Last weekend my son celebrated his fourth birthday, planning the event proved to be more stressful than I thought. What should we plan? Do we hire a space, do we hire a band, do we go all themed out and overboard on crazy decorations? We do live in New York City after all, which can make planning a birthday for your child pretty daunting as people do tend to go a little OTT!
Growing up in Australia, everyone had their parties at their homes or in parks where the kids could run like banshees. Games were often things we looked forward to playing. But New York City living can prose space problems and then there’s the cold lengthy winter. So what did we do? I decided to have the party at our friends’ restaurant, where they have ample outdoor space. I could also use the kitchen to bake the cake. Venue nailed, now the party!
An Australian girlfriend suggested ‘pass-the-parcel’. “What a great idea! We’ll also have a treasure hunt”, I said. Games the old fashioned way! Now if you’re not familiar with pass-the-parcel, it goes like this: you pass a wrapped gift around a circle. When the music stops, the child holding the present gets to open it (pictured below). It’s a party favourite in Australia. I wrapped 12 gifts between thirteen levels of paper so each of the twelve young guests would get a present! You have to be fair at this age!
Entertainment decided. Now, how do I plan a green party? I had decided we were not having balloons, but would instead have flowers of my son’s choice and colour. He likes tulips, and thus chose orange and purple locally grown tulips we bought at Whole Foods.
The cake ingredients, juice and food for the kids were easy – all organic, but what about the rest of the stuff? Party favours, wrapping, the parcel gifts, paper plates and napkins, the treasure hunt items? I didn’t want to buy junky plastic toys, so this was a little tricky. After much online research I found what I was looking for: Plan Toys cars, Vilac rings and paddle balls, ImagiPlay puzzles, Haba whistles, Melissa & Doug puzzles and stamp sets. And finally for the party favours, each child took home an Eggling – an extra-large white porous ceramic egg, sitting on a terra-cotta tray that comes with a seed packet of either herbs or flowers ready for sowing. I found coloured tissue paper made from corn (husks, stalks & leaves) and recycled paper that I purchased at Whole Foods, and later found at my local pharmacy to wrap the ‘pass-the-parcel’. I used catalogues to wrap the treasure hunt toys, and I bought recycled plastic plates. Finally, I asked friends to please sway from bringing a gift. Though, most still did, almost everyone gave books. Those who did not bring a gift donated to a charity of their choice in honour of my son.
The games proved a success, my son was thrilled and we were utterly exhausted!
Check out:http://www.planethappytoys.com/ for a good selection of eco-friendly toys. And www.networkforgood.org to find out how to donate in a friends honour.