Kids birthdays have grown over the years into festivals of excess, from the balloons and wrapping paper, unwanted or un-needed gifts, "loot" bags and more. Our oldest shares his birthday with Earth Day and this year we were determined to make his birthday as green as possible.
We have foregone balloons and other birthday paraphernalia for quite a few years now and even when parties take us to somewhere away from home we bring reusable plates and cups, etc. A few years back I gave up the loot bag tradition and switched to a small bag of nice sweets for each child to take home. That way, the children get something, but it's a consumable and contains almost no waste. We've also done electronic invitations for many years.
The biggest change this year, however, came about thanks to a wonderful new organization called Echoage. This online business allows children to send out electronic invitations and to build their party online - which isn't new - but much better still, it allows guests to pay online for a gift that will be equally split between a charity (of the child's choosing) and the child. In this way, gifts to the birthday child support an important charitable effort and allow the child to put the financial gifts towards a special item that they want/need.
For many years I had taken every opportunity to guide parents on gifts that would be used (ie, "Thank you so much for asking about our son's interests. He inherited a lifetime's worth of Lego from a cousin a few years ago and so he really doesn't need any more! He's really into his bike and could use an x, y or z [small bike accessory]."). This wasn't a bad strategy, but the truth is, once children reach a certain age (which happens very quickly), they just don't need stacks of gifts on every birthday. Money towards one item that they have been saving for is much better for the planet, not to mention the battle against clutter at home.
When thinking about the stuff associated with birthdays, it's easy to feel that the accumulation of waste is minor in relation to your child and their handful of friends, but when you multiply that out to the millions of children having stuff-driven birthdays, suddenly that little Playmobil person that you bought for each child's loot bag looms monstrously. Cutting back in small ways really can make a big difference, and an organization like Echoage has made it incredibly easy to do that as well as to focus the giving on those in need while honouring the birthday child.
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