10 Ways To Green Your Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner.

I know I am behind in getting ready for it, but assuming that others are more on top of things, here are a few ideas for how to green your Halloween.

These ideas will help you green everything from your Halloween candy to your Halloween decorations and even your Halloween costume!

Green Halloween Costumes

First of all, the costumes — how can you find a green costume?

1) One idea is not to look too far. Often, we might be able to come up with a good Halloween costume just by looking carefully in our closet. Have an old school uniform, or soccer uniform, or just some seriously funky clothes in your closet? Try those. I wore a Uganda soccer jersey I happen to have, some yellow swim trunks that matched it well, and my normal soccer gear a couple years ago. I thought it was a great costume and I didn’t have to buy anything for it.

2) Maybe look in the room next to yours. especially If you’re a dude, you might find some good, fun ideas in your sister’s room, or your girlfriend’s. Everyone loves a guy dressed up like a girl. If you can find a princess dress or something like that in the back of the closet, even better. I don’t remember exactly what we wore, but my brother and I dressed up like girls one Halloween and people loved it.

3) One more idea is doing a costume swap. Like some of your friends’ previous costumes? Use them again. And share yours with others as well. There are even organized costume swaps around the country and you can always start your own. What a waste to buy a costume and only use it once.

4) If none of those ideas work for you, and you are set on a fun, new costume, you can always create a costume from recyclables. There is nothing like making your own costume. If you think you or your kids made some great eco-friendly Halloween costumes, you may even consider entering them into a low-impact Halloween Costume contest, like the one over on Inhabitots.

 

Green Halloween Decorations

Moving on from costumes, you may want to get or make some other Halloween crafts or decorations.

Here are a few ideas on that:

5) FamilyFun offers a lot ideas for making crafts from recyclables. And it’s got a great big section dedicated to Halloween crafts, costumes, and decorations.

6) A couple of other cool projects I’ve run across on the web are recycled Halloween party favor cups, and Halloween witches and ghosts made from plastic jugs and plastic bags.

7) If you don’t want to make anything, but definitely want some eco-friendly Halloween decorations, Wenona Napolitano has tipped us off to some great Halloween finds on Etsy. Check ‘em out and get the ones you like while they last!

 

Green Halloween Candy

And what about the food? Food (or candy) is a huge part of Halloween. How do you green your Halloween candy?

8) My first tip may not fly with everyone, but hopefully it will with some folks. Processed candy is not the greenest thing, so why not consider going the old-fashioned route and giving kids fruit? Try to find something exotic if you don’t want to disappoint them — like kumquats or rambutan or lychees or something along those lines. Or, load your trick-or-treaters up with some bananas. Sure, some parents will be concerned that you might have poisoned your fruit, but I never understood why that would be impossible with some of the other candies people pass out. Plus, most candy is essentially a sort of poison to our bodies.

9) If you prefer to get some sort of candy, check out Whole Foods or your local health food store. I’m sure they have something more eco-friendly than mini Snickers and M&Ms.

10) Lastly, do something for the planet. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has some great Halloween gift ideas that help save endangered wildlife. I don’t know why this is number 10 on my list, it is really my top recommendation. I’m sure other organizations are doing similar things.

photo via glenbowman