Last winter, with my husband’s help–OK, OK, all I did was supervise, i.e. tell him what to do–we made a dowel Christmas tree. At the time I thought we could use it for any holiday, but of course, I forgot about most of them until last weekend when we were celebrating my two granddaughters’ birthdays.
I brought out the tree and a mass of pre-used items including:
bottle caps
silver foil
pipe cleaners
paper
“jewels”
wooden beads
wire
paperclips
bolts
..and lots of other odds and ends.
I set everything on the table and the kids (and a few grownups), had a ball making ornaments for the tree.
Here’s the overall result:
And here are just a few of the ornaments:
Everyone had a ball! Even our grandson who isn’t usually into art projects, spent at least an hour hunched over his work and came up with, among other items, the skeleton above.
If you have a Halloween party coming up and you’re thinking about activities, consider something like this. You don’t have to make the tree. Just get a branch, put it in a bucket filled with rocks and start decorating!
Corey did a segment on the news here in Seattle, that included the Halloween tree. And I’m already thinking about repeating this activity for Thanksgiving!
We are blown away at this beautiful DIY Halloween mantle created by the talented Regina of Creative Kismet. She made it by taking random objects in her storage which goes right along with our philosophy of recycling and re-using to celebrate a greener Halloween! Many kudos to Regina for following this philosophy while creating such a lovely piece of decor for her home and hearth.
It’s not too late to look around what you’ve been storing up in the attic or the garage to see if there are treasures there to make your very own Halloween mantle piece. You may never know what long forgotten objects are awaiting to be used by your creativity!
Mother-daughter pair, Rochelle and Ally Maize, have green in common. They also share a great sense of humor.
Check out how this green realtor (mom, Rochelle) and founder of Green Youth Movement (daughter, Ally) decorated their Beverly Hills, CA home for Halloween (using eco-friendly materials and sharing some good laughs, we’re sure).
According to Rochelle, “80 % of our decorations are hand made. 100% are recycled from year to year. During the month, we had hundreds of people come by and take pictures. As people drive by, see the yard & stop- it’s all most caused so many accidents, but luckily no problems so far.”
Phew.
Rochelle and Ally also added an “eek-o-friendly sustainable garden” (see video, below). “This was incredible with 3 scarecrows and lots of fun items inside. One of our scarecrows was even upside down. Everything made from scratch!”
High five, Rochelle and Ally!
And what did the Green Halloween home give away to the little ghosts and goblins who came by this Halloween?
And over 400 of their neighborhood trick-or-treaters thought their healthy, green goodies were fabulous.
Said Rochelle, “I cant tell you how many moms thank us for what we were doing. The mom’s favorite were the tree coupons! They then had to start explaining fair trade chocolate to their kids! The adults went nuts and loved it. Even a lot of the kids thought it was so cool that we planted trees for the trick o\ treaters! A few of the younger ones wanted to see where the trees were- it was too cute!”
But for Rochelle and Ally, being Los Angeles’ Green Halloween coordinators and decorating for Halloween wasn’t ALL fun and games.
“We hosted the Green Youth Movement Costume Exchange on October 25th. All the members & some Board members brought a costume and picked a new one. It was great! The kids also filmed a You tube video at this meeting explaining there top 5 tips for Greening their Halloween!”
“The kids had a blast and loved this event! The girls continued their meeting and decided to go to their own schools and post the tips. One of our members fell so in love with the idea, she decided to change the theme of her birthday party which was October 30th – to “Green Halloween”.
“She hosted 80 kids , had a DJ and I ended up donating 80 reusable GYM bags for her party favors with the 5 tips printed in each bag & “Live Green” GYM bracelets. The kids all used the bags for trick or treating!!!!”
Not surprisingly, Rochelle wanted to have some Green Halloween fun, too.
“I had a HalloWINE tasting and dinner Hallowine night. I had about 30 guests- all in costume. I was a GO Green cheerleader and my husband was a recycled Garbage can! I think we definitely made a statement this year. As you may have noticed, I tend to go all out with Halloween. I was very proud of myself for even making all the center pieces with items from around my house. I took branches that had fallen down during the week and painted them black. I put them in tall vases filled 3/4 with pumpkins. I then put spider webs on the branches and little spiders. They were perfect! Guests raved! See what a little creativity can do? I also gave my guests as party favors, incredible mini hand made pinatas in the shape of skulls and pumpkins. A local artist made them and I found them locally. They were a huge hit!!!!”
So, moms and daughter, fathers and sons, green cheerleaders and recycle cans, we hope that Rochelle and Ally will inspire you to not only celebrate a Green Halloween but also to toss in a little humor with your green (or a little green with your humor).
Any way you slice it, if you make sustainability fun, it’s more likely to be sustainable.
How do YOU put the F-U-N in your green? Add your comments below.
