Spooky eats & treats:

Healthy & Fun Halloween Treats

Last Minute DIY Organic Halloween Treats

Healthy Green Halloween Snacks

17 Halloween Cupcake Ideas

Where to get eco-friendly Halloween treats

Crafty fun:

Oodles of Free Recycled Halloween Craft Ideas

6 Eco-Friendly Halloween Crafts For Kids

5 spooky recycled crafts for Halloween

Halloween Crafts for Kids!

Extra tips for the greenest Halloween yet!:

Eco-Friendly Non-Edible Halloween Treats

Homemade Green Halloween Costumes for Babies

Green Your Halloween Party

Everything you could ever want to know about how to make your Halloween super green!

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Green & Spooky Halloween Round-Up

Organic Haunted all natural vegan soybean votive candle from Lilsprout. Made with pure soybeans, therapeutic grade essential oils and an all natural cotton wick.

Heartfelt Hands has the most adorable little wool pumpkin patch bowls!

For your Halloween kitty there’s a sweet USDA Organic Jack O Lantern Catnip Cat Toy from Oh Boy Cat Toy.

For tiny spooks Love Bug Knits offers an adorable Organic Cotton Knit Pumpkin Hat

Organic Vegan Bath Basket with 3 large (4 oz) bath bombs/melts, 3 Soaps, Pumpkin Scrubby, and a lip balm packed into a fall themed basket. Your choice of many organic scents available! From MrsHerk’s Shop.

Non-toxic Halloween Recolored Crayons that can be given away as cavity free Halloween treats from Talk Tagz.

Tyler Rae’s Boutique makes cute Halloween minded, Eco Friendly Reusable Snack Sack/Sandwich Sack to eliminate all those lame plastic baggies.

I Heart Zombies Organic Children’s Tee made by Moonpath Designs with non-toxic, water-based dye pressed onto an organic, unbleached,100% cotton tee shirt.

Post from: Blisstree

Eight Green Etsy Halloween Finds

Green your invites: There’s no limit to the spooky e-cards you can find online nowadays. E-cards save paper and money (many are free). If you can’t go with e-cards, check out some Halloween invites that are non-toxic like the INK + WIT Halloween postcards above – chipboard kraft 103lb thick, with soy based ink.

Green your costumes: Ask guests to make their own costumes from recycled goods they have at home.

Green your decor: Use pumpkins, apples, hay stacks, leaves, old thrift store sheets (for ghosties) and homemade recycled paper for decor rather than plastic inflated pumpkins or skeleton heads.

Green the treats: Serve Fair Trade goodies along with organically made treats and eats. Serve organic apple cider and make sure it’s all placed on real, not paper platters with some cloth napkins or recycled paper napkins. Buy items in bulk or in packaging that’s recyclable and less extrema. You don’t really need single serving sized candies at a party; buy a bunch and dump it in a bowl.

Green the fun: Try building a scarecrow, bobbing for apples, or make an awesome Halloween mural with recycled paper and non-toxic crayons.

For tons of other great green Halloween party tips visit Green Halloween party.

Post from: Blisstree

Plan a green Halloween party!

The idea – Design a killer original design for a ChicoBag depicting the “spirit” of a Green Halloween. Children ages 1-13 can enter their original design up until October 24, 2009 by 5:00 PM Pacific Time.

The winner will have their design featured on ChicoBag sold through retailers nation-wide. (Last year’s bag was even featured on The Bonnie Hunt Show!). First and second place winners, as well as a runner up, will receive a variety of fantastic from some awesome eco-conscious companies like Klean Kanteen, Gleegum, Kids Konserve, Hannah’s Dream, A Toy Garden, Weisenbach Recycled Products, Hybrid Light and Healthy Child Healthy World.

Bonus! Proceeds of the sale of the bags benefit Treeswing, a non-profit working to raise generations of healthy kids. This is a super cool contest and it’d be great if a reader here wins. Let me know if your child is entering – and good luck!

Enter the ChicoBag & Green Halloween’s 2nd ANNUAL TRICK-OR-TREAT BAG DESIGN CONTEST.

Post from: Blisstree

Trick-or-Treat Green Bag Design Contest!

Let’s look at the cons:

• Organic pumpkins are large, heavy, and can cost substantially more than non-organic.
• Organic pumpkins are free from pesticides, but in relative terms, conventional pumpkins won’t expose your family to an overly large amount of pesticides. Most of us only get them a couple of times a year and even if you make pies and eat the seeds your pesticide exposure is lower then say if you eat some non-organic apples.
• If you’re not at all munching that pumpkin, health-wise in your own home, organic pumpkins make less sense. They do however expose the planet to pesticides (see below)

Pros of organic pumpkins include:

• Organic agriculture and the ongoing good health of farmers and farm workers are supported with organic purchase.
• Organic supports healthy rivers, soil, streams, rivers, air, and an overall healthy planet.
• Other plants can be harmed by conventional pumpkins. “Two of the major herbicides used in pumpkins, clomazone and ethalfluralin, have either the potential to injure the crop being grown or cause severe injury to non-target plants.” Source.
• Pumpkins contribute a large amount of pesticides to the world. It’s been noted that if all pumpkin farms went organic, we’d cut pesticide use by about 400,000 pounds per year.

I think organic is a good plan because it supports an overall healthy planet. BUT if you don’t have the room in your budget, buy foods your family eats often in organic form and skip the organic pumpkin.

What are your plans for this year’s pumpkins? Grow your own, organic, conventional?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Pros and cons of organic Halloween pumpkins

I reviewed ChicoBags last June, and I’m still using them for grocery shopping. I like that they’re machine washable. I also wrote about this same kid’s bag design contest last year, so I’m excited that it’s back again.

Each ChicoBag Trick or Treat bag features lightweight, yet sturdy fabric, and holds up to 25 pounds of candy and goodies! And when you’re done, throw it in the washing machine. Kids (and some adults?) may even wish to go shopping with the Halloween ChicoBag in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

ChicoBag has teamed up with Green Halloween (a non-profit working to encourage planet-friendly holidays) for this contest, and a portion of the proceeds for sales of the bags will go to Treeswing. Treeswing has an important mission: “to create balanced, healthy environments for children and foster a lifetime of healthy habits and healthy families.”

Some tips for entering the contest from ChicoBag: “Artistic talent is not the focus of the contest, but the design that best captures the ’spirit’ of a Green Halloween is. The hope is that children participating will be inspired to make greener choices for Halloween and other celebrations throughout the year.”

Keep reading to find out how to enter:

Post from: Blisstree

Green Halloween Bag Design Contest

I’ve searched the web and compile a list of things and ideas to make this a “green” Halloween.

So here it is,  the 16 Green Halloween Tips

Tips from Teri Goldberg

1. Email party invites instead of using paper or cardboard greeting cards.  (save the trees)

2. Make use of all pumpkin parts.

(I remember seeing pumpkin soup sometime before in the food channel. )

3.  Use reusable plates, cups, utensils.

4.  Rent a costume instead of buying

Tips from About.com

5.  Use reusable bags for trick or treat

6.   Make your own costume.

Check out these last minute costumes for kids

7.   Give ecofriendly organic treats (ie organic candies, or things that have little or no packaging)

8.   Roast pumpkin seeds.

Halloween Decorating Tips

9.  Make a Tissue ghost

10.  Stuff an old jeans and shirt with plastic bags and turn it into a scarecrow.

11.   Replace lightbulbs with low wattage red bulbs

12.  Turn your yard into a cemetery. Use cardboard box and black paint.

From allfreecrafts

13. tin can frankenstein

14.  Egg carton bat

15.  Recycled lightbulb witch

16.  Recycled CD jack-o-lantern

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Post from: Blisstree

16 Green Halloween Tips