Cause: Homeless Animals
CHECK OUT:
INSTEAD OF A GIFT:
Ask party guests to bring one item that can be donated to the animal shelter. Provide guests with a list of the shelter’s current needs to choose from when you send out invitations.
ACTIVITIES AND IDEAS:
- For older kids, reserve a guided tour of an animal shelter. Call to check on any rules and restrictions that may apply. Many tours are free, and some ask for a small fee or donated items as payment.
- Set up a pretend vet’s office or animal adoption center in your home using stuffed animals, cardboard boxes, bandages, toy doctor kit items and other items from around the house. Let little ones pretend and play.
- Create an animal scavenger hunt around the house, or outside, using inexpensive small plastic animals or a few tiny stuffed ones. Guests can keep the animals they collect as party favors.
- Devise a Mystery of the Missing Pet game by hiding a stuffed cat, dog or rabbit somewhere and creating a series of clues that guests must follow and unravel in order to find the animal.
SNACKS:
Serve crunchy carrots, assorted cereals or “Puppy Chow” snack mix, made with Chex cereal, in dollar-store pet food bowls. Decorate a cake with clean toy animals or share paw print cookies.
PARTY FAVORS:
Give guests a small stuffed animal with “licenses” that read, “thank you for coming,” a dog-license style key chain with each child’s name or paw-print rubber stamps or stickers.
Cause: Clean Water for Africa
CHECK OUT:
INSTEAD OF A GIFT:
Bring loose change to help build clean water wells in Africa. On the invitation, let guests know that about 320 million people do not have access to clean water in Africa. When they arrive, have everyone deposit their loose change in a large, clear water container. Parents can help count it up and announce the total.
ACTIVITIES AND IDEAS:
- Tell guests to bring bathing suits for unstructured sprinkler, water slide, water table or water balloon play time.
- Research and set up water related science experiments.
- Hold a swim party at a local recreation center. Don’t forget to bring the change collecting container, maybe other swimmers will add some change, too.
- Gather African safari clothing, hats, animal masks and other items. Have guests dress up and pose in a do-it-yourself photo booth.
SNACKS:
Serve flavored water, watermelon snacks, popsicles and animal print cupcakes.
PARTY FAVORS:
Thank guests with reusable water bottles (personalized), dive rings, bath toys or squirting water toys.
Cause: Pajamas for Kids
CHECK OUT:
local women’s shelters
foster care organizations
hospitals (ask about specific requirements and needs)
INSTEAD OF A GIFT:
Have each child bring a new pair of pajamas to donate to a charitable organization.
ACTIVITIES AND IDEAS:
- Host a sleepover. Tell each guest to show up in pajamas.
- Gather old oversized T-shirts, pajamas and socks and put them in piles. Divide guests into even-numbered teams. Have a relay race in which each team member must put on all the items, run a distance, take them off and run back to tag the next team member to do the same.
- Supply a white pillowcase for guests to sign with permanent fabric markers for the birthday child, or give a pillowcase to each guest that everyone can decorate and take home.
- If your child isn’t the sleepover type, host an almost-sleepover in the evening. Serve breakfast foods for dinner and tell guests to come in pajamas. Watch a movie, dance to kids’ music videos and send them home by 9 p.m.
SNACKS:
Assemble a pancake or waffle bar with a variety of syrups, fruits and toppings, and bacon. In place of a cake, stick candles in a stack of special donuts.
PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:
Treat guests to Teddy bear-shaped sugar cookies, mini cereal boxes, sleepover-themed Mad Libs, flashlights or bedtime-themed books.
“STAND” FOR ANY CAUSE
Perhaps your family knows of a nonprofit you wish to support already. Make a “stand” for a cause and donate all the money you make to that organization. Birthday party activities can include decorating the stand, making advertising posters, preparing items to sell (cupcakes, lemonade, garden vegetables, handmade bracelets) and working at the stand. Guests can bring items to sell at the stand. Post a message on social media, such as, “Wish Sarah a happy birthday and support the women’s shelter!” and watch your friends and neighbors flock to support a great cause.
Cause: Children’s Literacy
CHECK OUT:
local libraries
doctors’ offices
preschools (ask about specific requirements and needs)
INSTEAD OF A GIFT:
Have each guest bring a new or used book to donate to a charitable organization. (Some organizations only accept new books.)
ACTIVITIES AND IDEAS:
- Host a book exchange. Have each child bring a favorite wrapped, used book. Guests sit in a circle and the first chooses a book to open. The second child can either “steal” the book that has already been unwrapped or open the next book. The next child does the same, until all children have a book to keep. Set a limit on the number of times a book can change hands.
- Make a list of trivia questions from popular children’s books and set up a Jeopardy-style game show.
- Decorate small gift boxes with pages of old books and decoupage glue. (Search “book crafts” on pinterest.com for tons of other repurposed book crafts.)
- Turn a birthday party into a book club. Send out invitations a month in advance and choose a book that all kids can read by the time the party arrives. At the party, watch the movie version of the book or conduct a book discussion.
- Ask guests to dress up as their favorite book character for the party and try to guess who everyone is.
SNACKS:
Serve gummy worms (bookworms), miniature chocolate candy bars (wrap the outside in cardstock and decorate with kids’ names to look like tiny books), alphabet cereal or cookies.
PARTY FAVORS:
Give guests inexpensive paperback books, blank journals, packs of pens or markers, personalized bookmarks or alphabet or word magnets.
Cause: Support The Troops
CHECK OUT:
facebook.com/cosupportingourtroops
INSTEAD OF A GIFT:
Have guests bring items that could be used in care packages for deployed military. Include a list of preferred items from the care package organization in the invitation.
ACTIVITIES AND IDEAS:
- Provide a variety of markers and craft supplies for kids to write letters and draw pictures for the troops (consult the organization for tips on letter writing).
- Set up an obstacle course in your back yard. Have a “drill sergeant” lead “troops” through a series of physical challenges.
- Divide kids into teams for a boot-camp style relay race, in which kids are asked to run through tires, army crawl, etc.
- Sort and pack care packages as a group. Consult the organization to which you are donating for mailing/packing requirements.
SNACKS:
Serve large rectangular sugar cookie frosted with cream cheese and topped with blueberries and strawberries to create an American flag. Marble green and chocolate frosting on a cake or cupcake to create a camouflage design.
PARTY FAVORS:
Thank guests with compasses, small American flags, toy military vehicles, whistles, military-style lunch boxes or Beanie Babies (Beanie Babies are often given to troops as symbolic support, and troops also give them to kids in war zones.)
Lydia Rueger is a mother and writer, a Girl Scout leader and public school volunteer.
