum machine favors as much as the next kid. But this is a new age and we know too much for me not to try to instill certain values of moderation, simplicity, and conservation (in terms of landfill contribution and understanding that toys, dishes, paper should not be thought of as disposable). I think that it’s important to make the initial investment in quality and take it from there. I say “Urban” because we are limited in space and do not have a large yard that our party can bleed out to. Not to mention, with a November birthday, outdoors may be too risky. That being said, here is what I’ve decided on:

Paper hats- we have bought eight felt party hats. It’s been my experience that the paper hats end up being stepped on and left in a corner and lets face it, it’s only warn for a few minutes, right? Well I went for the felt party hats http://www.greenpartygoods.com/decorations-party-hats-c-3_49.html which will remain in our family for what I hope is a couple of generations. One of the hats is the crown which the birthday person (this includes Mama and Papa) will wear. This may be just for cake and ice cream or as long as the guests would like. They will be encouraged to trade in their hat at the end of the party in order to receive a fun favor package (more on that in a moment).

Decorations- I’ve decided that party decorations will be crafts that we as a family make every year and will bring out year after year (the same goes for holidays). The one exception is the felt Happy Birthday Banner http://www.greenpartygoods.com/decorations-festive-banners-c-3_23.html that I have bought. That will be put out the eve of our birthday so we wake up to see that it is a special day. If Pelé requests a theme, it will manifest itself in the form of a cake/cupcake decor. Cloth napkins, glass/bamboo dishes http://www.greenpartygoods.com/bamboo-cutleryone-set-reusable-p-531.html depending on how many guests and melanine cups (serving punch instead of packaged beverages).

Balloons- I will be going with Japanese style paper balloons this year http://www.gingerandscallion.com/animalpaperballoons.aspx . They will be favors but we will have two out for play (and so parents know what they should look like blown up).

Favors- As mentioned above, we will have paper balloons, a rubber stamp (train) and mini ink pad, wooden train whistle, train engineer caps, photo fridge magnet (this one will be Halloween 2009 and will include a photo of the birthday boy in costume with the child). If a photo is not available, they can place their own photo). And since Pelé’s friends are turning 2 and the majority are boys, there will be a pair of train briefs. Perhaps, they will help moms and dads out as in “if you want to wear your Choo-choo, big boy pants, you are going to have to start using the potty”. Favors will be in canvas tote bags that the children can use as library bags if they wish.

Gifts- I have encouraged parents not to bring gifts and if that felt strange to them or the child, they should then bring one book (a favorite classic) and wrap it in newspaper or paper bag. Books take the least amount of space and Pelé loves them. I also give books for birthdays.

I’m thinking of having different playing stations around the house– one train table station, block station, clay dough station, menagerie station, book nook station, painting station, magnet station. There will be storytime, ring around the rosies/london bridge as group activities and of course, lunch and cake. I was thinking (sort of an inside joke since studies have found that TV can cause brain damage in children under the age of two or showing the Scholastic Nutshell skit “Where the Wild Things Are” on television (it’s a 5 minute book/video). I’ll feel out the other mommies.

This of course is still just a lunch play date but I wanted to make sure that Pelé realizes that this is a special day with a play date in his honor. I will post a few pics in another week.

Other ideas that I’ve received for future parties: Please feel free to add more in comments.

- Use seeded paper for invitations or Evite. In our case, we used Evites and will be using seeded paper for our favor name tags (as the framed photos will be unique and therefore specific).

- Finger painting (I think that this will be great for outdoors)

- Children decorate their own T-shirts as a favor

- Give a small plant as a favor

- Snowglobes made in baby food jars

- Grow a Tree seeds and a peat pot