Green Halloween® Twitter Party!

Hashtag: #GreenHalloween

October 22, from 9 to 10 pm EST

Where: Twitter!

Who: Follow the featured Twitter handles @GreenHalloween and @GreenAmerica

Register: Win prizes from @HonestTea @ESC_Chocolate, @CascadianFarm, @BrainardsNatRem, @PlumOrganics and @GreenAmerica. RSVP below to be eligible.*

What to Expect:

• Treats & “treasures” that are healthy for kids & the planet
• DIY costumes, make your own face paints, recycled decor & more
• Seasonal, Earth-inspired activities
• Ideas for a waste-less, spend-less holiday that keeps all the fun
• Finding Green Halloween® events near you
• Interact with others
• Win great, green gifts & goodies*

Please, help support Green Halloween and Green America and spread the Green this Halloween! Share this event with your social media network! The more individuals and groups we have involved, the better our great ideas will spread!

What you can to do to participate:

1. RSVP with us by adding your Twitter handle in the comments below to be eligible for prizes*
2. Check out the  Green America and Green Halloween websites for guides and tips for living your life in more green, healthy, and socially just ways
3. Follow our featured hosts: @GreenHalloween and @GreenAmerica
4. Log into Twitter through Tweetchat.com on October 22^nd a little before 9pm EST and put #GreenHalloween as the hashtag to follow
5. During the party, make sure every comment you submit has the hashtag #GreenHalloween (if you use Tweetchat, this will be done automatically) in it
6. Share your ideas, support each other, and participate. Also, come win some prizes from our great sponsors:

*(One entry per handle. Most prizes will ship only to the continental U.S.; some may ship to Canada. If you cannot accept a prize, prize will be offered to another event participant.)

Green Halloween is a non-profit, grassroots community initiative to create healthier and more Earth-friendly holidays, starting with Halloween. It began in the Seattle area in 2007 with backers such as Whole Foods Market and was such a huge success that in 2008, the initiative expanded nation-wide. In cities across the country, volunteer coordinators are turning their city’s Halloween holiday healthy and eco-friendly, but many are also raising money for their own, local nonprofit beneficiaries via the initiative. Green Halloween, as of 2012, is a program of Green America.

Green America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982. Our mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. We work for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the bounty of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come.

For Questions about the party or about another event. Send a tweet to @GreenHalloween, post in the comments below, or send an email to GreenHalloween@GreenAmerica.Org

We thought that in addition to reminding you to check out www.GreenHalloween for ideas, we’d pass on some tips from our fellow green bloggers.

1. From green blogger and independent crafter Becky Striepe, comes an idea for a simple Halloween scrap banner. And if you’re into banners, here’s a paper one we created last year.

2. Do you read Healthy Home magazine? If not, you should. You can get awesome ideas for all things healthy and green, like this BPA-free pumpkin puree that’s easier than pie to make.

3. Lots of parents today are opting out of masks and choosing face paints instead. But these can contain chemicals that you don’t want on your children’s skin. What to do? Make your own! You can check out our recipe here, and for more ideas, check out this article on Greenwala by Danika Carter, or this one from Diane MacEachern at Big Green Purse.

4. Great tips on avoiding GMO sugar this Halloween from My Healthy Green Family.

5. Emily Roach at Random Recycling loves roasting pumpkins seeds. Here’s her recipe.

6. From Robbie Schneider at Going Green Mama, what to do with that mammoth Halloween stash.

7. The Smart Mama, Jennifer Taggart, suggests using tee tree oil to keep your carved Jack-o-lantern from molding. And Danika Carter, from Your Organic Life says adding those little silica gel packets works well too.

8. And finally, Tamara Rubin, writing for DrGreene.com, explains how to avoid exposing your kids to lead during Halloween festivities.

What’s your favorite eco-friendly Halloween tip?

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Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of  Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.

This is the great time of year to enjoy apples!

Making your own apple sauce is really easy and it’s a great thing to make with
your kids! They can wash the apples, peel the apples and if they are comfortable with a knife then they can help you chop up the apples too! We sometimes like to have apple sauce as a treat after dinner and sometimes we just love having it as a little snack We prefer to make our apple sauce without sugar, we just choose a naturally sweet and juicy variety of apple like red or golden delicious!

All you need:

• 1 pound of apples
• 5 -6 tablespoons of water
• cinnamon (to taste – we like to use a lot of cinnamon!)

Wash the apples. Peel them, remove the core and then slice into small chunks. Place your apples into a saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and sprinkle in your cinnamon. Simmer the apples until soft. Be sure to stir often to prevent burning!!! We learned that the hard way Once they are nice and soft you can serve the apple sauce warm or cold!

Happy Healthy Eating

Kia

Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day. Kia is passionate about creating tools that help parents raise healthy kids!

By Wendy

Kids love being creative. Whether it’s with crayons, markers, or paint- they’re crazy about it! Especially if it also means they’re allowed to get a little dirty. That is why I love the idea of making your own finger paint. It lets your kids get their creative juices flowing with paint, with their hands being their paint brush. And it’s all non-toxic! So if they accidentally get some on their face or swallow some, you won’t have to worry too much. It’s super easy to make and your kids will have much fun playing with it, indoor or outdoors.

What you need:

½ cup cornstarch

3 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

2 cups cold water

Your choice of food coloring

What to do:

Put all your ingredients into a medium pan and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes.

Stir mixture until you start seeing it thicken.

Remove from stovetop quickly and let mixture cool.

Split mixture into a 3-4 batches.

In each batch, put a few drops of your favorite food colorings until you get your desired color.

Put each batch into separate air tight containers with lids to make it easy to store.

This batch of homemade finger paint is good for about 3 days. So if you see your finger paint getting a bit too thick, just whip up a new batch and you’ll be on your way to more finger painting fun. Or if you think you don’t need as much, you can always adjust the ingredients and make a smaller batch.

Another great non-toxic toy you can make with your kids is homemade play dough. They’re easy to play with, can be molded into lots of different forms, and keep kids busy.

What are your favorite do it yourself make at home activities for the kids?

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Wendy Yu is a digital marketing professional living in New York City. When she’s not using the power of social media to share ideas on how to be more environmentally friendly, she is exploring the city, trying local foods, and learning more about how she can reduce her carbon footprint.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Green Halloween® or our partners.

By Wendy

It’s so difficult to keep your hair shiny and healthy. And with all the time you’ve probably been spending outside in the heat and sun this summer, you’re noticing your hair looking a little drab. Put some bounce back into your hair with this great do it yourself organic avocado hair mask. All the ingredients are easy to find in your supermarket, and you may already have some in your kitchen already. Best part, this all natural hair mask should only take about an hour to complete the whole process.

What you need:

1 ripe avocado

½ cup coconut milk

3 tsp olive oil

What to do:

Mash up your ripe avocado in a medium sized bowl

Add in coconut milk and olive oil with the avocado and stir in until well blended

Heat up the hair mask ingredients on the stove until warm

Apply the mask ingredients from roots to ends, massaging into your scalp

Leave in for 30 minutes

Rinse out, and wash hair as usual

So postpone that hair appointment at your salon and try this inexpensive homemade hair mask out. This organic hair mask will bring back some of that missing volume, shine, and health back into dull, limp hair, and give your hair smell delightful coconut smell.

If you’re ready to try some other do it yourself beauty fun at home, try these homemade face masks. These DIY face masks are quick to make and you can do this while you have your homemade hair mask on!

What other do it yourself hair masks have you tried and loved?

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Wendy Yu is a digital marketing professional living in New York City. When she’s not using the power of social media to share ideas on how to be more environmentally friendly, she is exploring the city, trying local foods, and learning more about how she can reduce her carbon footprint.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Green Halloween® or our partners.