Negosentro.com | How to Plan a Nature-Themed Birthday Party: 4 Essentials | Birthdays mark a person’s milestones year after year. This reason alone is enough to celebrate this annual event with a party.
But while birthdays are a good thing, parties may have a negative impact on the environment.
From disposable plates, spoons, and forks to plastic banners and non-biodegradable confetti, certain aspects of a birthday party may be harming the environment. If you find this unacceptable, it is time that you consider making your child’s next birthday bash more eco-friendly.
Aside from offering a chance for him and his friends to engage in outdoor adventures, nature-themed birthday parties could also help them learn more about the wonders of the Earth.
From choosing a venue closer to nature to serving food with eco-friendly packaging, you can celebrate your child’s birth while keeping Mother Nature happy with these four nature-themed party essentials:
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A Venue Closer to Nature
You can opt to organize your child’s eco-friendly birthday party in your own backyard, but this won’t be as much fun as spending it in a place where rare flora and fauna thrive. Make your child’s birthday bash a bit more exciting by picking a venue where he would find plants and animals that he rarely encounters on a daily basis.
You can choose to reserve a pavilion at a local park or head to the woods near you. You can even have the party set at an indoor rainforest nestled in the heart of Dubai. This way, your child and his guests would have a deeper understanding of nature with firsthand experience while commemorating his birthday in an eco-friendly way.
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Activities to Experience Nature Firsthand
Since you’re already out in nature, why not take advantage of the setting by playing a couple of nature-themed games? Help kids learn about their surroundings while having a good time by planning games and activities that can make them discover all the planet has to offer.
Below are some activities you can try to incorporate in a nature-themed birthday party:
Blind Walk
A blind walk helps boost a child’s learning through his senses. By removing the sense of sight from the equation, the other senses are enhanced.
To start, you would need to attach strings to trees and over logs through the park or indoor forest before the guests arrive. Make sure they are at a level that your child and his guests can reach.
Each participant will then be blindfolded while holding on to the string as they follow the trail. Before reaching the end of the blind walk, tell them to pay close attention to what they hear, smell, and feel. This will allow them to establish a deeper connection with nature.
Of course, if you have very young children as guests, you can ask adults to stroll with them without any blindfold.
Camouflage
This game is much like hide-and-seek, except for the fact that everyone will be hiding in plain sight. As the name implies, this activity requires participants to blend in with the environment.
The seeker should stand in an open area or a trail with his eyes closed while counting to 20. As the counting commences, the other children will try to blend into nature to “hide” their presence while ensuring that they still see the seeker’s head.
Once the seeker completes his count, he can then start looking for the hiders by just pivoting his body in a circle. He isn’t allowed to move from where he is originally located, except for a 360-degree pivot on the same spot.
Scavenger Hunt
Create a list of items that children can look for in the party space.
From colorful flowers and leaves to acorns, pine cones, and rocks, all the items in your list should be readily available in nature and can be taken without causing any disturbance to the natural balance of the ecosystem.
You can also do some post-scavenger hunt tasks that would let your child and his friends use their imagination.
For example, you can have them collect rocks with different shapes, sizes, and colors, and have them create beautiful rock art. All you need are some paint, glue, and other crafting materials. This can serve as both an entertaining activity and a unique nature-themed party favor for your child’s guests to take home.
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Low-impact or Eco-friendly Food Packaging
Environment-friendly food service entails reducing trash generated from packing food for the party. Here are some ways you can do this without using too much plastic and non-reusable materials:
Ask guests to bring their own tumblers
Instead of using plastic cups and non-biodegradable juice boxes, fill up glass jugs with juice enough to accommodate the entire party. Then, ask the guests to bring their own reusable cups or tumblers to reduce plastic waste.
Serve food in skewers
Skip the plates by serving skewered fruits, Caprese sticks, and vegetable and meat kebabs. Not only does this make the party food fun, but it also ensures that there is little to no trash left. The sticks used for the food skewers can be composted.
Use buns to serve burgers and hotdogs
Another clever way to reduce the need for plastic plates and containers is by serving food in bread buns. This applies to burgers and hotdogs, but you can also get creative with sandwiches.
Ditch one big cake for several cupcakes
Instead of baking one big cake, why not prepare it in serving size right off the bat?
Not only will this help you save on plastic forks and disposable plates, but it would also make cleaning up easier later since most cupcake wrappers can be burned in a campfire. Just make sure to opt for non-plastic-coated cupcake wrappers to keep it eco-friendly.
Offer cloth napkins
Tons of trees are chopped down to make disposable napkins. Save a tree by offering reusable cloth napkins to your guests.
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Party Favors Found in Nature
If you’re not a big fan of plastic trinkets that lose their shine a mere 10 minutes after children receive them, then a nature-themed party is definitely a good choice for you.
Aside from sticking to the theme, choosing eco-friendly goodies will also ensure that your birthday party guests get something unique and memorable while reducing harm to the environment. The key is to offer things that are either consumable or reusable.
Below are some party favor ideas you can try:
- Hand-made animal pencil toppers
- Twig pencils
- Cute animal stone art
- Bug boxes with a magnifying glass
Also, your guests’ output from the birthday activities can also serve as take-home memorabilia for the party. Let them bring home whatever they made from the activity, like the rock art mentioned in the scavenger hunt activity above.
Another excellent example of this activity-slash-party-favor is the crafting of nature bracelets. To begin, wrap craft tapes around children’s wrists with the sticky side up. Then, ask them to attach things on their bracelets as they walk around the party venue during the scavenger hunt.
Again, don’t forget to remind your guests only to take items that won’t affect the delicate balance of the ecosystem.
Party Hard While Saving the Planet
Planning a birthday party is a challenging yet fulfilling task. Make it more rewarding by sticking to eco-friendly options to help save the planet. Try out these clever birthday ideas, and don’t forget to share the information with others.
