Top 10 ideas for a greener Halloween

Image Credit: PetitePlanet.blogspot.com

Although it's important to make small, every day changes to your lifestyle that allow you to live in a more planet friendly way, holidays present a unique opportunity to be more conscious of the things we buy, eat, and give to each other.

Halloween is usually a celebration associated with a lot of sugary, processed foods, synthetic costume materials, toxic make up and plastic pumpkins, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of ways to make green the new black & orange.

So here's a roundup of some of the best ideas for greening your Halloween from parents, bloggers, and artists all over the internet!

1. 'Junk' O Lanterns and No-Carve Pumpkins

Even if you've got younger children that aren't old enough for the cutting and gutting that typically goes into making a scary pumpkin face, you can still get into the spooky spirit with this ingenious idea. Instead of cutting up the pumpkin to decorate it (which inevitably wastes tons of pumpkin) you can use odds and ends to tranform the great squash into an upcycled masterpiece. See image above; Cinderella's coach complete with tiny gourd mice! (Petite Planet).

2. Hallowig

Dressing up as something that requires you to change your hair? Not thrilled with the plastic, toxic, made-in-China options at the store? Why not knit your own? Here are instructiong for knitting your own Halloween hairpiece that will be far more comfortable and resuable! (Knitty)

3. Cost-Effective Costumes

Every year hundreds of thousands of flimsy, polyester costumes are stuffed into plastic bags and sold in retail stores. These costumes are usually the least authentic looking and the most expensive. Save some money and allow your creative juices to flow by digging through your closets or roaming the vintage-clothing stores, resale shops and flea markets for Halloween gear instead. You can find plenty of ideas for homemade costumes online at sites like Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas, Halloween Ideas That Don't Cost a Fortune and Kids' Halloween Costume Ideas.

If you don't have the time or inclination to make your own costumes, post a "looking for Halloween costume" request on your local Freecycle list or craigslist. Those are also great sites to post on if you've got some old costumes you want to pass along to someone else (GreenLiving/Suite 101).

4. Candy with a Terrible Secret

Consumers are expected to spend $3.12 billion on candy, costumes and other Halloween goodies this year, according to a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation. This means a lot of processed sugar, high fructose corn syrup and articificial colorings are going to be consumed by little ghosts and goblins everywhere. Avoid the hype (and the crash) by handing out locally made, natural and organic candies. These sweet picks by The Daily Green will have your spooks haunting you for more.

5. Decorate with Nature

If you're having a pumpkin carving party, ditch the scary synthetic decorations and go for something a bit more authentic. Pumpkins, haybales, corn stalks, leaves, and sticks are all you need to create a Fall wonderland. You can also follow these easy tips for making cobwebs with cotton balls.

6. Likeable Loot Bags

This year, avoid buying plastic pumpkins and other sacks made for gathering Halloween treats. Instead, use a reusable sack, pillowcase or old Easter basket to carry around your goodies. TreeHugger.com offered up six picks for the cutest and most eco-friendly Halloween bags around.

7. Non-Toxic Make-up

Many costume ideas call for bloody mouths, pale ghostly faces, and painted on cat whiskers, however a test performed by Washington Toxics Coalition and a Seattle-area investigative reporter found that even children’s products labeled as “non-toxic” may be laced with known toxins such as lead. Store-bought,“non-toxic” face paints are no different and can expose you and your children to an array of chemicals and preservatives. Given that most face paints and pencils contain parabens, your best bet is to make them yourself. Here's a recipe for all purpose face paint from GreenHalloween.org, while the Kidz Korner on Osweb.com offers up recipes for everything from fake blood to super scabs!

8. Sink Into the Shadows

If you're really into giving trick or treaters the fright of their life, nothing is freakier than a whole house swallowed up in shadows. You can save a lot of energy by giving your inside and outside lights a rest, and the overall effect will be more authentic anyway. If you’re afraid of people passing your house by without lights on, consider adorning your porch with an orange, green, or purple strand of LED lights or a jack-o-lantern illuminated with a soy or beeswax candle.

9. Eat—and decorate—locally

If spiders and skeletons aren't your thing, but you still want to have folks over for an Autumn celebration, you can draw inspiration from the harvest bounty; think pumpkins, gourds, straw bales, and corn husks (all from your local farms, of course). Serve up snacks and nibbles made from other farm-fresh, seasonal produce, like squash soup, carrot cake, and apple cider. Check in with Local Harvest to find farms and other local spots to get the best of the harvest in your neck of the woods (Planet Green).

10. Support Fair Trade with 'reverse trick-or-treating'

As a way to highlight the plight of cocoa farmers and to showcase the benefits of Fair Trade, the folks at Global Exchange have started a Reverse Trick-or-Treating program to help raise awareness while collecting goodies on Halloween. It's really easy. Sign-up through the 'Reverse Trick-or-Treating website to receive samples of Fair Trade chocolates, along with some cards that outline the program. Kids hand out the cards and samples to adults when they go to the door on Halloween (Planet Green).

Got an idea for a spooky green Halloween tradition that won't frighten the planet or your pocketbook? Share it in a comment!