Looking for ways to celebrate Earth Hour with your family? Here are a few zero electricity activities for families to tackle in celebration of Planet Earth. Keep reading to learn why Earth Hour is important and for inspiration for this climate awareness activity!
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Why is Earth Hour important?
I have come across a lot of people in my day to day life who believe that living green is just too hard. They are intimidated by hard core eco conscious folks who wear hemp and only eat organic tofu. As a result, they don’t bother trying to reduce their carbon footprint at all. They figure one or two small changes will never make a difference.
It makes me sad. That is one of the main reasons I started this blog. I wanted people to realize that even making ONE small change in their daily life that benefits our planet is better than nothing at all.
These Earth Hour ideas will help you understand that small changes every day can make a BIG difference! Even if you don’t wear hemp or eat tofu (although it is certainly great if you DO!)
What Is Earth Hour?
So, maybe you are asking yourself “What is Earth Hour?” Earth Hour history is rather short, actually. It started in 2007 as a ‘turn the lights-off’ event to raise awareness for climate change. Since then, it has grown to include more than 162 countries and territories around the world.
For one hour on Saturday March 24th at 8:30 YOUR TIME, you will turn off your lights and find things to do that require no electricity.
I bet you are wondering what in the world you would do with yourself for an hour with no electricity, right?
No TV, no video games for the kids….what in the world would you do to keep busy? Here are a few Earth Hour ideas that you might find enjoyable!
Other eco friendly tips you might like
- 10 Eco Friendly Date Ideas to Help Your Love Life Go Green: Here are a few more sustainable activities to continue even when Earth hour is finished!
- Eco Friendly Children: They only learn what their parents teach them!
- Eco Friendly Grilling Tips: From Food to Fire! Not only does grilling use no electricity (HELLO Earth Hour cooking!) it is also absolutely delicious!
- Recycling for the Home Here are a few recycling tips to clear out clutter from your home.
What to do During Earth Hour?
Are you wondering what to do during Earth Hour? Basically, you need to think of things you did as a kid or what you did when you went camping.
Earth Hour 2021 can be spent with friends, neighbors, or kids doing low tech, no energy things. Here are a few Earth Hour ideas to consider:
- Host an Earth Hour party with your neighbors. Everyone bring a candle and their favorite beverage and snack. Sit around and actually talk to each other.
- Enjoy fondue with the kids. A candle warmed fondue pot, some chocolate and fresh fruit….sit around dipping and eating with your family!
- Is your family musical? Grab a few non electric musical instruments and play by candle light.
- Play Earth Hour games like charades or board games by candle light.
- Take a nap! No kids to entertain and wondering what to do during Earth Hour? Do you have a significant other available? Spend the hour in bed. Sleeping or awake!
- Master your origami skills. Keep origami paper away from candle light please!
The purpose of celebrating Earth Hour is not just to spend ONE HOUR doing things that don’t require electricity. The overall goal of Earth Hour is to make you realize that small changes in how you go about your daily life make a huge impact.
Turning your home lights off for an hour won’t save a huge amount of electricity. But EVERYONE turning their home lights off for an hour will! Of course, you could add home solar panels to the house and not worry about your electric bill at all.
How to Celebrate Earth Hour EVERY DAY
These Earth Hour ideas will help you pass an hour of unpowered time. But, what happens after the lights come back on? Do you go back to mindlessly being an energy hog and trashing the environment? No.
The end goal of celebrating Earth Hour is to increase awareness for environmental issues of all sort. So, here are a few eco friendly ideas to adopt this month…and for the rest of your life!
- Start a garden and eat locally raised, organic food right from the back yard (an organic garden is a great addition to your frugal backyard landscaping plants)
- Enjoy eco friendly crafts with your children
- Make a few DIY beauty products in your own kitchen and reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals
- Walk or ride your bike instead of taking the car for your next set of errands
- Buy something second hand….this save you tons of money and reduces packaging waste.
- Install a programmable thermostat to save on energy costs
- Line dry a few loads of laundry instead of using the dryer
- Investigate solar power for your home or even for a few of your small electronics.
More Earth Hour Ideas for Kids and Adults
If you are looking for more Earth Hour ideas, I thought I would share a few resources that you might be able to use. Children can participate in some amazing eco friendly projects both at home and at school. Check out my posts on eco friendly projects for kids for some ideas.
- Environmental Projects for Kids that They Will Actually Enjoy Doing!
- 10 Eco Friendly Craft Projects for Kids and Adults!
- Earth Day Books for Children that Inspire a New Generation of Eco Warriors!
Maybe you want to celebrate Earth Hour at your place of business! Encourage employees to bring in only reusable lunch containers or have a pot luck party on the day Earth Hour 2018 will take place. Invite a local speaker to the office to discuss sustainability.
Encourage everyone to take the stairs instead of using the elevator. Create an eco friendly office space to reduce the carbon footprint of your office. Or, just try to reduce your garbage output!
There are tons of ways to celebrate Earth Hour but it is important for you to continue living sustainably, even after that hour is over. Take the eco friendly lessons that you learn and slowly blend them with your everyday routine.
Have any other tips on how to celebrate Earth Hour this year? Visit www.earthhour.org to see what’s happening in locations around the world! And when Earth Day rolls around next month, you will be ready!
Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician at Good Pill Pharmacy. She earned her BS in Microbiology at the University of New Hampshire and has worked in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging and freelance writing to share this knowledge with others. Learn more about her HERE.
I’d love to set up some candles and just take a quiet soak in the tub!
And, to be totally honest, this year is the first I’ve ever heard of Earth Hour.
Love these ideas! Love the fondue idea!
I’m a big fan of candles and of playing games. Sign me up!! It’s amazing how a simple joint action can educate the masses. Thanks for writing about this and putting it on my radar!
Great ideas all around! It’s inspiring to think about how each of us can make a difference. It starts with just one action, maybe just one time, during Earth Hour, but it can lead to many bigger things. Thanks for getting us going.
Great ideas! I’m going to do some of these to make it fun for the kids!