Every year, the holiday decorations seem to pop up in stores earlier and earlier. Buying new decorations and costumes every year isn’t very green, though. For one thing, they’re mostly made out of plastic and other ghastly materials. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Some of the spookiest fun I ever had came from yesteryear, in the days when mom and dad spent time handcrafting decorations, making and baking tasty treats in the kitchen and rifling through the house in search of  some crazy combination of costume items. It was fun… and it was green, before we ever thought of being green.

Give your kids the same green Halloween that we had ourselves. Here are some cool projects sure to spook the little devils into behaving until Christmas:

Tricks & Treats:

Instead of eating that wrapped candy at home (and I know you’ll be tempted to), bake some treats of your own. It’s great family time and very yummy. Make a tasty graveyard out of chocolate pudding in a cake dish. Top it with crumbled chocolate cookies (for the dirt), some Cool Whip for marshmallow ghosts and half a Vienna Finger for each gravestone.

Instead of buying a plastic trick-or-treat pumpkin head, make your own out of an old pillowcase. You can decorate it by coloring designs on pieces of course sandpaper and ironing them on. But if you write your name on it, be sure to write it backwards for the iron-on to work.

No Bones About It:

Wad and roll up old newspapers to shape into skeleton parts: head, arms, legs, body, feet and hands. Cover the parts and assemble together with beige masking tape. Use spare household items to make a few details under the tape, like eye sockets, nose, ribs, etc. Cover with gauze.

Costumes:

Have a costume-making contest with your family or friends. Try to make the most unique outfit using only old clothes, makeup and objects you can find around the house. It’s amazing how creative you can get when you let your imagination run wild – you can be teen wolf with just some red, black and brown makeup and a flannel shirt and jeans. Compete for the most creative or scary costume, but make sure to have an awesome prize (no dishes for a week?).

Scare Your Curds Away:

You can make the biggest, scariest spider ever. Fill a large, black trash bag with leaves. Spray paint eight cardboard wrapping paper tubes black and poke or tape them to the bag. For an even more realistic look, rip the legs a little near the center and let them dangle a bit. Then, attach some fangs to the knot in the bag made out of foam cup cutouts.

Party Till the Ghouls Come Home:

Sometimes trick-or-treating can be unsafe, ungreen and exhausting. If you’re not sold on the whole All Hallows Eve excursion, consider throwing a party at home instead. You can bob for apples (it’s harder than you think), make spooky treats and punch, turn your basement or yard into a haunted house or moonlight spooky trail and watch scary movies. Very safe, very green, and still exhausting, but worth it!

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