Happy HallowGreen!
october, 2011    issue 7
 
Orange and Black for Halloween?   
 
 
 Boo!!!  
 
Let’s go Green!
 
 
   
GREEN COSTUMES

* Reuse costumes or make new ones from recycled items:  Nothing wrong with wearing the same costume again, especially if your party has a different guest list.  Another option: trade costumes with friends.  That way you get the same bang for someone else’s buck.  Or used recycled items for a costume.  Here are a few ideas from our Betties:

President Betty, Sharon McRill: “My Mom took a dozen or so burned out light bulbs and ‘installed’ them into a large cardboard box with holes in the sides and the top for my brother’s head and arms.  Can you guess what he was?  An idea machine!”

Safety Betty, Jessica, recalls, “My Stepdad once glued old Barbies and other dolls to a shirt and pants to become a chick magnet.”

Byline Betty, Judy, once dismantled an autumn centerpiece and created a headpiece using wire and fake leaves for her (then little) son.  She attached more leaves and acorns to his brown sweatsuit.  He won a prize as the Spirit of Autumn!  

Check out the daily green: http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/homemade-halloween-costumes-471811
                                               

 

GREEN TREATS

Instead of candy, why not hand out pencils made from recycled materials, apples, nickels, dimes, or even small cups of apple cider?  What about little gifts from nature like interesting rocks, crystals or seashells?  Or make up a bunch of fortunes to print out (on recycled paper) and give as “treats.”   

But if you want to give candy, you can still do it in a green way. Look for organic, all-natural, dye-free ingredients that have compostable packaging, such as dark chocolate by such companies as Endangered Species Chocolate http://www.chocolatebar.com/shop/pc-42-5-organic-dark-chocolate-bug-bites.aspx.  Dark chocolate is rich in anti-oxidents.  When it is also organically grown, shade-grown and certified Fair Trade, it has triple certification.  Other companies selling triple certified or organic and/or fair trade bite-sized chocolate include Equal Exchange, Green & Blacks, Nirvana and Sjaak's. 
GREEN PARTY


Halloween parties are automatically relaxed and fun.  Depending on the age group, have acitivites like pumpkin painting, cupcake or cookie decorating or after-dark hunts in the yard.  Have a Halloween bocce ball game, using a pumpkin as the ballina and apples as the bocce   balls.  
 
Decorate with beautiful fall leaves, branches and acorns you’ve collected a few days ahead of time.  For spookier decor, ask at your market for dead or dying flowers.  Put them in a vase and “be-head” them, a la Morticia  Addams.  

 

GREEN LIGHTS

Check out these spider lights http://www.improvementscatalog.com/ProductSearch?storeId=11653&catalogId=11653&langId=-1&searchTerm=spider+lights which use less energy than conventional lights.  Also instead of paraffin candles, use soy or beeswax candles.  If kids need flashlights after dark, consider Bogo lights http://www.bogolight.com/, solar powered flashlights.  

 
GREEN BAGS

For candy collecting, use the bag from last year, if it has survived.  Otherwise, consider a reusable shopping bag with handles or pillowcase.  If you have a brown paper handled bag, consider letting the kids decorate it with hand-drawn Halloween pictures.

For more ideas, check out http://www.greenhalloween.org/
also
http://www.greenbeanchronicles.com/2008/10/green-mom-carnival-commercialization-of.html

 



The Betty Brigade
2008 Hogback Rd., Suite 2
Ann Arbor Michigan
48105


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