Gazette Column 23rd April

It fills me with dread when Alexander comes home from a party with yet another small plastic party bag full of coloured tat and a gazillion E numbers that invariably gets lost in the car before we even get into the house. A small plastic car that falls apart the minute he races it in our hallway. A little ball on a length of elastic with a ring through the top that breaks on the first bounce. Those plasticky games where you have to line the silver balls up in the holes that invariably Alex manages to dislodge the thin cardboard backing before he even manages to line anything up. Sound familiar?

Well I’ve found a wonderful eco alternative to all that plastic ‘tat’. www.littlecherry.co.uk are based in Windsor and offer the most brilliant party bags I’ve seen in a long time. The party bag itself is a handy cotton drawstring bag made out of fun fabric that you will definitely use again, whether it’s storing hair clips in for girls or Match Attax cards in, in Alex’s case!

Each bag is filled with lovely gifts that are wooden (sustainable) or recycled: cute wooden pencils with fun toppers, sweet colourful wooden cars and the girls bag with a wooden necklace, hair slides and fairy pencil is a real hit. The recycled notepad with the message on the front “Thank you for coming to my party!” is a lovely idea. A lot of thought has gone into Little Cherry Eco Friendly Children’s Parties (01753 857003) – as well as making brilliant party bags that start from just £3 you can be sure that the items are friendly to the planet, traded fairly and biodegradeable.

I like to support small businesses such as Little Cherry, run by mums who see a gap in the market and go for it. ‘Mumtrepeneurs’ are on the increase and it’s great to see Hillingdon Council and Brunel University encouraging them with another one of their great Enterprising Women free support courses running again. There’s a taster session on 23rd April and the six week intensive programme (designed to fit in with school hours, one day a week) commences on 6th May. Call Pauline on 01895 267057 or email pauline.seston@brunel.ac.uk to register or find out more.

Party Bag Tips

Use a supplier such as www.littlecherry.co.uk to do the hard work for you! But if you want to do it yourself then check out the following tips.
Rather than a party bag, think about giving a ‘going-home’ gift. Buying one useful item can often work out cheaper in the long run than scouring the shops for lots of little things.
Think about the season, if it’s Easter give an Easter Egg instead of a party bag, for summer parties a bucket and spade or a football or a kids mug can work at any time of year.
Work out in advance how many children will be coming to the party and keep your eyes peeled in the sales for a bargain year-round. Just remember to put them somewhere you will find them! The pound shop in The Mall Pavilions, Uxbridge is a good place to look too.
Mums will thank you if you buck the trend and don’t include sweets in a party bag! The chances are their off-spring will have consumed enough sweet things at the party and if your house is anything like mine, trying to get them to save the sweets for another day often ends in a battle of wills.
 

Cathy Ranson |Sunshine Magazine