by Corey

Clearly, it’s dangerous to be alive. The news proves it daily. Even without a t.v., terrifying stories grab hold of my consciousness and fuel my neurotic tendencies via my smart phone, at the grocery store check-out, and in the parking lot of my kids’ school (“Did you hear what happened…? Soooo scary!”

But somehow the fear factor is amplified at Halloween, and tales of horror-in-real-life seem to multiply like bunnies in springtime. Only not as cute.

Now, we all know that much of the spook-fest prompted by the media is simply motivated by ratings; apparently, Wes Craven and the likes are on to something (who knew?). Fear sells. But it’s also true that some of it is really, truly real and really, truly scary. And some of it is important to be aware (aka: beware!) of.

But how not to turn concern into freeze or freak out? How to feel better about better-for-people-and-planet steps?

Since it’s launch in 2007, Green Halloween has been all about creating meaningful change through fun; about healthier holidays without the yuck; greener steps that are easy. No finger wagging, preaching, or in-your-face tactics. We don’t believe that fear is as motivating as joy, as yum and as simple. And you’ve told us you agree.

But at the same time, Green Halloween has always focused on addressing serious health and environmental concerns like heavy metals in face paints, candy made with junk instead of real food, and waste generated by decor, candy and costumes as well as the packaging from all the aforementioned. The reasons Green Halloween matters (in addition to the yum and the fun, which matter a lot) are far too numerous.

Take these recent headlines:

• Lead-Contaminated Halloween Costumes Shipped to Seattle (King 5 News, Seattle)
• French Bees Produce Blue honey After Eating M&M Waste (BBC, UK)
• The Toxic Truth About Sugar (International Weekly Journal of Science)
• Do Food Dyes Warrant a Warning Label? (Healthy Child, Healthy World)
• Lead, Cadmium, and Other Toxic Chemicals Found in Costume Jewelry (Yahoo.com)
• Nestle Chocolate is Produced From Child Labor, New Report Says (Global Post)
• Genetically Modified Candy! (InsidersHealthTV)

I don’t know about you, but all of this is concerning in my book.

But as we already established, fear is about as inspiring as a rotten pumpkin, so it’s important to counter dread-filled headlines with do-able, affordable, feel-good solutions. Otherwise, we’ll all end up looking like the sorry soul in Edvard Munch’s painting, The Scream.

Green Halloween is the antidote to gloom and doom. And we make it easy-breezy.

And because you, and people all around you, refuse to “freeze” from fear, and instead embrace the possibility that Halloween can be healthy and tasty, non-toxic and cool, sustainable and affordable, eco-fabulous and fun, good news is now front page:

• Hershey to Source 100% Certified Cocoa by 2020 (PR Newswire)
• Whole Foods Drops Hershey’s Scharffen Berger Chocolates Over Child Labor Issues (Green America)
• Surf Sweets Organic Candy and EcoMom Alliance Team Up to Bring Waste-Free Party Kits to Schools (EcoMom Alliance)
• New Candy Company Launches With Aim of Unjunking the World (PR Newswire)
• Terra Firma Cosmetics Launches First Line of Truly Non-Toxic Face Paints
• ChicoBag Celebrates 5th Annual Reusable Halloween Bag Design Contest
• Hunterdon County Costume Swap a Great Success (Hunterton County Democrat)
• Green Halloween Costumes 2012: Easy, Free DIY Ideas For Kids And Adults (The Huffington Post)
• National Costume Swap Day: Event Aims To Help Parents Save On Kids’ Halloween Costumes (The Huffington Post)

Have some good news to share about greening Halloween? Do share!

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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®.

By Wendy

Summer is officially here. It’s time take the grill out of the garage and start the barbeque! Call the family, make the salad, and get the hotdogs and hamburgers ready. They’re the perfect condiment. So perfect that a group of engineers at MIT have also created a new liquid called LiquiGlide used to coat the inside of condiment bottles for an easier pour and not waste a single drop.

My favorite ketchup is Krazy Ketchup. It was created by moms who wanted to give their kids a great tasting ketchup. It’s also 100% Certified Organic and rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Potassium.

For you DIY moms, here’s an easy homemade ketchup recipe you can make at home:

What You Need:

1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes in puree

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

What to Do:

Blend the can of whole tomatoes in a blender until smooth

Cook onions in oil in a 4-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until softened, about 8 minutes

Add blended tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar, vinegar, and salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until very thick, about 1 hour, stirring more frequently toward the end of cooking to prevent scorching

Puree ketchup in 2 batches in blender until it’s smooth. Chill covered, at least 2 hours to help flavors develop.

Cooks’ note: Ketchup can be chilled up to 3 weeks

But what else can you do with ketchup? Here are 5 things you can do with your new found ketchup besides putting it on your burger:

1. Shine Your Copper Pot and Pans- the acidity in ketchup helps to remove the tarnish build up, making your pieces shine like new. Apply a thin layer of ketchup on your copper pan for 20 minutes. Rinse and dry.
2. Keeping Your Silver Pieces Bright and Sparkly- ketchup can also remove the grime that builds up on silver jewelry and other pieces. Pour ketchup into a bowl and dip silver pieces right in for 20 minutes. You may want to scrub hard to reach places. Rinse and dry thoroughly.
3. Fixing of Chlorine Damaged Hair- it helps to remove the icky green that you sometimes get after being in swimming pools. Just apply ketchup all over your hair and let it marinate for about 20 minutes. Wash hair thoroughly and you should see results.
4. Making Fake Blood During Halloween- ketchup makes great imitation blood for those vampire and zombie Halloween costumes for the kids
5. Finger Painting for Toddlers- let kids use ketchup to paint their food to make it eating more fun and nutritious.

What other things do you use your ketchup for?

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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.

How to Make a Fairy Broom

Feeling crafty?  Gather the troops together to create your very own witches broom decoration for your home or porch!  Who knows, maybe there’s a little magic in the broom after all (wink, wink).

The how-to’s:

More than just your ordinary sticks and twigs create this magic broom!

Choose your sticks wisely then bind together with waxed linen over and over.

Lavender at the head of the broom adds the finishing touch!

For more about brooms, please check out Fairegarden!

Check out blogger Laurali Star at The Damsel in the Attic!

Green Halloween® is a nationwide non-profit initiative started by mother-daughter team Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell. In 2010, Green Halloween became a program of EcoMom® Alliance and has events in cities across the U.S.

Guest post

Face painting is an eco-friendly solution to all the synthetic, wasteful, and expensive Halloween costumes out there. With some painted-on whiskers and a blackened nose, your child can easily be transformed into a loveable feline. With some black circles around their eyes and a white sheet (with eye holes, of course) over their head, they’re instantly the scariest little ghost on the block.

Unfortunately, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported that 10 out of 10 face paints they tested contained lead (a powerful neurotoxin), while others even contained nickel, cobalt, and chromium. Masks aren’t a healthy alternative either, as they have been discovered by the Washington Toxics Coalition to contain high levels of cadmium, another toxic heavy metal in paints that can accumulate in the body. Masks may also contain hormone-disrupting, off-gassing phthalates. Even trace amounts of chemicals and toxins are worrisome to parents, as children absorb about 50 percent of all the lead that enters their systems; and it never goes away.

Thankfully, there are natural, healthful alternatives available to eco- and safety-conscious parents.

Luna Star: This mother-and-daughter-founded company based in New Hampshire offers natural, hypoallergenic costume makeup for Halloween as well as other dress-up occasions. The ingredients, which include natural oxides, micas, and essential oils, are gentle enough for delicate young skin, and still easy to remove. Luna Star a proud signer of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and comply with their non-toxic, no animal testing standards. Luna Star products do not contain preservatives, artificial colors, fragrances, parabens, or gluten. Their jars are also BPA free, and they use recycled shipping boxes and labels.

Terra Firma Cosmetics: Terra Firma Natural Face Paints are non-toxic, kid-safe, and eco-friendly. The Washington-based company is committed to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and donates 10 percent of its proceeds from paint kit sales to Green Halloween! Each kit includes an applicator set with an instruction pamphlet. The paints include ingredients like vegetable glycerin, aloe leaf juice, rose water, jojoba oil, beeswax, and grapeseed oil. Terra Firma Cosmetics also hold a record of making the best double jogging stroller available in the market.

Wee Can Too Edible Art Supply: Edible face paint? That’s exactly what Wee Can Too has done. This natural, eco-friendly, non-toxic face paint is made with organic fruit and vegetable dyes – real blueberries, beets, pumpkin, and spinach – mixed with rice cereal and rice flour! The ingredients are vegan, free of wheat, dairy, sugar, and preservatives. Purchase Edible Face Paint by Wee Can Too through the Susty Party website.

Celebrate Green! recipe: If you want to know the exact ingredients in your child’s face paint, make it yourself. Try this DIY recipe from the mother-daughter founders of Green Halloween and authors of the book, Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations & Traditions for the Whole Family.

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ChasingGreen is a website dedicated to sharing the message that ordinary people can positively impact our world in their everyday lives. ChasingGreen knows that your life is already complex and works to show you how you can reduce your environmental impact in simple practical ways.

Who says Halloween has to be unhealthy? And who says healthy can’t be fun? Green Halloween^® is about making Halloween happy and healthy and about creating community traditions we can all be proud of.

What is Green Halloween?

Green Halloween is a non-profit, grassroots initiative striving to create healthier, eco-friendlier holidays– starting with Halloween. Launched in Seattle in 2007 by a mother of two, the nationwide movement, now a program of EcoMom Alliance, is all about educating and inspiring communities by showing how easy, affordable, and fun it can be to factor our earth and our health into our daily choices.

To read all about Green Halloween and find fun events near you, visit GreenHalloween.org. You can learn how to get involved locally, sign up for the super nifty newsletter, and get fab DIY costume ideas, recipes, upcycled décor how-to’s and more. There’s even a trick-or-treat bag design contest for kids!

So forget orange and black. With upcoming events in cities across the U.S., this community initiative is adding much-needed green to Halloween.

It’s a scream!

Green Halloween® is a nationwide non-profit initiative started by mother-daughter team Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell. In 2010, Green Halloween became a program of EcoMom® Alliance and has partner events in cities across the U.S.