Believe it or not, the holiday season is upon us! This cheerful time of year gives us plenty of excuses to get together with friends and family to enjoy some laughs and create new memories. Unfortunately, holiday parties also tend to create a lot of waste, much of which will sit in a landfill for many years to come.
Here’s the good news: you can have an awesome holiday party and care for the planet with sustainable, compostable, and biodegradable party supplies. Let’s discuss how it all comes together!
How to Host a Sustainable Holiday Party
One of the easiest ways to cut down on waste at your next part is to swap out plastic or styrofoam dinnerware for compostable and biodegradable options. Plastic and styrofoam can take hundreds of years to break down in landfills, so you can make a huge difference just with this one swap!
Plus, there are tons of sustainable tableware options to suit whatever you’re serving. Check out Eco Bunny’s palm leaf bowls, plates, and platters to get started! You can even simplify things by getting a party pack.
Each holiday requires different decorations that add to the festive vibe. Many of the decorations you can find in stores are made of plastic and are meant to be thrown away after a single use. Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives that are much more eco-friendly.
If you’re purchasing decorations, be sure to choose options that you’ll want to save and use every year. Extending their use and not buying new is one sustainable way to decorate your party. You can also shop for decorations at thrift stores, both online and in-store. There are even online groups dedicated to giving away items that the current owner no longer uses, and people are always looking to give away holiday decor.
You may also opt for natural decorations. Fall holidays, like Halloween and Thanksgiving, lend themselves to rustic decorations like pumpkins, gourds, stalks of corn, and bails of hay. Don’t be afraid to get creative!
No party is complete without fun drinks, especially a themed drink! While you might be used to seeing drinks handed out in red plastic cups, you can easily swap those for biodegradable cups.
Eco Bunny’s agave cups are 100% biodegradable, as are the sugarcane cups in our party pack! You can even top off your drinks with edible straws as an added sweet treat for your party guests. The straws come in a variety of flavors, from mint blast to strawberry rose.
Most holiday parties include some sort of activity to break the ice and get everyone involved. Sometimes, these activities can be less than sustainable. For example, white elephant gift exchanges encourage gifting items that no one will use. Meanwhile, a game like pin the bone on the skeleton for Halloween can require a lot of single-use plastic.
We encourage you to get crafty with your games! Invite your guests to carve pumpkins with you, then have a plan for composting or cooking the pumpkins afterward. You can also do a DIY holiday sweater game - grab cheap sweaters from the thrift store, then have your guests decorate them with whatever paint, buttons, yarn, bows, and scrap decorations you likely have lying around. A DIY activity like this is always super memorable and sure to bring on some laughs!
At the end of the party, show your guests your appreciation by offering some eco-friendly party favors. While you might be tempted to hand out traditional goody bag items, there are better options available!
Here are a few easy ideas:
● Include a fun coffee mug from the thrift store
There you have it, all the makings for a totally sustainable, eco-friendly holiday party! No matter what holiday you’re celebrating, you’re sure to create fun-filled memories with your friends and family. And, who knows, you may even spark some exciting conversation about the eco-lifestyle when you pass out your compostable, biodegradable tableware or edible straws!
