Halloween is a thrilling time for my family, rivalling even Christmas in excitement! Over the past seven years, I’ve honed ways to celebrate this spooky season grandly yet sustainably, minimising plastic and polyester waste.
Here are my DIY tips for eco-friendly Halloween decorations, costumes, and treats:
Eco-Friendly Halloween Decorations
Since 2020 when Halloween was a lockdown affair, it upped the ante to create some home-based magic. Here are some standout decoration ideas we’ve loved ever since:
- Recycled Ghosts: Transform old and discarded plastic bubble wrap or any light, white plastic into ghoulish figures. Stuff the head, tie off with string for the neck, and use black paper for spooky faces. Illuminate with fairy lights for a haunting effect!
- Milk Bottle Ghosts: An easy, effective decoration using re-used milk bottles (we collected ours from neighbours). Clean them, draw ghostly faces, and light them up for an eerie ambiance.
- DIY Spooky Castle & Loo Roll Bats: Engage the kids in crafting a spooky castle or bats from household cardboard waste materials. Find printable templates and use craft cards to bring these creatures to life.
- Pumpkins: Carve pumpkins responsibly and minimally. Or, ideally, don’t carve them at all so they’re good for eating after your display. Use any waste in stews, soups or broths, dry out the seeds for eating and feed any leftovers to chickens or birds. Don’t leave your pumpkins to rot, if you dispose of them quickly you can ‘donate’ them to the woodland animals who will love this festive snack. But make sure to take out any candles or spilt wax beforehand.
Sustainable Halloween Costumes
- Timeless Costumes: Invest in durable outfits! I’ve been using the same skeleton onesie for 20 years, and it’s for 12 year olds, so my son can now share it too! We embrace reuse in our family, like my kid’s oversized pumpkin outfits that fit them from 1 year old until adults (they made me wear one of theirs the year I was 9 months pregnant!).
- Natural Fabric Outfits: If changing costumes yearly, choose materials like felt, cotton, or bamboo instead of polyester to avoid environmental harm and safety hazards near candles.
- DIY Costumes: Get creative with old clothes. Transform a white sheet into a ghost, assemble a spider costume with black clothes and extra ‘legs,’ or craft a skeleton outfit from black layers and an old white t-shirt.
Eco-Conscious Halloween Treats
Don’t compromise on Halloween fun; go for homemade or sustainably packaged treats:
- Homemade Spooky Jelly Eyeballs: Use gelatine, coconut milk, and berry juice with silicone moulds to make edible eyeball treats.
- Eco-Friendly Shop-bought Sweets: Choose brands like Sweet Lounge or Handy Candy (plastic-free, wahoo!) and please remember that a lot of sweets are choking hazards for small kids, so choose ones which aren’t too small, round or hard.
- The Switch Witch: Have you heard of The Switch Witch? If you like to limit your children’s sugar intake this one is for you! If your kids choose to leave their halloween sweets on the doorstep overnight (we let them choose a few to keep), The Switch Witch comes and swaps them for a lovely (sustainable!) gift.
Let’s make this Halloween both fun and eco-friendly! Share your sustainable Halloween ideas below or tag us in your green celebration posts!
