Happy Green Halloween in NYC

Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine.  It falls smack in the middle of a very busy September/October and much preferred the November/December holidays. For the Freen however, Halloween is second only to Christmas. This year the Halloween books came out Labor Day weekend.  Seriously...

I'm not sure why Halloween was never my cup of candy corn.  I remember well wonderful parties at my old friend Ulla Johnson's where her mother would take a group of girls up and down East 86th Street trick or treating in every building that would let us in and even some that didn't.  Yet somewhere between the 6th grade and my twenties, I lost interest.  Of course as with all holidays, once I became a parent, Halloween became much more fun, especially when we moved to the country and I was able to experience trick or treating in a whole new way.

Regardless of where Halloween ranks in your Holiday favs list, it can no doubt be less wasteful and gluttonous.  I'm not going to suggest you hand out lightly used books or even recycled party toys because I think that is just mean....but I do have a couple ideas for how to minimize your Halloween foot/fat prints.

Green Halloween Costume Ideas

I tried the DIY costume thing for a couple years, even with clothes that the Freen could wear again but; it wasn't less expensive, the costumes weren't any cooler, and it took a lot more time to piece them together.  So after two years of that, I started buying Rubies Character Costumes which brought the Freen significantly more joy than the Cowboy and Diego costumes I struggled to piece together.  They are well made enough that he wears them for dress-up during the year and he has slept in his Spider Man costume more than once.

Of course if you are talented with a sewing machine go for it, but remember that just owning a sewing machine doesn't make you talented.  I remember my mother trying to be creative each year, but that creativity generally meant that I spent Halloween explaining who I was.  Remembering this and going through two failed attempts of my own at DIY, I eventually went back to buying. Besides, store bought costumes are much better than the colored garbage bags we had when we were young.  It is pretty hard for a home grown costume to compete now unless you have a real talent for it.

That said, they don't have to be brand new.  Start an exchange with your friends.  The Rubies deluxe costumes are well made enough and generally sized so they fit for a couple years. If your friends aren't game Craigslist and Ebay are both great resources for used costumes and I've also heard good things about the Green Halloween's online costume swap.



Trick-or-Treating

Finding an alternative to already overpriced candy isn't easy.  We live in a building with over 250 apartments, organic candy for 20 packs of greedy children would set us back quite a bit.  Last year a five pound bag of Yummy Earth lollipops set us back $30 and didn't make it through the night.  In general my thought process goes like this, don't bother with pretzels or raisins...that just isn't what Halloween is about, so if that is how you are going to be, just don't play.  If you really want to avoid giving candy, try a selection of mini plastic cookie cutters, pencils, temporary tattoos, or sticky hands and let the kids pick a treat. Note, while you can feel good about not contributing further to childhood obesity, you are still contributing to the growth of your local landfill.  Ultimately you have to pick your battles.

For your trick or treating skip the light sticks (they can't be good for the environment).  For the bag skip the plastic trick or treat buckets. They are never big enough. I purchased a nice $5 tote at the grocery store three years ago and it is ready to go this year.  If you are up for a project, purchase and decorate a reusable bag from ReUsableBags or Amazon.

If your children are old enough to consider sacrificing their Halloween treats for a charitable cause the 60 year old trick or treat for Unicef program is still up and running.

Pumpkin Carving

Easy - Save the seeds, roast them. Yum! For organic pumpkins go to Amawalk Farm in Katonah and since you're in the neighborhood be sure to stop at Muscoot Farm for a hayride.

Last year we saved the smaller sweeter pumpkins and baked them for homemade pumpkin pie.  It was fun but it was hard work and I'm not sure it was worth it.  The results were the very comparable to Farmer's Market Foods canned organic pumpkin which shaves about three hours off the prep time.

Eco-Halloween Parties

Pumpkins go a long way as do acorns, pine cones and leaves.  For paper decorations use your kids' school projects.  I save everything, so I still have the black cat the Freen decorated with glitter in nursery school. If you don't, go crazy with black and orange construction paper, glitter and cotton balls.

Instead of store bought cards, use Evite for your Halloween Party.

The Freen's Halloween Reading Recommendations

The Freen loves his Halloween books.  Here are a few of his favorites.

Room on a Broom
Hallow-Wiener
The Ugly Pumpkin
Rattle Bone Rock (no longer in print but by far his favorite so if you see it, be sure to pick it up)

Please share any other tips you have for a Happy Green Halloween!

Eco-Friendly Kid's Birthday Parties…Do as I Say Not as I Do

The Freen's 4th birthday was last month. He had a party at school, a small celebration at home on the day of his birthday and a party with a friend from school with over 50 of our family and friends. Three parties later I'm thinking we may have over done it a bit, but on the bright side if the economy gets any worse we will be able to trade toys for food this Christmas.

My initial plan was to hold a Cars themed environmentally friendly party. Yes - I see the irony. I planned to make the invitations and decorations, give away eco-friendly favors, serve organic snacks, and play environmentally conscience games. However, the day I handed out our home-made invitations at his school, I found out that I had scheduled the party on the same exact day and time as one of his friends. So instead of rescheduling and having two separate parties we decided to combine them and my plans for an eco-friendly party were quickly forgotten. I justified my decision to go the more traditional Oriental Trading Company route with the fact that we had eliminated the waste of an entire party by combining the two parties. So there I was online at OTC ordering up the little plastic favors that I had promised myself I would not buy knowing that each little toy would interest our guests for the car ride home and then slowly one by one each parent would toss each little piece of junk in the trash when their child wasn't looking.

I had pizza delivered and ordered a cake from the local bakery “Cakes by the Lake”. I asked them to try to combine the Cars and Spider Man theme which they did incredibly well and the cake was delicious.

By the end we wasted a whole lot of paper and plastic and fed and gave the kids a whole lotta junk…regardless of my Sustainable Mom guilt everyone had a blast.

Preceding the decision to combine the parties I did a whole lot of research on how to throw an eco-friendly birthday party and so it doesn’t go to waste…I’d like to share all the great resources I found with you so that you may throw your own eco-friendly birthday party.

Invitations & Thank You Cards

Make your own invitations and thank you cards with a color printer, stickers and pre-made cards available at Michael's, Target, Staples and Amazon.

Michael's has card stock available

Amazon also has a plain stock version, bright multi-colored card stock, and pastels

My Good Greetings Offers a variety of post-consumer recycled options as does Cards Direct.

Disney's Family Fun site offers some printable templates as well.

Decorations

Yellow Label Kids offers wonderful keepsake fabric tablecloths and birthday banners that can be used year after year. While a little pricey they are so nice they can be used for every family member, year after year. By far my favorite find and a great gift option for first birthday's.

Service ware
Recycline offers the preserve everyday collection made from 100% recycled materials.

Eco-products offers compostable cups and service ware.

No matter what you do there is going to be trash Biobag USA offers biodegradable and compostable garbage bags.

Games & Activities

I like the idea of doing something creative. Green Party Goods has unpainted wooden airplanes which would make a great favor/activity.

Disney's Family Fun site offers a number of great ideas and they sort them by age.

Amazing Moms site has some great ideas and The Big List of Birthday Party Ideas has some great examples that can inspire some fun original games and activities.

Food & Beverages

For a race car themed party without any children with nut allergies and I like the idea of this Checkerboard pb&J using organic ingredients of course.

If you have peanut allergies in the group or just would prefer to be safe here are several sandwich ideas and you can use white and wheat bread to create the same effect regardless of what's inside the sandwiches.

The Freen loves Annie's Cheddar Bunnies and they make a great kids finger food.

Disney Family also has a decent site that includes some healthy recipes for kids.

Other's recommend Dr. Sears' book The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood for ideas for healthy kinds snacks and meals. I have to admit I don't have it and I prefer to just troll the Internet for recipes than clutter by house with cook books but if you like cook books this one might be right for you.

Goody Bags

I like the idea of using plain crafting paper bags with stickers or even better have your little freen create his own image for his friends.

In addition I like these plastic bag alternatives

Chinese Food Cartons

Muslin Bag

Girls Purse Box

Although a little more expensive reusable options include Organic and recycled cotton bags from Ecobags or for older kids Envirosax's Greengrocer series makes a nice favor on it's own. You could also support the Captain Planet Foundation and offer a reusable Captain Planet shopping bag.

Another idea is to offer a reusable gift bag like those offered by Lucky Crow or Lagniappe Gift Bags.

Favors

This is a tough one. I think my favorite option is coloring books and crayons and stickers. Although not inherently eco-friendly they are far better than little plastic figures and kazoos destined for the land fill.

Green Party Goods does have a selections of eco-friendly favors including finger puppets, wooden kazoos and wooden castenets but they would be pretty pricey for a large party and while nice are likley to end up at the bottom of a toy box soon after the children return home.

Because every kids expects a healthy dose of sugar in that bag Yummy Earth offers a great selection of individually wrappped organic treats including lollipops which are a Freen favorite.

Beautiful Sweets sell pre-made cookie favors but you could also make your own.

I hope this is helpful and I welcome you to add any ideas and suggestions you have for eco-friendly kid's parties.