Celebrate Earth Day with a Fun, Eco-Friendly Party!

Decorations

Decorations for your Earth Day Party should mimic the natural colors of the planet - no crazy neon shades for this party! Earth tones for the ground, blues for the ocean and greens for the grass and trees are the palette you'll want to duplicate in your decorations. Party goods and table covers should be made from reusable materials such as organic cotton tablecloths and your everyday glasses. Otherwise, use disposables made from recycled or natural organic substances that can be composted when your party is over.

String Be Green EcoGarland all around your party space both indoors and outside. EcoGarlands are made from a special paper that is created from stone, that requires no water, trees or bleach in their production and 50% less energy than traditional papers. Unlike plastic garlands, these won't sit in a dump site until the centennial celebration of Earth Day, but will decompose over time.

Create a green, living centerpiece on your party table using potted plants. Use potted herbs or ferns that you place down the center of your table, packed as closely as possible. Give them to your guests when they leave as party favors. Pop one per guest into an ECO Mini Drawstring Bag made from 100% organic cotton. Remind your guests to water and love their plants then they arrive home and that the bags can be reused for future gift giving.

Other Party Favor Ideas

Share your passion for conserving our planet by giving each family at your party a copy of Celebrate Green Book. Then they can learn how to put into practice the eco-friendly lifestyle that you cherish in your home.

Spread the love by sending each guest home with I Love Flowers Plantable Cards. Each card has ten hearts that contain an embedded wildflower seed that will grow once the hearts are planted.

Another plantable option is Plantable Earth Day Favors. Each plantable favor features a blue heart that contains seeds for a mix of wildflowers such as Bird's Eye, Clarkia, Black-Eyed Susan, Catchfly, Snap Dragon, English Daisy, and Sweet Alyssum. The card stock that contains these seeds is made from post consumer waste, so no trees were harmed in giving us these cheerful ambassadors of springtime.

Activities

Give the little ones at your party a set of Crazy Crayon Sticks made from 100% non-toxic, recycled materials. Suggest that they draw a picture of what they love the most about our planet.

Encourage your guests to start their own vegetable gardens with a planting activity at your party. Ask guests to bring a baking pan from home. Give each person a number of pre-soaked peat pods (that you've prepared before your party) to place inside their pan. Then offer a selection of vegetable seeds to plant in the pods, and make available copies of the directions for growing each type of seed.

If guests include friends from the neighborhood, organize a neighborhood clean-up as your party's main activity. Serve refreshments once everyone returns with their bags of cleaned-up trash.

If the weather doesn't cooperate for your party, host a screening of several episodes from the beautiful Discovery Channel series ;Planet Earth;

Create an Earth Day sculpture contest. Divide your party guests into teams. Give each team a pile of clean recyclables. Challenge each team to create their most creative sculpture using these materials and award prizes for different categories such as: most beautiful; most creative; most scary; most contemporary; most vintage; etc.

What to Serve

Honor the planet by serving food that is grown organically and comes from local farms to minimize the energy wasted in transporting ingredients from long distances. If serving chocolate or coffee at your party, be sure to buy from companies that offer fair-trade products which come from farms that preserve the environment in their growing practices, take care of their workers by paying living wages and providing safe working conditions, and care for their local communities.

Your buffet should include a selection of lighter dishes in keeping with lighter, springtime appetites. These might include: green salads; pasta salads with lots of fresh vegetables; bean salads as an alternative protein to meat; tofu hot dogs and veggie burgers to teach the children that there are alternatives to meat; bread from local bakeries; large pitchers of water - none of those landfill-clogging bottled waters should be served; iced tea, lemonade and other fruit juices, all made from natural ingredients.

Make dirt cups to celebrate the day. Fill cups with chocolate pudding and bury organic gummy worms in the cups. Crush chocolate cookies and sprinkle them over the top. Serve them in mini terracotta pots for added effect.

Serve an assortment of Love the Planet and Peace on Earth organic cookies. These delicious cookies come in designs that will highlight the theme of your party, with charming animals and peace signs planted on a symbolic globe. These delicious, organic sugar cookies come from a bakery that is USDA certified organic, nut-free, and that uses ingredients from sustainable farms that support living wages among their workers.