Kids & Company Blog

How to Celebrate Earth Hour as a Family!

Each year on the last Saturday of March, people around the world do their part to raise awareness for our planet. At 8:30 PM local time, millions of people (in more than 180 countries!) turn off the lights for one hour to participate in Earth Hour. Earth Hour is now one of the largest grassroots movements in support of our environment!

Depending on the age of your children — they may or may not be up from 8:30-9:30 PM on Saturday night. Even if they’re fast asleep by that time, you can still use March 27 as a day to get your little one excited about our Earth, recycling and conservation. 

Our team came up with some exciting ways to spend the day (and hour) as a family and activities to celebrate once the little ones have gone to bed.

Ideas for Families

Even if your child will be snoring from 8:30-9:30 PM, they can still be involved in activities and learn about the importance of protecting our Earth. 

Read about our Earth: The child-friendly book Earth Hour introduces the global initiative and explores how we all use energy in our daily lives.

Get Crafty: Get your creative juices flowing and craft in the name of our Earth! Pinterest has some great ideas like a milk carton bird feeder, sun printing on recycled fabrics, Earth-inspired snacks, and handprint Earth art!

Shadow puppets: Even if the sun hasn’t fully set, you can turn off the lights a little early, head to a dark room and have fun making shadow puppets! 

Camp in the living room: Put the cellphones, laptops, and TVs away and simulate a camping experience right in your living room! You can read books about animals and our earth with flashlights or by candlelight, or tell campfire stories.

Play board games: Challenge your family members to a candle-lit board game night.

Spend the day outdoors: With this beautiful spring weather upon us, head outside for the day as a family. You can visit the park, take in the beauty of nature and talk to your little one about our Earth.

Ideas for after children’s bedtime

Plan a cozy night in: Put away the technology for a night and play cards or a board game by candlelight.

Dinner in the dark: Earth hour is the perfect opportunity to plan that romantic dinner by candlelight. 

Stargaze: Bring the baby monitor to the porch and spend some time outside admiring the stars.

Nature-themed movie night: After your one hour of darkness, settle in for a nature-themed movie night. You can watch your favourite episodes of Planet Earth or even Hollywood movies that are set in nature.

We hope you all have a wonderful Earth hour and have the opportunity to celebrate our Earth and nature in all its glory! How will you be celebrating this weekend? Share your ideas with us in the comments. 

Posted on: Thursday March 25th, 2021

Posted by: Kids & Company