Planning a child’s birthday party can be an absolute nightmare, especially when you’re trying your best to:
1. Ensure the child isn’t humiliated by the party/your efforts (i.e.: not a bore, not ‘too cheap’, etc)
2. Contain the impact the celebration will have on your pocket
3. Reduce the impact the party will leave on the environment
4. Remain calm and composed
Honestly it isn’t easy because all 4 seem to contradict each others’ existence. Usually great parties involves lots of fun filled events and these are either going to be expensive or invasive on the environment’s health. Sometimes it’s even both! But if you think that means a party with an eco-conscience can’t be fun then you are wrong because it can be just as great if not better; only problem is you need to crack your head a bit (a lot) more or take the easy way out and hire a professional eco party planner which spells ‘burn a hole in your pocket’.
Well honestly I don’t have the solution to all your party problems, but I just wanted to turn the spotlight on a ‘resident’ event at most children’s party – the piñata. Personally not a big fan because it always looks so violent but kids love them for the excitement, colours and of course sinful fillings of candies and toys.
But when the laughter has died down, you ought to realize that conventional store bought piñatas aren’t really that ‘enjoyable’. They are expensive and end up quite the waste to the environment. Not to mention the ill effects the fills will have in store for your children.
So here’s what you can do to keep the piñata as an event on your games list. You make your own. Don’t worry you won’t have to do much and it won’t involve a balloon because frankly I’m terrified of them popping on me so working with balloons is a no no. You will need:
- A large brown paper bag, you can recycle one that you got from your shopping trips.
- A small batch of starch that you can whip up in your kitchen
- Food dye/tint/colouring (I’m assuming you have organic ones in your kitchen but use what you have)
- Old news paper or magazines pages that you can cut into both strips or punch into shapes
- Cardboard or thick card that you may have lying around (from old greeting cards)
I suppose you can guess how this is all going to come together, but the usual paper-bag piñata doesn’t involve starch. I opt for starch to give the bag a bit more crunch making it more fun for the kids to hit at.
So briefly, open the bag up properly because once you starch it there’s no going back. Apply starch modestly about ¾ up the entire bag (don’t forget the bottom. If you are diligent, you may paper-mache it for more effect but it’s not an obligation. Then it’s a matter of decorating the bag creatively with scraps and colour that you have before filling in the goodies, the paper fillers and folding the bag down and sealing it with a few staples.
It’s really not rocket science, and I wouldn’t worry too much if your piñata bag didn’t end up looking like a unicorn because to kids what matters most about a piñata is what’s inside it. The only main points I want to highlight here is how I only put candy and paper fillers into the piñata. Like I mentioned before, the piñata is a violent game and you really risk having broken goodies come out from them. Thus instead I would make tokens out of the thick cards and put them inside. After the piñata is broken, the kiddies can pick up the candies and token to exchange for an unbroken toy.
And there you have a piñata that is sensitive to the environment, your child’s ego and your wallet! Go here to read about the history of piñatas, it’s quite interesting…
