Green Celebrations

BACKGROUND ON THE ISSUE

Having a baby and raising children provides ample reasons to celebrate. From the baby shower to the birthday parties, from religious holidays to school graduations, the stuff begins to roll in faster than even the most eco-conscious parent can keep up with.

It starts simple. The baby shower. It’s like a bridal shower—hard to turn your back on all of that free STUFF!  Yet, I’ve spoken to few people that didn’t end up with at least one (sometimes two) baby wipe warmers from such affairs.  It’s starts with the baby wipe warmer, which perfectly exemplifies the item most parents would never buy for themselves, but all of the sudden looks good when perusing the isles of Babies“R”Us trying to find a gift for a baby shower. Once you have a baby wipe warmer there is a lot more pressure to head, mindlessly, towards filling it with disposable baby wipes.

Birthday parties are no different.  People want to gift children and it is hard to tell them “no.” And as children get older, it becomes impossible to deny them gifts.

So, what is an eco-conscious parent to do?

A FEW THINGS WE’VE TRIED IN OUR HOUSEHOLD WITH SUCCESS:

• “Prayer” flags.  Much of our family and many of our friends live elsewhere.  We wanted to include these people, though, in our excitement in welcoming our baby. We liked the idea of the Tibetan prayer flag, something beautiful, yet simple, that could symbolically hold the many good intentions and thoughts for our child. We sewed a couple of dozen simple, triangular “flags” from pretty materials and sent them with pre-addressed and stamped envelopes to our friends and family and asked them to bless them, stuff them with notes, or decorate them.  The flags now hangs from our baby’s ceiling as a beautiful reminder of all those who care for her.
• Baby-warming party. We held a baby-warming party before we had our child for friends that were nearby and we asked them to bring something hand-made or handed down (something that they had loved as a child or that had made their lives as parents easier). We got everything from a friend’s favorite childhood book (with the inscription from her Grandpa still in it) to a hand-made cradle that had held two babies before.  We also got someone’s slightly used Bundle-Me (a great invention) and a hand-knit baby doll.
• The first birthday party.  Two friends introduced us to the idea of volunteering on birthdays instead of being part of the mad rush that heads out on Thanksgiving or Christmas.  We loved the idea of making service fun!  For our baby’s first birthday we held a party at a local charity where friends re-did a free store, organized a lending library, and fixed the charity’s donated bikes.  All of this while their kids played watched by other volunteers, birthday music filled the halls, and delicious organic cupcakes kept everyone in good spirits. It was fun and everyone felt good afterwards. Instead of gifts, people brought donated items for the charity.

THE GOAL

When celebrating you can either simply “green-up” a typical party or you can totally rethink the party to meet your personal and environmental needs.

• Create celebrations that aren’t focused around gift-giving, but rather on doing a creative project together, volunteering for a cause that is important to the family, or is based on food.
• PARTY IDEAS
  • Make necklaces or jewelry together and have everyone bring beads
  • Make a cardboard castle and have everyone bring an outrageous piece of clothing for costumes
  • Throw a garden party and have participants bring seeds and gardening tools
  • Bake cupcakes and have everyone bring candy to decorate the cakes
  • Have a party at a food bank and have participants volunteer and bring canned goods.Volunteer to clean up your local park and make it a party. Collect donations for a mural or a new path.
• Use your celebration as an opportunity to introduce your family and friends to the values you want your possessions to represent. Ask to be gifted only by hand-made gifts or hand-me-downs that were meaningful or useful to the giver.  Or, ask for toys that represent your family’s values and give your invitees ideas of where to find them.

REAL WORLD OPTIONS

• Register with companies that provide ONLY those products that you want to support. Resist the temptation to register for “just a few things” at places like Babysies“R”Us.  Once you send someone into that store, they are more likely to walk out with something from there, even if it isn’t what you want.  Also, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to turn your family and friends onto all of the cool wooden toy companies, cloth diapering websites, and organic baby clothing stores that you want them to go to in the future when gifting you.

• Ask to be gifted with services, e.g. a diaper service or a visit from a doula, a house-cleaner, or baby-sitting time or with coupons for play-dates or a dinner made for you.

• Consider opening gifts after the party as a family.  Linger over each gift and discuss what the child likes about the new item and what he or she hopes to do with it.  Write the thank you note then, before moving on to the next item.

• Buy carbon credits to help reduce the impact of your party. Find out more at www.carbonfund.org or the delta-institute.org.

• When you get those gifts that you just wish you hadn’t, consider donating them or reselling them on eBay or at Once Upon a Child.  Then use the money to invest in a greener item or to donate to a good cause.