Birthdays are a lot of fun. Food, music, gifts, games. You know, it just makes you want to be five again! However, birthdays can be quite un-green in the amount of disposables used and waste incurred. A green and eco-friendly birthdays, on the other hand, can be just as much fun with way less damage to the planet. Here are some simple party planning tips and ideas on how to celebrate a green and earth-friendly birthday.

Go Green with Invitations

The invitations are the easiest to green. Instead of wasting paper on birthday invites, send e-invites or recycle paper to make your own invitations. A great, green idea for invites is to use seeded paper, that is traditionally used for green wedding favors.  Check out Evite for some great e-invitations for various birthday themes.

Eco-friendly Flatware and Cutlery

Instead of using disposable cutlery and plates, use reusable ones. Now, we don’t want to take out our fine china for chubby toddler hands and fingers, but we can still use our everyday cutlery and crockery, and cloth table linen. Kids won’t mind and you’ll be helping keep landfills a little less empty.

Serve Fresh Organic Food and Drink

Food that is not from a packet or a can is a great way to encourage kids to eat healthy and be green as well. Making kiddie foodstuff for birthdays does not have to be time-consuming or laborious. Sandwiches, cake, cookies and potato wedges or fries, freshly squeezed orange juice are all easy-to-make and can be healthy too. Even novelty cakes, such as a Tangled or a Bob the Builder can be made easily at home. Jessica Fisher, a busy mom of 6, shows you how to make wonderful fancy cakes for birthdays and other special occasions in her eBooks Pretty Cool Cakes and  More Cool Cakes.

Green and Eco-friendly Gift Ideas

If your birthday boy or girl is a toddler, chances are he or she would want gifts. Ideally, asking guests to bring a natural or green gift would be the best idea. You can also ask guests to bring a gently used toy or unwrapped new gifts. However, if that is not an option, try and keep away some of the toys after the party, to donate later to a toy bank or to a shelter.

Children, of all ages, can be encouraged to celebrate a birthday of giving back. Authors Lynn and Corey Colwell in their book Celebrate Green have a list of ideas that parents can use to celebrate a green birthday. These include taking children aged 2-4 years to a park along with their friends and planting a tree in honor of the birthday child as well as painting pots to beautify the park. Other ideas include visiting the farmer market and handing out fabric shopping bags, visiting a dog rescue organization and playing with dogs, head to the beach and help cleanup and lots of other ideas that cost nothing but give back a lot.

Earth-Friendly Party Decorations

Party decorations that are handmade, use recycled paper and materials can be just as beautiful and lovely as the ones that fill up aisles in stores and supermarkets. Green Party Goods has a range of eco-friendly and organic birthday party favors, keepsake boxes and decorations.

Celebrating a birthday can be a wonderful affair made even more special by taking small steps to save the planet and give back something. Green birthday parties can be just as much fun and with a little bit of imagination, you can have an enjoyable, eco-friendly birthday right at home.

Photo Credit: Abigail Batchelder