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Eco-friendlier & Healthier Kids Party Ideas – Including Eco Party Favours

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Eco-friendlier and Healthier Kids Party IdeasEco-friendlier and Healthier Kids Party Ideas

I have written this article to supply my fellow Eco-warriors with a plethora of Eco-friendlier and healthier kids party ideas.

It will still be great fun and the kids will be none the wiser.

Traditionally children’s parties are often overflowing with unhealthy, artificially coloured & flavoured food, mountains of plastic plates, cups and food wrappers.  See – Why Artificial Additives And Preservatives In Food Are Causing Us Serious Harm. Learn How To Avoid Them.

Then there are those ever popular party favours, which generally range from, lolly bags, cheap PVC plastic toys,  cheap bubble mixtures, or even flavoured, glittery lip-glosses and body tattoo stickers!  See my article – Toxic PVC In Plastic Toys & How To Avoid Them

All this wouldn’t be such an unhealthy outing for your children, (the environment impact of parties is a whole other issue) if parties were an occasional event, but nowadays doesn’t it seem that young kids have parties to attend, almost every weekend and sometimes even multiple parties on the one day!

Below have listed some of my tried and true, great ideas to tip the party scales a little more in the healthy, eco-friendly direction.
Note: is important to take into account that healthier and less processed party food is  better for children with food allergies and intolerance’s, which unfortunately seems very prevalent these days, could diet be something to do with it??

 Healthy & Eco Party Ideas 🙂

Eco Party Decorations & Invites
  • Be eco-friendly and design your kids invitation online and email it, rather that posting it. To avoid your children ending up with a whole lot of pvc presents you can even write a line on the bottom of the invite simply saying. PLEASE NO PVC PLASTIC GIFTS. We have done this for years on our invites. If you prefer to buy invites then Earth Greetings have some great eco-invitation pads, our fav. are the ‘dirtgirlworld’ ones.
  • Have some fun with your kids and make your own birthday banner from some eco-friendly paper, or alternatively purchase one of those foil birthday banners that can be used over and over again.
  • If you buy balloons, look for the biodegradable latex ones. Eco Tip – from an eco-friendly point of view, avoid helium balloons because although they look great, they often end up flying away and can end up getting in the waterways and drifting out to sea, where much like plastic bags, sea creatures mistake them for food and ingest them and die of internal suffocation.
  • Paper Chains are great fun to make with your kids, see our simple paper-mache, glue recipe for making paper chains here. Try and opt for recycled paper, or save wrapping paper from previous gifts and use this for a colourful, patterned alternative.

Healthier Kids Party Food

The ‘key’ is to think like a kid.  Kids are visual beings and if food looks appealing then they are more likely to try it.  If you would like to have sweet treats then opt to use natural coloured & flavoured options, or even make your own using organic ingredients e.g flour, sugar, organic vanilla essence, natural colouring, organic chocolate etc. These ingredients nowadays are very affordable and available from most major supermarkets. Avoid pre-packaged food snacks like cheese shapes, flavoured yoghurt’s, freddo frogs, twisties and conventional lollies.
Try to forego the novelty plates and cups as they are really not very eco-friendly. A great idea is to give each kid there own party food box. You can get some great eco-friendly ones from Going Green Solutions. Write the kids name on each box, this personalizes it and young kids love seeing their name on things. Alternatively use eco-friendly paper plates, cups and cutlery, which can also be found at Going Green Solutions, or in some supermarkets they stock the BioWare disposable catering products.

Healthy Kids Party Food Ideas and Recipe

– I recommend to always use organic produce where possible.

  • FRUIT KEBABS – use kid enticing fruits such as grapes, strawberries, rock-melon and cantaloupe. Alternatively make a super colourful fruit platter, be creative and make a face, or some object like a flower out of the fruit.
  • CHOC DIPPED STRAWBERRIES – this is simple to do and can be done inexpensively. First wash the strawberries thoroughly and cut out the stems.  Now melt some dark, organic choc – Aldi Supermarkets have a delicious and cheap, Fairtrade Organic Dark Chocolate.  To make, simply break chocolate up into a glass, or stainless steel bowl and sit this bowl in a saucepan of kettle boiled water, till chocolate melts, then dip half the strawberry into it and let set them set on a tray in the fridge.
  • FUN SHAPED SANDWICHES – first make healthy sandwiches on spelt, or organic wholemeal bread. Fill sandwiches using organic honey, or organic chocolate spread, Pure Harvest makes a delicious one.  Now get some stainless cookie cutters in whatever shapes you like and press them into the made sandwich and remove cut out shape and display on a platter, or pop  a few into the individual party boxes.
  • NATURALLY COLOURED FAIRY BREAD – can be made using natural sprinkles rather than the brightly coloured artificial ones. Check out the Hopper range.   Note- If you are animal friendly, which we of course we hope you are. Steer clear of the following cruelly obtained, natural colourants and ingredients- Carmine & Cochineal which is the result of crushing the Cochineal Beetle. Shellac and Gelatin is also from animals.
  • CUPCAKES, MUFFINS, GINGERBREAD MEN & COOKIES –  make your own baked goods, ensure you know what ingredients are in them. If you are not a baker, see if you can enlist a friend, or family member who is and provide her/him with all the organic and natural ingredients needed. Favourites are banana mini muffins, anzac biscuits and gingerbread men.  Also see links under birthday cake below, for how to decorate your cookies and muffins naturally.
  • HEALTHY CHOCOLATE CRACKLES – can be made using organic cocoa powder and organic rice puffs and virgin coconut oil.
  • HONEY JOYS – use organic corn flakes, Pure Harvest Organic Rice Syrup and raw coconut oil.
  • CHIPS & POPCORN – pick the organic potato chips and corn chips and make your own organic popcorn ( raw kernels available from health food and organic stores). Season your popcorn with Himalayan Salt and use melted raw coconut oil instead of butter.  You can also sprinkle cinnamon powder over popcorn for a sweeter version.
  • CHOC FOUNTAIN if you have a chocolate fountain machine, or hire one, again use vegan, dark organic, fairtrade chocolate e.g ALDI make a great one. Put fresh fruit on kid safe sticks; e.g lollipop or icy-pole sticks and have them dip away!
  • Water As The Party Drink Of Choice –  You can make it look pretty by putting whole strawberries and other fruit inside the jug.  Make sure the cups you use a recyclable, or washable and reusable. Avoid any plastic cups with the no.3 symbol on them, as these are PVC and are not healthy, nor recyclable.

 

eco kids party favour ideasEco – Friendlier Party Favours.

It is tradition and expected, (at least by the kids) to get something when leaving a party.  Here are some eco-friendlier and more natural party favour ideas.

Kids Home-Made Party Masks

Using FSC or recycled paper and polypropylene drinking straws, that can be recycles or wooden icypole sticks, make fun face masks for the kids to take home.

Colouring Sheets With A Latex Balloon

Print out one for each child on 100% recycled paper, roll it up and tie it  to a latex balloon , using some hemp/cotton string . Note – many balloons are made out of different materials  and no longer latex . These newer balloon are not biodegradable.

Eco Party Bags

If you like the idea of giving a party bag, then choose a brown paper craft bag, the ones with the handles, available from most party and catering stores, as at least these can be recycled. We draw a smiley face on our bags along with the line ‘please recycle or re-use me’.  Better options to fill party bags with are – little boxes of organic sultanas, popcorn, fruit bars or fruit squeezies- Whole Kids make a great range that is suitable for kids with allergies, organic Lollipops, the above colouring sheet, a latex balloon and/ or a couple coloured O’Bon pencils,.

Healthier Party Lolly Bag Options

If you choose to go the lolly route then opt for things like, making your own gingerbread men or biscuits in fun shapes and decorate with fondant. For lollies that are organic and vegan try, Artisse Organic Lollipops, Organic Times makes the cutest boxes of mini organic smarties called Gems and are a great child pleaser. Eco-Vital make vegan organic soft lolly snakes, gummy bears etc and Surf Sweets have some vegan lollies in their range e.g their Jelly Beans. If you go to the supermarket lolly isle then the best we can come up with is some Organic Chocolate and Lollies that are free from all things artificial, gelatin and cochineal/carmine.

SOME ECO PARTY ENTERTAINMENT DO’s & DON’T

Entertainers that use animals should be avoided, as the animals are really not treated humanely and shouldn’t be used for entertainment.

Face-painting is usually not great, as the products used are full of chemicals, but Livos do make a safe face paint that you could get your party entertainer to use instead of their own paints, though you will have to forgo the glitter and sparkles.

You could also use pure mineral eye shadow mixed with a little water or natural moisturizer as face paints.  Note – when shimmery mineral coloured eye-shadows are wet they become a bright, metallic, paint.  Do not get water into the pot of loose minerals, tip it out onto a plate or palette and mix with a tiny bit of water to make a paste. It dries fast, much like using water paints.

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More articles of interest-

How To Live A Cruelty Free Lifestyle Checklist

Raising Eco Minded Children In A Materialistic Society.

Toxic PVC Toys How To Avoid Them

Back To School The PVC Free Way

Vegetarian Children The Facts – It’s Healthy & Safe!

Artificial Additives And Preservatives In Food Causing Us Serious Harm

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