A Simple Birthday Party

Let me invite you to my daughter’s 4th birthday party. For this you will need a time machine, because that was last year.

We have a few ideas of our own about environmentalism, how we raise our daughter and a host of other topics. This is not the time to share them, but the way we did her party reflects what we believe in: it was earth-friendly and inexpensive.

The first thing we decided was not to have plasticky favors. We have a hard time with all the little doodads that Nadia brings back from other birthdays. I know the parents mean well, and it makes the kids happy for a while, but they soon end up in the garbage and later in the land fill somewhere.

Enter cookies. Who doesn’t love butter cookies? And they get “composted” real quick. 🙂

You can use icing or, like me, you can decorate them with fondant in bright colors and edible pearls. Make them in shapes that go well with the chosen theme.

We packed the cookies in cute cardboard boxes decorated with satin ribbon and a shell. (The shells didn’t come from the beach, it was an old gift to me). The box can be used to wrap other gifts later on. It will hopefully not end in a landfill too soon.

I sewed some simple bags and made some name tags with cardstock. The bags can also be re-used as gift wrapping or for the child to carry small toys. I had the fabric  and the cardstock already so it didn’t cost me anything. We also put some inexpensive coloring pencils and coloring jigsaw puzzle in the bags.

I made, and Nadia helped me decorate them, cupcakes for the party. Instead of soft drinks we served sugar-free fruit juice. We served everything in re-usable dishes, used re-usable glasses and cutlery. Nothing, except the paper wrappings went to waste.

By avoiding a commercial theme (Barbies, Disney princesses and whatnot) we could come up with our own theme (flowers) and recruit our child’s help (however little she could lend) to do all these things. It was a simple, lovely, earth-friendly, inexpensive birthday party that our child felt proud of.

Aunt Clara