Week 31 - Scary, Boooooo!!!!!

Next week is Halloween and even on this scariest, and next to Christmas most fun holiday, we can help the environment by considering the following:

COSTUMES

I have never been a fan of store bought costumes, so I have usually made them for my kids. A few years ago it dawned on me it was taking hours of my time to create a costume that would be worn for about 2 hours of trick-or-treating. Our school district doesn’t celebrate Halloween and in all these years, my kids have never been invited to a party (we have only hosted one once). So I decided 2 hours was not worth my time, effort and craziness. Since then, I have purchased a few costumes, but usually we use things that are around the house to create them. You know, just like we did when we were kids! My girls think it’s hilarious when I tell them stories of how we would decide what we were going to be the afternoon of Halloween, go home, throw it on, and head out the door. Like in so many other areas, we have gone a little bonkers with this holiday. But it can be a little sobering when we think about what happens to all those costumes and other accoutrement on Nov. 1st.

One of my children will be Paris Hilton, and the only things we purchased was a blond wig and a plain t-shirt (which can be worn again) to do a transfer on. My other child will be a boxer. Again we purchased a hoodie (which can be worn again) and an iron on transfer. Everything else we have. They will look great and the only thing we will eventually toss will be the blond wig. Give it some thought and you will be able to come up with something terrific!

A few other things you can do is 1) rent a costume and 2) pass your old costumes on to others.

CANDY HOLDERS

Please do not purchase yet another jack-o-lantern bucket for your child to collect candy in. It’s just more plastic! Instead, a reusable, canvass or even grocery bag (gasp, if you have one) can be used; when we were kids we used pillow cases! If you must have a bag with a Halloween theme, use it from year to year. In fact, your child should only have one for his/her entire trick-or-treating career.

BEWARE MARKETING

As I mentioned earlier, we are getting a little crazy with this holiday (to the tune of 5 billion dollars). I should say marketers are trying to lure us into the idea that we have to decorate our homes (lights and all) as if it were Christmas. Don’t buy into it! It’s ridiculous! Carving pumpkins with your kids is enough (don‘t forget pumpkins can be composted). If you do want to kick things up a notch, search on-line for environmentally friendly ways to decorate. Most of the ideas are about reusing items. For example, you can use a permanent marker to draw ghostlike eyes and a mouth on an empty and clean gallon milk jug. You can then use some white Christmas lights inside, to illuminate them. Cute and you are using what you already have.

If you do want to buy the decorations, store them and use them year to year.

WALK (HUH?)

I don’t believe I even have to address this, but the last few Halloweens I have actually seen people driving their kids trick-or-treating. Come on! If I have to say it, walk with your kids. It’s better for you and the environment!

DON’T LITTER

Now some people may tell you to bring along an extra bag to hold the wrappers from the candy your kids will be eating en route. I won’t tell you that because your kids SHOULD NOT be eating any candy until you get home and inspect it!

But everyone does things differently and older kids go out on their own, so I might suggest you bring along an extra bag, to pick-up after less environmentally conscious ghouls. That way our neighborhoods will look nice the morning after Halloween.

BUYING TREATS

I bet you think I’m going to say something like, buy organic candy and chocolate. Well if you want your house egged or tp’d go ahead! Most kids just aren’t ready for that and you don’t want your money wasted. What you can do here is 1) buy the most amount of candy in a single package you can find (there are variety packs out there) and 2) consider handing out non-edibles that don’t require wrappers; refillable mechanical pencils for example.


This marks the first of a series of holidays coming up. For each one I will try to give you some tips for enjoying them in a “greener” way.

Have a really wonderful time with your kids and...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!