Eco parties in lockdown
My daughters both had birthdays in January, within a week of one another.
My eldest, at 4, was desperate for a birthday party but it was the beginning of lockdown #2. I’m not usually especially sentimental, however, having already cancelled all our Christmas plans, I couldn’t bear for her to be disappointed again. There are only so many times you can say “when the germs are gone…”
So we set out some rules and worked out what on earth we could do:
No other people allowed in the house / garden
No plastic tat
No longer than one evening to plan (who the hell has time to arrange smiley faces out of food or fully theme the house?)
And though it was hardly the social affair of the century the two of them had a wonderful time - which is everything. Since then, lots of her little friends have had parties too so here are my 6 top tips for how to throw a sustainable children’s birthday party during lockdown.
Party games aren’t just for kids
Little kids don’t really care who’s playing with them, as long as they’re playing! Pass the parcel with mum and dad is actually a bit of a novelty and it’s amazing how much fun musical chairs can be with just a few of you. Put your phone away and be prepared to get stuck in...channel your inner 4 year old and you may just have a wonderful time too!
A cake is everything
Honestly, I’ve never seen such an excited face as when we brought out the unicorn cake complete with coloured candles, pink sponge, and smarties on the inside. If we’d done nothing else I think the cake might have been enough. Ours was made by the incredibly talented Mrs P’s Pops, and was extremely reasonable considering the love which had gone into it - plus it’s so lovely to support a small business during lockdown. But I think the subtlety of design was probably lost on Rosa...Asda would do just as well for her and most kids!
Find a way to involve friends and family
We had our party in the front garden. Our neighbours must have thought we were mad but the lovely side effect was that her little friends could walk past on their Sunday jaunt out of the house, say Happy Birthday over the wall, drop off presents, and pick up cake and a party bag. It was such a treat for them to see each other, and just lifted things a bit nearer to normality.
And of course grandparents were there for the candle blowing via Facetime. It’s too easy to let these little milestones slip by in lockdown but it’s important to hold onto what we can.
Have a change of scene
Probably the biggest reason for holding a kids party in the front garden in the middle of a freezing January was to make it feel a bit special. The house comes with the distraction of toys, telly, etc. Plus they spend 80% of their lives in those four walls at the moment. So we layered up with thermals, popped an Elsa dress over the top, and were transported, temporarily to a whole new world.
Decorate like there were 100 guests
Decorations should be for the birthday girls/boys and nobody else, so why scrimp just because there aren’t any guests? We have a stock of paper decorations, and two big plastic table cloths, which we’ve been reusing for the past 3 years - they looked fab strung around the house and on trees. But decorating a garden is slightly bigger job so, at the last minute, I did have to cheat and buy some balloons. Environmentally pretty awful so I’ll plan ahead better next year and get hold of some bigger paper pom-poms like these instead (Tip: get the honeycomb ones as they can be easily folded up and reused). We also bought foil balloons for impact...if treated as single use these are also a no-no but they’re currently slowly deflating in our garage so we can hopefully use them again next year.
Hire an entertainer
We didn’t get organised enough for this but a friend of ours booked an online entertainer (@dantasticproductions - pictured) and had a zoom party for her daughter which our kids adored! It was amazing to see them have so much fun despite being miles away from all their little friends. I’d 100% recommend this, although as it was quite short (about 45mins) it’s worth doing it alongside all of the other bits to make a proper occasion of it.
Party Bags
My biggest pet hate is buying stuff for the sake of it. So party bags make my skin crawl. BUT they’re such a big part of the magic of a birthday party so I’ve spent the past 3 years perfecting how to minimise the crap.
Firstly steer clear, at all costs, of buying those cheap and nasty party bag toys. They rarely work, are always plastic, and will be played with for all of about 1 minute. #straighttolandfill
Secondly, think outside the box...last year we bought kiddy-mugs from Flying Tiger, with the guests’ initials on the side and filled them with sweets and a piece of cake wrapped in a napkin. The mugs were only about £3 each, but they’re gorgeous, and we still use ours all the time. If you can’t find a mug equivalent, try paper party bags like these instead.
Finally, edible treats, particularly home-baked biscuits, are far lower in impact than toys. Alternatively get something useful like hair clips, colouring pencils, or a pencil with the child’s name on and a rubber.
Remember...it’s the experience of receiving one, not the contents, which kids get so excited about.
Hope this has been helpful. Happy Birthday everyone!
