Plastic-free Halloween Tips

It's time of year again friends! The fact is Halloween goes against all of our principles. It's not eco-friendly, tons of plastic are produced. It's not good for your health when comsuming too much sugary goodies. It's also not safe to walk on the streets at night, knocking on strangers' doors and scare small children with all the decoration and creepy costumes etc. But Halloween has a long and ancient history. It's been celebrated for centuries.

We know living a zero waste lifestyle can be a challenge, particularly around the holidays. When we have more concerned about our impact on the environment, we're trying new ways to celebrate our holidays more sustainably, and can still join in with the Halloween fun.

1) Enjoy the Fall Harvest Bounty

Little Lilly is just 2 ½ – but it is never too early to teach kids about food and where it comes from. Halloween is the perfect time to visit a local pumpkin patch, so we headed to Sunset Valley farm for a family day out to pick up pumpkins. Lilly learned more about where food comes from, and we supported a local business too – win win!

2) Pumpkin Carving Fun for the family

We carved, our daughter took out the parts and painted. She always wants to help out and be involved as much as possible. She is too young for the tools. Never let a young child carve a pumpkin. Older children can, but with age-appropriate carving tools and closely supervision. Thanks to my husband, we finally got a pretty wolf Jack O' Lantern ready for the holiday. Carving pumpkins together and looking at the results are my favorite part of the holiday, after all 🙂

3) Plastic-Free Treats

Of course, the fall harvest is not just for pumpkins for carving. This is also a great time to pick up other local ingredients to cook up in our favourite seasonal recipes. We are making our own sweet treats for the party, but as a mom, I would not let my kid eat unwrapped candies or homemade bake goods from strangers. So this year, we will be giving out some Mandarin oranges, painted with Jack o-lantern faces. Cool!

4) Purchase Pre-Loved Halloween Costumes

As we do every year, we also picked up a Halloween costume for Lilly from a local thrift store. She will be a little lion this year. Once she's done with it, we'll pass it along. For once a year dressing up, if you could put some creative to design your own costume from old materials laying around, that would be so awesome too. We will be looking at it in the future, when she is a bit older and knows what she wants to wear on Halloween.

5) Trick or Treat with small canvas tote bag

Lilly is too young, and I don't feel like taking her to go out for trick or treat at night. But we will be going to the annual Trick or Treat Extravaganza at Aberdeen Mall in the afternoon. I personally really like the ideas bringing 1 non-perishable food item or a monetary donation to the event. All donations collected will go to the Kamloops Food Bank. The candies she collects will contribute to the bowl at night to give out. We won't let her consume more than a couple though.

No matter how well we are doing at avoiding plastic wrappers, we can't control what other people hand out.

But still, we do our part. We feel good about it. And we still enjoy the spirit of Halloween.

How about you friends?

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

Happy Halloween!

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