The Funniest Children's Entertainer in the West shares his  ideas for a successful children's 

Environmental Party  

Environmental Party – Environmental theme, green games, ecological party ideas and tips

Considering an ecological, green, low environmental impact, environmentally friendly children’s birthday party? The great thing is that a low-carbon footprint party takes only a bit more effort than the usual sort, but it saves a lot of money as well as being environmentally friendly.

 Should we be introducing these serious issues at a children’s birthday party? I have been to plenty of parties with a sustainable theme, and they have been among the best. Our children are going to have to live with the mess we are leaving behind, so as long as they are having a good time, we should take the opportunity. Looking after the environment is not something we do separately from the rest of our lives!

 So Here are a few tips……..

 Costume

 Fancy dress is always a good idea for any children’s party so to fit an environmental theme how about Scarecrows and Scallywags or Recycled Ragamuffins or Tramps and Princesses? These are really easy party themes as (apart from princess dresses) it needs no more than worn out badly fitting clothes and a bit of imagination. Children’s story books often have illustrations that can be used as a guide

Decoration

 Obviously you don’t want to use anything that isn’t from a sustainable source, so here are a few ideas:

 Balloons are fairly OK as they are usually made from natural rubber that comes from sustainable rubber tree plantations. The colours are synthetic but we don’t need to be fanatical about it. Don’t use helium balloons as if they get released the balloons can end up being mistaken for food by marine life or wild animals.

As for the rest of it, a forest theme using branches and trimmings from the garden can look great, or if you want a recycling theme, use junk or recyclable materials – crisp packets, drink cans, bottles etc. Just be careful with anything like newspapers that could be a fire hazard.

 As for tableware, plain paper plates and cups are clearly more sensible than the garish ones you can pay a lot of money for, or if you are doing Tramps and Scarecrows, what about eating chips (or any party food) out of newspaper? Put a clean piece of kitchen towel on it to keep it hygienic and let them eat with their fingers. Alternatively if you are using a hall find out if they have crockery available. If you have any available grandparents, they will love to do the washing up!

 Activities  

There’s more to parties than games. How about a bit of craft activity first? Every scarecrow needs a crown to wear and you can easily spend half an hour getting the children to make one. Use recycled cereal boxes or similar, cut into a rough crown shape and staple at the back so it fits round a child’s head. Older children and adults can help younger children. Then decorate them – glue on shiny shapes cut out of washed crisp packets, biscuit wrappers or other packaging, then have a fashion parade and maybe prizes. It’s cost nothing and gets across the idea of re-using materials that are thrown away.

 Children love being noisy so how about an Environmental Can-can? Get o load of drinks cans, wash them out and leave somewhere warm to dry. Provide a selection of dried beans, pebbles etc, and let the children put a few in a can and shake it. (tape over the hole first). It’s amazing what a difference the various beans make to the sound. Then organise a can-can dance with children shaking the cans (you’ll need to find a way to play the tune – either use a recording or a kazoo).

 Games

 You can add environmental twists to traditional game:

 Grandmothers Carbon footsteps. Pin the blades on the windmill, or a version of musical chairs to highlight diminishing resources.

 Food

 Well it will have to be proper home made nutritious food that didn’t come in a packet from a supermarket and if you are reading this you probably know how to do that. It doesn’t have to be amazing, just cut down on the pre-packed E numbers and sugar snacks.

 Party Bags

 You can get sensible party bags from a few suppliers, or you can give the children a book. If  you don’t want to go to that much expense, there is always the crown they made earlier that they can take home.