Throw a Mean Green Party with Danny Seo: A Review of Simply Green Parties

Both fans of entertaining and those new to the green scene alike will find a whole host of ideas for planning eco-friendly festivities in Danny Seo's Simply Green Parties: simple and resourceful ideas for throwing the perfect celebration, event or get-together by Harper Collins.

As the title suggests, the theme of this aesthetically balanced, 144-page nonfiction guidebook is party-planning with a view toward the saving the environment.

Simply Green Parties is the first book in the Simply Green series by Seo, the host, creator and producer of a television program that airs by the same name on Lime.

For Seo, the impetus for Simply GreenParties was to resolve the conflict between his environmental activism and his interest in creating a comfortable, sumptuous, and lush environment. "I realized educating the public about living green meant asking people to make lifestyle changes. Ideas about living in harmony with nature often meant giving up any sense of style or fun," Seo said. "I set out to change that stereotype."

So with the belief that style can be combined with a concern for the environment, Seo sets about the goal to provide "ideas that are friendly, useful, and easy to do."

Simply Green Parties features projects, tips, and recipes for six themed- gatherings. In the chapter, "Dinner Under the Stars," Seo recommends that interior elements be brought outdoors. Pillows and blankets can turn any outdoor space, deemed too woodsy, into a cozy dining area. The idea that everyday objects can be repurposed is evident in projects where a cloth painter's tarp doubles as a make-shift dining canopy, tree stumps transform into cushioned stools, old leather-belts become coasters, and wine corks serve as the base for trivets.

Inversely, Seo points out in other chapters, such as "Summer Sizzler" and "Winter Warm Up Party," how natural elements add an outdoor theme to any indoor gathering in projects where oyster shells serve as molds for tea-light candles and garden-urns turn into dining tables.

Simply Green Parties provides an interesting number of tips: seven tips to turn any caterer organic, choosing eco-friendly candles, how to pick solar lights, and how to plant a tree. Included is a list of ways to detoxify your home, which highlights the Asian practice of removing shoes at the door. Seo suggests stashing a bowl of fresh socks for guests at the door, then stuffing newspaper into the shoes as an added gesture to absorb moisture and odor.

Seo addresses the problem of what to serve at festive parties with recipe ideas that range from an Herb Salad with Ricotta Dressing to Roasted Butternut Squash Soup to a frozen Watermelon Martini.

If not instructive, readers of Simply Green Parties will surely glean inspiration from such memorable ideas as the application of glow-in-dark paint to rocks for path lighting or laminating blueprints for a table runner or using old sweaters to recover dining room chairs.

Though it is an admirable effort to inspire others to participate in eco-friendly entertaining, after all who would argue against recycling material in an appropriate manner? Readers may find it a task to overlook claims that recycling materials, at least using Seo's ideas, is inexpensive, and that "nothing brand-new was ever purchased" for the production of the book. One need only glance at the Simply Green Shopping Guide, to find a list of manufacturers of products for the projects pictured. Further, true "greeny-weenies" may consider some projects wasteful - baby shower invitations transferred to thrift store baby clothes.

Still Seo supplies a taste of what is possible with a little creativity and resourcefulness. Judging from the eye-candy spread across the pages of Simply Green Parties, the future of eco-friendly entertaining looks inviting. This book serves as an introduction to environmental activism and provides ways to help in the effort to promote a greener environment.