How to have an Eco-friendly Kids Halloween Celebration

Halloween is scary enough without the horrifying levels of waste it creates. Halloween waste is definitely the scariest monster of them all for a once a year event! In this blog post we share ideas for how to have a more sustainable Halloween.

DIY Halloween Costumes for Kids

An estimated 39 million people dress up for Halloween in the UK and 90% of families buy new costumes every year. Most of these costumes (69%) are made up of polyester, a fabric made from oil-based plastic and highly flammable. 2 in 5 of those costumes are only worn once before being thrown into landfill, that's 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste – equivalent to 83 million bottles. Only 14% of halloween costumes are home-made!

I have always refused to buy costumes for my son, but I, like many parents, don't have the time or skills in making a costume. But with a little bit of imagination (or ideas from the internet!) and using materials like felt that require little to no sewing, costumes can easily be put together from items at home. You can also:

• Search charity and secondhand shops/websites for costumes or items. Last year's wolf costume was a snood I unpicked from a charity shop. The year before, I found a sparkly shawl covered in stars.

• Ask friends and class groups on Whatsapp if anyone has a costume or items they are happy to lend you. For our first trick or treat costume we borrowed a witches hat. In the past we've also dressed up as Spiderman that was a secondhand pajama set!

• Many schools and children's groups offer costume swaps, often for free or for a small donation. See if anyone is doing this in your area.

If you are local to Brighton & Hove, the The Scrap Space in Shoreham is a treasure trove of resources that are great for costume making.

https://www.weareoverthemoon.org/thescrapspace

Reuse or Recycle Halloween Decorations

If you want to buy some halloween decorations consider decorations that are plastic-free and that you can reuse year after year.

Lanka Kade mythical figures are a great example. I use the same wooden house and figures every year for a halloween display at the shop along with some cotton wool and shredded paper.

For an easy decoration idea, in store we have halloween paper chains for a fun, quick and mess-free activity with the kids.

There are lots of make-your-own halloween decoration craft ideas on the internet using recycled materials at home like egg cartons, felt and paper. There are hundreds of eco-friendly ideas online from toilet roll bats to egg carton ghosts, pumpkins, bats and monsters.

We used PVA children's glue to make leaf ghosts for window decals which is also a great excuse to enjoy an Autumn walk, collect leaves and learn the different tree types.

Pumpkins

If you are seeking out real pumpkins to decorate your home with, head to a nearby local farm to get yours rather than from a supermarket, so the money goes directly to the farmer.

Hubbub, an environmental charity, estimates that 30 million pumpkins are expected to be brought for carving this autumn, 16 million of which will go to waste.

This year, instead of carving your pumpkin, how about decorating it instead. Carving a pumpkin is really hard for children anyway and they often get bored during the process. So this year, buy with the intention to eat the pumpkin after Halloween - decorate first using water based paints or even icing pens, which can also be used like an edible glue to stick sweets on with!

Baking Fun

This spooky season is great for baking, whether that's roasting pumpkin seeds, making a wonderful pumpkin pie, pumpkin scones, pumpkin biscuits or decorative monster biscuits with the kids!

Plastic - free treats for Trick or Treaters

If you plan to stay home this 31st October and share treats to those trick or treating, consider plastic-free sweets.

- Foil wrapped sweets

- Sweets or raisins that come in cardboard boxes

- Loose sweets purchased from sweet shops and refill shops that sell by weight

- Clementines. Draw scary faces on them with black ink!

- Have a declutter and instead of sweets offer kids toys and plastic-tat from party bags and fast-food chains you no longer want at home instead of sweets.

- Stickers, pens, pencils, rubbers, marbles - anything you have at home you need to clear out!

- Savoury snacks like popcorn, Twiglets or pretzels that are not individually wrapped!

Browse our full range of Halloween themed toys, crafts, costumes and spooky hair accessories at Timeless Toys from crafts to decorations to toys:

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