Kids "Go Green!" Party
Go Green Cheerleader costume
Recycle party
Go Green! Recycle Party
How to throw an eco-friendly party for kids

She's a cheerleader for the environment, and wants to helps save the world with her
birthday! Here challenge of creating a "Go green!" birthday party? Sure, it's an
unconventional party theme, but don't toss the idea in the recycling bin just yet,
because you can have an eco-friendly and fun party for kids with a few simple ideas.
It's a party they won't soon forget. And having an Earth Day birthday is especially
apropos if the birthday is around April 22. But even if your party isn't in April or the
theme isn't about recycling, you can get down to earth and incorporate these kid-
friendly and earth friendly ideas into any party theme:

  • Think burlap. Hessian cloth, also known as burlap, has an earthy feel and makes
    an interesting natural fabric tablecloth. Burlap is a natural choice for wrapping
    gifts or favor bags, and looks festive with hemp string or jute.  And while you're
    at it, be sure to have burlap sack races!

  • Cut the waste creatively. Skip the plastic straws and help save the environment
    by sipping drinks from licorice straws. Just cut the ends of a red or black licorice
    twist and enjoy! Skip paper napkins and use bandannas, which can double as a
    favor. Save the need of plastic forks by serving bite sized food and cupcakes
    instead of cake and a full lunch. And finally, be sure to mark drinks of guests
    (masking tape works just fine, so that there's no waste).

  • Serve Eco-friendly drinks. Skip the plastic bottle drinks. Serve home made
    lemonade made with filtered water. Even easier, Kids love soda and here are
    two great options:
  • Go "au natural" with Hansen's Natural sodas. Hansen's come in
    aluminum, which is an easily recyclable material, and Hansen's drinks
    have no caffeine, no preservatives, and no artificial flavors or colors.
  • Send a message. Jones Green Apple Soda, comes in a glass (another
    recyclable option) and you can design your own Jones Soda label with
    your recycling message and pictures of the birthday kid. A custom Jones
    Soda bottle makes a wonderful favor.


  • Choose bamboo party wares. Sturdier, prettier and more ecologically responsible
    than plastic, you'll make a statement when you choose bamboo plates and
    utensils. Most bamboo products are intended for single use only, but will bio-
    degrade in 180 days of composting. Below you'll find bamboo products that are
    made from 100% organically grown bamboo:
Go Green! Recycle Birthday Party
Please recycle this site with friends
Cloth Birthday Banner
Decoration ideas for a recycled party


  • String festive paper lantern globes instead of balloons. Skip the inflatable globes as well,
    because using them sends the wrong message for the theme. Better yet, forget the
    paper altogether and sew a reusable birthday banner with triangular fabric pieces to
    a cord. You'll also find a nice selection of banners on ETSY.

  • Uncork the magic of recycling! Go ahead and recycle corks from wine bottles to create
    place-cards for your seating arrangements. Your guests will appreciate your clever
    attention to detail (even if they are too young to drink wine). Stabilize wobbly corks
    by leveling them with a knife.

  • Decorate with things found in nature. Gather up some twigs and give your party a
    woodland fairy sub-theme by crafting fairy houses (an idea from Family Fun). Add a
    few tiny trinkets and doll house treasures to give wind to pixie pleasures.

  • Dish out the fun! Make your colorful candy bowls from newspapers and construction
    paper and learn about paper making methods. The idea for the bowls, pictured right,
    comes from Family Fun.

  • Get back to nature. Use potted plants instead of cut flowers to decorate the tables.

  • Set up easy recycling. Have your child mark the recycle bins. Make it easy for kids to
    understand

  • That's a wrap! Be sure to use aluminum foil instead of cling wrap to, and recycle the
    foil in a clump in your recycling bin only if there is no food stuck to the foil, which
    would contaminate your other recycling.

  • Clean green! When the party is over, have the kids help with the clean up and educate
     children and adults alike about the importance of recycling and using green products.


  • Recycle birthday presents? Yes! KidsAreHeroes.com suggests kids "become a hero
    with a one time event of donating birthday presents to a favorite charity." This brings
    a whole new meaning to the idea of re-gifting. In a reality check this may be too
    unconventional for most kids, and you may not want to deny this simple pleasure, so
    in lieu of forgoing gifts here are some "green" ideas:

  • Make it a pet project. Inform party goers that you'll be surprising the birthday
    child with a puppy and that in lieu of gifts they might make a donation to the
    SPCA. Appreciated gifts might also include a leash, ecologically minded chew
    toys, a steel food dish, natural doggie treats or a sleeping pad (and tell them
    that no gift wrapping is required). The group effort will in itself be a memory.

  • Trade a party for money. Offer your child the option of skipping the fanfare
    altogether in favor of a cash value equivalent of the party budget. Your child
    might then instead prefer a spending spree instead of the party.

  • It's ecological to make a choice. Consider shopping online with Ecotown toys.
    There, you'll find eco-friendly finger paints, crafts

  • Recycle the wrapping paper: Open gifts at the beginning of the party and turn
    the scrap wrapping paper into an activity. You can make a bracelet or as an
    activity show kids how to make paper from recycled paper. (See our recycled
    party activities below.)

  • Encourage eco gift wrapping. When guests RSVP, tell them politely if they
    inquire, that there's "no gift wrapping required." Suggest they tie a ribbon with
    a handmade card. As guests arrive you can collect presents into a burlap sack
    unveil one-by-one at gift time. Other earth friendly ideas to suggest include
    wrapping in brown paper grocery bags or newspaper (recycled comic pages,
    for example), wrapping in cloth, or decorating oatmeal or cereal boxes.

  • Serve filtered water. Consider installing a reverse osmosis water filtration system. The
    Watts WP5-50 Premier Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment System, right, is the most
    popular system available on Amazon. Think of all the bottles of water you'll save from
    the landfills. Send the kids to home with Klean Kanteen, left, as a party favor to help
    illustrate your personal ban on plastic containers.

  • Buy "green" gifts. Looking for ecologically minded gifts for kids? No gifts at all would
    appease ecological purists, but that's no fun! You can find gifts that educate and
    entertain yet strike a balance with our environment. Here are some ideas:
  • Cotton stuffed dolls and animals
  • Quality hardcover books are also an appreciated gift as they can extend
    generations as an heirloom (though, again purists might suggest buying gently
    used books).  
  • Below are some ecologically minded and popular new toys made from recycled
    materials and wood:
Have comments on a "Go Green!" Recycle party? Have pictures of a Recycle
party? Send us an e-mail.  And now that you've read this, why not give a second life
to birthday cards and invitations you've received?
Activities and Games for a "Go Green!" Recycle Party
Use games and activities to help illustrate with kids the four Rs of "going green" (Recycle,
Reduce, Recover and Reuse).

  • Get boxed in! Younger kids love creating box hideaways, so gather up the boxes from
    appliance and furniture stores. Help them by cutting off ends to create tunnels and
    helping their vision take shape with tape or staples. Older kids will have fun making
    their own bean bag toss game recycling boxes as well, or creating board games with
    small odds and ends, and you can provide buttons, dice, and bottle caps.

  • Strike up the fun. Gather up ten empty plastic bottles from neighbors and re-use them
    for a game that just might be up your alley. Align the bottles like bowling pins and
    use a rubber ball to knock them down.

  • Have a "can do" attitude with stilts you make yourself! Younger kids will appreciate
    turning two large can of stewed tomatoes into silly stomping stilts with a bit of string.
    You might also try to make a "telephone" with two cans and a string.

  • Make something to "Dye" for! Kids can get groovy and recycle an old white T-shirt and
    give it new life with a tie dye activity. See our hippy party. There are also natural
    organic tie dye options as with Sunburst tie dye kits (their dyes are eco-friendly).


Recycled and Eco-Friendly Favors

  • Favors that are sew natural! Sew your own favor bags. Skip the plastic bags and head
    to the fabric store instead! Here are some fun ideas for stuffing your handmade cloth
    favor bags:

  • Make carton wallets. Start saving all your milk or juice cartons, then head to
    Family Fun to craft the carton wallet, pictured left.

  • Fashion Snack Bag Chain Bangles. Who knew recycling could be so literally
    fashionable? Start save chip bags to create the snack bag chain bracelet,
    pictured left. Or turn this favor idea into an activity. Also from Family Fun, try
    the magazine bead bracelet craft.

  • Color their world with something recycled. Here's how to recycle old crayons and
    melt them into new fun shapes.

  • Get twiggy with it! Order natural Twig pencils available online.

  • Plant a seed of change. You can recycle paper into a garden compost as you
    share the beauty of a flower or vegetable garden. Here's how to make your
    own plantable seed cards with pretty plantable papers packed with seeds. You
    might also use this idea for the invitations and have guests return the card to
    plant a living garden in honor of the birthday boy or girl.

  • Recycle party favors. Gather up the tiny treasures you've collected from other parties
    or leftovers from your own. A pinata is the perfect place to stuff them! Kids won't
    mind a bit that the favors are gently used, and your kids may rediscover an old
    favorite. Otherwise, be sure to fill the pinata with useful, quality items, such as hair
    clips, pencils, and erasers. And instead of providing plastic bags, decorate recycled
    containers, such as soup cans, or provide cloth bags.
Invitations and thank you card
The most eco-friendly invitation is the one sent by e-mail; however, a problem arises if
your friends and family decide to print the invitation on their computer. If this happens,
then you haven't accomplished your environmental mission, have you? Here are some
eco-friendly invitation ideas for a "Go Green!" recycle party:

  • Mail a postcard. It will save an envelope, and you'll save on postage too.

  • Craft your own invitations from recycled paper processed without chlorine, or look
    for invitations printed with vegetable inks, such as soy based inks. For bar/bah
    mitzvah's or large parties, visit Earth Friendly Invitations as they are "contributing
    to a better earth, one invitation at a time."

  • Invitation wording ideas:
  • It's Amanda's Birthday and we're "Going Green!"
  • Reserve the date* and be seen!
  • You'll learn a thing 'bout conservation,
  • So bike, walk or share transportation,
  • To 123 Main Street you will go.
  • We promise it will be quite a show!
  • R.S.V.P. Mother Earth at 867-5309 to join us
  • *Saturday, April 19 at noon

    Optional:
  • There's one more secret thing to tell,
  • We've got a birthday pup to wish her well,
  • And so in lieu of ribbons, wrap and birthday wishes,
  • Perhaps you'll bring chews, collars and doggie dishes!

"Go Green!" Cake Theme ideas
A recipe for success on a "Go Green" party is to avoid hydrogenated oils found at most
commercial bakeries. Instead, head to Whole Foods bakery for delicious cakes made from
real ingredients, or ask your local bakery to rule out use of hydrogenated oils. You  might
also bake your own earth friendly cake from a box, as with Dr. Oetker Organics (no
hydrogenated oils here). Another good option is Naturally Nora A Lot of Dots cake mix,
upper right, which is the only all-natural confetti cake with no artificial ingredients and no
hydrogenated oils, plus it's Kosher. Or, you might have the kids make their own
"compost" cake using your favorite dirt cake recipe using the healthier version of
chocolate sandwich cookies and real whipped cream and pudding.

  • Skip the plastic cupcake picks. Look to ETSY for all things handmade, including
    affordable and festive Twirly Whirlies (mini paper pinwheels cupcake toppers made
    with festive papers). Or make your own toothpick flags loaded with earthy friendly
    green messages (as found on Flickr), such as "Put your computer on 'sleep' mode
    and not screensaver mode."


  • Go with flower power lollipop cupcakes. Cut six petals of crepe paper and glue them  
    around a wrapped sucker to make a flower.   Re-use the plastic containers to store
    small toys or store cereal or pastas.  The simple lollipop cupcakes, by Martha
    Stewart, is another simple and happy option. Use these organic suckers also for
    name cards. The Yummy Earth Organic pops available on Amazon, right, fit your
    theme nicely. You'll get five packs of 30 (or 150 suckers). Just insert the sucker into
    a spice drop candy and secure a long paper flag  to display the child's name.

Eco-Friendly Food and Food Serving Ideas
If you're reading this, then you're probably new to the environmental movement. If
you're a veteran, however, remember that not everyone is ready for vegan organic foods
in the raw, so don't push your lifestyle on unsuspecting party goers. You can strike a
balance between illustrating a point and ensuring guests don't go home hungry or
disappointed. Here's how to serve up an environmentally responsible meal that's sure to
please them all:

  • For starters, think about how you'll serve the food. Our favorite option is Bamboo,
    as it's a natural choice, and here are more ideas to have you thinking green:

  • Go green with eco-friendly Rosseto and their Liteware collection of
    recyclable, reusable and disposable mini dishes. The Rosetto party dishes,
    left, will help you serve portion controlled bites in a fun and interesting way.

  • Preserve. Choose recycled plastic plates by Preserve. They are made of
    100% recycled plastic, they are reusable (dishwasher safe on low-heat
    cycles), and they are recyclable (#5 plastic).

  • Know your spuds. Spudware cutlery, which is made from 80% potato starch
    and 20% soy oil. Best of all, Spudware biodegrades in just 180 days.
    Spudware comes with a Certification of Compostability from the American
    Society of Testing and Materials. Even the packaging is a sustainable
    foodserve packaging (an alternative to fossil based Styrofoam®).

  • Jazz up the neutral tone of recycled utensils and plates by decorating them
    with bits of colorful construction paper. Add an ornate touch to utensils with
    small flowers or suns, and turn plates into matching larger versions.

  • Bake with natural food coloring. Bring natural color to your baked goods with India
    Tree Natural Food coloring, right. These liquid decorating colors are made from
    vegetable colourants and contain no synthetic dye. Use them to make your own
    natural lollipops, Martha Stewart style. Sprinkle cookies and cakes with all natural
    sprinkles and nonpareils, too, such as the Lavender nonpareils, left also from India
    Tree. They're made without artificial dyes and have no trans fats.

  • Go organic! Ensure the veggies and fruits you serve at the party are organic, and
    everyone will expect a few green varieties. Kid friendly green foods might include:
  • celery sticks with peanut butter (check allergies)
  • cucumber slices with ranch dressing
  • apple slices with cream cheese topped with natural sprinkles
  • Honey dew melons, kiwis, even lime wedges (arrange fruits slices into an
    appealing rainbow ending with the green ones).

  • Here are some organic sweet options, including organic cotton candy:
Fairy party favor toadstool kaleidescopes
Wilton sphere pan
Felt birthday hat
Wilton's Earth Sake Cake
Cloth Birthday Banner
Resources for a "Go Green" Party


  • Try ideas from Echoage - the power of pooling resources to get one memorable
    gift for a cause.

  • Remind everyone that paper napkins grow on trees. Use a cloth napkin and
    recreate this tree napkin ring idea from Martha Stewart, but cut your tree from
    felt instead of paper.