Birthday celebrations are the perfect opportunity to have a positive impact on your child’s self-esteem, as they provide an opportunity for your child to feel special and loved by family and friends. Celebrating a child’s achievements and milestones can help build their confidence, foster a sense of belonging, encourage connection, and make them feel proud to be celebrated for who they are.
When planning my children’s celebrations, I try to prioritize sustainability, mindfulness, and community. I try to do so by thinking out of the box and creating an experience where both kids and adults enjoy themselves to the fullest. I normally work with my friend, Marcela, founder of @partygiftsolutions to materialize all my ideas.
Here are some quick tips for hosting your next birthday party:
- Use eco-friendly decorations: Use decorations that can be reused or recycled, such as paper lanterns and paper banners. Stay away from single-use plastics and balloons, which are detrimental to the environment.
- Serve sustainable food and drinks: My parties are an extension of me, and I see them as an opportunity to spread my lifestyle with my guests. I always offer organic, healthy food and drink options. For Shiva’s party we created a “make your own bowl” station with ingredients like quinoa, salmon and vegetables as toppings. The cake and cupcakes were vegan and gluten-free by @bettersweetveganbakery, and I swapped the traditional ice cream for fruit popsicles by @lollifruit. We try to stay away from soft drinks, processed foods and from overloading the kids with sugar.
- Use eco-friendly flatware: It’s 2023 and we have infinite alternatives to plastic that are biodegradable and compostable. My go-to are bamboo plates and cutlery.
- Give sustainable party favors: Choose party favors that are eco-friendly, like reusable water bottles or cloth tote bags. For Shiva’s birthday party, we chose baseball hats, pouches and sunglasses. Each kid got to choose what they wanted and went home with one party favor instead of a bag filled with random little things that normally end up in the trash.
- Use online invitations: Send digital invitations instead of paper invitations to reduce paper waste.
By being mindful of your events, you can set an example for your kids, friends, and family who will get inspired by how thoughtfully you celebrated a special day.
With love always,Gigi
