Halloween is my family’s favorite holiday; we love to get dressed up in costume and decorate our house for trick-or-treaters. But Halloween can be a very plasticy experience unless you make an effort. Here are some ideas for making Halloween a little Greener this year.
Costumes are easy to make, even for the least crafty among us. I encourage you to resist buying new costumes this year. One idea that can even benefit your school is holding a Costume Swap as a small fundraiser. Simply ask everyone at your school to donate the costumes their kids aren’t going to wear anymore, then set up a place to hang them up where they can be seen and purchased, and then sell them for a small fee, like $5 – $10 each.
For anyone who’s been shopping lately, you know that even $10 is a great price for a new (to you) costume – so it’s a bargain for the shopper, it’s re-using instead of purchasing new, and it’s an All-Profit fundraiser for the school. A mom at a local school ran this last year and raised $300.
If you’re in the mood for a little extra effort this Halloween, making a costume can be a lot of fun. Pick out some old clothes that were destined for the thrift shop or trash can and instead, get creative. Feel free to cut them up or paint them. One costume you can make is to be a Jackson Pollock painting and simply splatter the clothes with multi-colored paint, then let dry before wearing. Or you can shred the clothes for the ragged look, or glue on props for an endless number of costume ideas.
This is me and my husband dressed as Black-eyed Peas for Halloween
A brown paper bag can become a super-sized mask. And cardboard boxes have many, many uses as costumes, from a Knight’s suit of armor and shield, to a robot, to angels’ or fairies’ wings – and don’t forget the aluminum foil, which easily turns plain cardboard into shiny metal.
You can find other ideas at GreenHalloween.org.
Sarah Auerswald is the blogger behind MarVistaMom.com.
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Tags: costume swaps, environmentally friendly halloween, fundraisers, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, home made costumes
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