New Year’s Eve Decor Inspiration

I’m just going to start this blog post off with two things. One - yes, I know Christmas hasn’t even passed yet, but it’s less than two weeks until New Years Eve, so we gotta start thinking about it! And two - I’m just going to be super transparent here – I definitely do not decorate for New Years Eve - It’s the one holiday that I don’t really decorate for. I leave my Christmas decor up until early January, but that’s about it. I’m also kind of lame when it comes to my New Year's Eve plans. I pretty much just hang out on the couch with my boyfriend, watch the programs that are on for the New Year’s countdown, pop some mini bottles of champagne for us at midnight & then call it a night pretty much by 12:01am. When I say I’m lame, I really mean it. Now, this all being said, if I did decorate for New Years, this is absolutely the party material I’d be using!

I was so inspired by Jillian Harris’ commitment to cutting back on wasteful products this year, and the thing that particularly struck a chord with me was that she replaced (most) of the balloons at her kid’s birthday parties this year (check out her blog post Leo’s birthday here, and Annie’s here) with reusable paper honeycomb balls & fans from Oh Happy Day. Honestly, if you ask me, the look of these paper “balloons” looks so much better than just a bunch of rubber balloons floating around everywhere. As I’m sure you may know by now, I’m currently trying to find ways to reduce wasteful products in my life as well, and of course I’m always looking to inspire others to do the same, so I put together a list of some amazing reusable & compostable items for you to include in your New Years party (if you’re throwing one, haha)

New Year’s Decor

Everything that I’ve included in the photo above is completely reusable and/or compostable! No plastic here folks. Like I mentioned above, I’m definitely not throwing any New Years parties this year, but if I was here, these are all of the items I’d definitely be investing in for my decor. Besides the obvious eco-friendly factor of buying reusable & compostable items for your parties, there’s also the financial bonus. A lot of these items like the tablecloth, table runner, honeycomb balls, fans, cake plate, garlands & candles can all be reused year after year. So yes, of course this stuff is definitely going to be a little more up front cash, but in the long run, you’ll have beautiful, eco-friendly decor to use year after year, so overall you are spending less in the long run!

The items that definitely aren’t reusable like napkins, plates, straws and cups are all made of paper, so they are something that can be thrown into your recycling bin or compost and you don’t have to feel guilty throwing them in the garbage knowing you’ve contributed to a garbage pile all for one night of fun ringing in the new year (and probably some great Instagram photos). As far as the party horns go, you can definitely throw them in the compost or recycling bin as well, but you can also send your guests home with that as well, depending on what you & your guests would like to do with them!

Now, you may be wondering where the confetti falls in all of this. Well, guess what? It’s made of paper too! Depending on how you end up using it for your party, whether it be on your table for decor, or to throw in the air in your Instagram photos, you definitely once again can decide if you want to throw the confetti into a recycling bin or compost, or maybe you want to hold onto it again for another party!

Paper vs. Plastic

So - like I mentioned above, I’ve been super inspired by Jillian Harris’ commitment this year to cut back on wasteful things in her life like plastics, packaging, etc. And if you’ve read my other blog posts, specifically My Top Five Eco-Friendly Purchases, you know I’m a big advocate for reducing the amount of plastics and items we throw away too, such as replacing plastic baggies with reusable silicone bags, and swapping out make up removing pads for reusable & washable cotton fabric pads. But, I must admit, one area that I didn’t really think of was the decorating aspect - for some reason, something that never really occurred to me until I saw Jillian’s posts about Leo & Annie’s birthday parties was how wasteful a lot of stuff we buy for these parties are. Balloons, of course being the obvious one, but plastic takes many other forms at these parties like in the tablecloth, the plates, utensils & cups! Yeah, they can definitely be reused if you want to hand wash them, but how many people actually do that? Probably not many. We’ve all been sold for so long on the convenience of buying a plastic tablecloth for parties so that if anything spills, you can just wipe it up and throw it out - not to mention, the cheap factor of it all. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we’re now so used to paying a certain price for these items (which are usually cheaply made by workers in countries that are not making a living wage), that we see a better quality, reusable item & scoff at the price. Now of course, not everyone can control that - I completely understand that everyone’s financial situation is different, and you can’t always afford to fork out an extra $15 on something just because it’s reusable because you have to get groceries or pay bills, but hey - if you can afford it, I highly encourage making these small changes, like swapping out the traditional rubber balloon for the paper honeycomb balls & buying paper plates instead of plastic. In the long haul, it saves you money and it also saves the planet!

This one was definitely on the shorter side of my blog posts! But, if I’m being absolutely honest here - as much as I love decorating, New Years just doesn’t really do much for me. I don’t ever really go out (like I mentioned above), and I definitely don’t throw a party, so I have no experience in what makes a New Years party so special - but that all being said, I still love decorating, and I love the idea of throwing a party, so that’s why I made this post! It’s more like a message to my future self, who will one day (maybe… probably) throw a little New Years party. I hope everyone enjoyed and got some inspiration for how they’d maybe want to decorate for a New Years party! Until next time - which is Christmas Eve!!! Xo.

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