We had a fifth birthday in our home this week...and along with the disbelief that our baby is 1825 days old comes the yearly disbelief of how much birthday aftermaths seem to be most commonly associated with garbage...
Despite our more-than-annual request for either no gifts or options of "experiences" (take her to the museum, the park, a picnic!) or re-furbished presents from secondhand stores (or their own basements) streams of toys made in China that break the next day rapidly flow...
Birthday cards abound and we drown in non-recyclable wrapping paper...
What about a gift bag; at the very least they, along with the tissue paper, can be re-used?
Or newsprint?
Magazines?
Scrap paper on which you've painted?
A t-shirt? A scarf? A clean sock?
An old map?
A piece of fabric?
A no-longer-needed pillowcase whose partner bedsheets have frayed and ripped and subsequently found a new home as rags?
On the actual day of our daughter's birthday she had a few friends over for a very casual "playdate". One outright asked, "what's in the bag we get to take home?" "Nothing," I promptly replied, and then said something I probably shouldn't have to five year olds: "Since we think they're a waste of money and people don't really need to take home all those dollar store goodies, we choose not to give any out."
Where did the whole idea of loot bags come from, anyways? I have to admit it was a very creative marketing idea in promoting even greater consumerism...
It's rarely difficult to tell where I stand on matters, now, is it? What I really desire is not merely to whine but rather to offer alternatives...perhaps striving to present the flipside, a postulation so different that even momentarily someone might think, "hey...there IS another way to do this, think of this, live this..."
How could we as North Americans, as individuals passionate about our earth, our eco-green-ness, our rapidly-emptying pocketbooks, our just-as-rapidly emptying values and just-as-rapidly increasing greed, make changes to mirror our beliefs?
How can we "do birthdays" differently?
Gillian Deacon, in her book Green For Life 200 Simple Eco-Ideas for Every Day, asks "Is it just me, or have you noticed that kids' birthday parties are taking on an insane level of fuss and indulgence?...At what point did the child's birthday party become and exercise in keeping up with the Jones and overconsumption?" (p.189)
Her suggestions?
Invitations Avoid store-bought ones and create your own, or better yet, email
Decorations One banner and/or tablecloth can be re-used many, many times for all members of the family; avoid paper plates, etc and wash wash wash...
Cakes Maker your own: homemade can be a part of the tradition ("they get to choose the design and lick the beaters!")
Candles Light them with matchsticks and not disposable lighters
Gifts Check out Patrick McDonnell's The Gift of Nothing; use the birthday as a learning opportunity to re-route those greedy little consumerists to more charitable acts (cans for the local food drive for example?)
Loot Bags If you absolutely insist on giving something to those attending why not homemade cookies? A packet of seeds and a trowel? Old books that no one in the house is reading any longer? A custom-made CD of the birthday child's favourite songs?
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones." John Cage
Why? Well, why not? Isn't diversion of landfill "crap" that lead to, in purely simple terms, a much prettier earth, a much happier birthday gift to us all anyways?
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