Back When I was a Kid, Halloween was Waste Free !!!

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

I love Halloween with a passion. I plan my costume months in advance, coordinate with my boyfriend so that we can make an awesome duet. Last year we dressed up as Cesar and Cleopatra, along with bronzer and sandals (yes, it was cold). This year, we are dressing up as the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. We ransacked our wardrobes and hit the local Value Village and found that awesome costumes could easily be made from scratch: I wore a long red skirt I had made for a costume a few years ago, went all out on the blue eye shadow and heart-shaped lips, taped hearts to my skirt, wore a tiara I had from my birthday party and made a staff with a stick and cardboard hearts.

Pretty simple, eh? It took some time to assemble everything, but those pre-made, plastic wrapped costumes just don’t do it for me. Partially because the fabric is really cheap and practically rips looking at it, but also because I’ll only wear the trashy little red riding hood costume once…and it’s hard to modify as all the pieces of the outfit are stitched together. I’d much rather mix and match and have something I can re-use. Call me old-fashioned, but I like hanging on to nice things (good quality clothes) and busting them out for parties.

Besides factory made costumes, the fact that every candy distributed needs to be individually wrapped in layers and layers of plastic does make me vomit a little in the back of my mouth. I absolutely understand the hygienic and safety issues (needles in apples…for example) and have been thinking of alternative ways of distributing candy on Halloween night. If you have any ideas, feel free to jot them down in the comments, I’d love to hear ‘em!

Lastly, I don’t want to brag but! My boyfriend and I carved the coolest pumpkins ever. The first one (on the top step) has great big eyes and flaring nostril, as well as a huge mouth spewing pumpkin seeds and goo into the awaiting mouth of our second pumpkin (on the step below) which is on its back, with its mouth overflowing with nasty goo. My better half enjoyed adding big spoonfuls of it onto the porch steps.

Good luck getting past those two party animals, kiddo!

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