Presenting…
The winners of the BabyLegs Green Halloween? contest (stage 1)
Below, you’ll find the submissions of five families* sharing their ideas for new steps they’ll be taking to celebrate a healthy and Earth-friendly Halloween this year.… We think you’ll be inspired by their creativity, resourcefulness and commitment to incorporate “more meaning, less stuff” into their Halloween traditions.
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My daughter is wearing one of my old costumes she found in a trunk. My two year old is either going to wear the costume I bought (used) off eBay last year or wear one of his sister's old costumes (we save them and share with friends and family, plus they make great dress up play clothes).
We are going to make all of our decorations from materials that are normally thrown away and whatever craft supplies we have on hand. Toilet paper rolls will become little favor boxes for the party, laundry detergent bottles will become black cats and pumpkins, glass jars and tin cans will become luminaries and crafty decor. Plus I grow my own pumpkins so we'll have plenty of those to carve and use as decorations.
My mom has some funky, old melmac plates and cups from the 50's that are green and orange, they'll make great tableware, no disposables. The only thing we'll have to purchase this year is some food for the party.
- Wenona Napolitano
Flint, MI
My two-year-old son Jack loves numbers. When I asked him what he wants to be for Halloween, he said, “A calculator!” My daughter and I are making his costume from recycled and household materials. The calculator itself is a silver piece of posterboard. All of the buttons are plastic lids from products we’ve used. We are making a digital readout that he can change. For that, we will use one index card for each digit from 0-9. He will then be able to Velcro these on the readout so that he can change the numbers as he wishes. The best part about this costume is that he can hang it on his wall and play with it after Halloween passes.
- Kathleen Whitman Plucker
Bloomington, IN
We light the path to our door by making tealight candle holders out of mini pumpkins. The teeny ones are the perfect size. I simple cut the top off, clean it out and drop in a tealight candle (beeswax from our local honey farm, if we can) and they're ready to go. The next day, I remove the candles and poke 4 holes (12, 3, 6, 9 o'clock) in the sides of the pumpkins. The kids stick fallen cedar twigs through, forming and X and leaving a few inches sticking out all around. I tie a raffia loop on and the kids fill them with bird seed. We hang them around for the birdies and also give them to the neighbors as gifts :). The pumpkins will biodegrade and the twigs and raffia can be used by the birds in their nests.
-Tanja Zumbroich
Auburn, WA
My favorite part of Halloween is carving a pumpkin, but, like cutting down a tree just to put a star on it, I can't help but think of the obvious waste. This year, instead of buying the inedible large carving pumpkins, our family has decided to use smaller sugar pumpkins and squash for our carving creations. The night before Halloween, we will carefully scoop out all the useable flesh with a melon baller and make a pumpkin curry to eat for Halloween dinner. You could also make a hearty pumpkin soup and serve to neighbors who need to warm up on a brisk October evening!
- Sarah Simpson
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Hi! We are doing a few new things this year with the idea of making Halloween a bit more green. To start, we don't give out candy in individual wrappers and this year we are giving out fair trade pencils. Something every child uses in school won't end up in the trash, and the kids that come to our home always remark about the cool things they walk away with. Of course, they still want the candy, but someone else is providing that! Also, we are not carving our pumpkins this year but decorating them with glow in the dark paint, then they will be eaten, seeds and all, for the weeks following Halloween. Our costumes will all be constructed from items that we have around the house or items that will be purchased second hand from a church jumble sale... so we will be repurposing instead of buying items for a one time use. We're looking forward to a great holiday! (And we found your web site after scoring our first pair of baby legs and loving them... they are so useful for an almost-walker that we would love more!!)
- Laurie Simmer
Ponte Vedra, FL
*Winners listed in no particular order.
For stage two of the BabyLegs Green Halloween? contest, click here.
