Here at the VegBox Recipes Club we’ve been asking our members for “Eco-ween” ideas, so that, whatever other scary footprints we may find on the garden path this October 31st, none of them are going to be carbon ones.
When it comes to decorating a party room, we’re leaving out the plastic and rubber danglies and supermarket novelties in favour of carving some local pumpkins and other gourds (don’t forget to save the flesh and seeds to use in seasonal recipes for the party night – check out the VBR Pumpkin Page for recipes).
For the really little ones, we came across the idea of cutting facial features out of old magazines and sticking them to the outside of a pumpkin for a “more-silly-than-scary” decoration.
As for other decorating ideas – we’ve been throwing around the idea of using wool or string to make giant spider webs with, draping old dark sheets in the corners, and even using twigs and homemade cut-out bats and bugs. I’m going to try dangling some of these in front of a couple of pointy desk lamps for spooky shadow effects.
When it comes to costumes … just like Mrs Green, we’re also big fans of the traditional ghostie sheet. We’re also loving the idea of ripped up and “bloodied” second hand clothes from charity shops for even scarier undead apparitions. Meanwhile, Count Dracula is pretty easily summoned with a black sheet used like a cape over old school trousers and a white shirt. Or how about a bandaged mummy? And you could even try gluing carrot tips to wide elastic banding for veggie demon horns! Finally, how about using natural face paints or even better, spending the weekend before Halloween with your kids making home-made masks from recycled cardboard and elastic or string? You could simply cut out then draw / colour / paint, or you could decorate the homemade cardboard masks using pasta, lentils, raisins, seeds, even beetroot juice for blood…
Trick or treat… even if sweets are the treat of choice in your neighbourhood, we’re counting on making sure we’ve had a good hearty meal before we head off to cut down on mass consumption levels on the night. Some other great ideas for treats include giving out cheese sticks or crackers, juice boxes, paper bags of nuts (careful!) or raisins, and non-edible treats like recycled paper notepads and natural ingredient crayons.
This has just GOT to be so much more fun than a grumpy trip to the supermarket for a bunch of plastic nonsense, right?!
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I have to say I was in a supermarket the other day and felt quite assaulted by the literal WALL of fun size sweets. Absurd when you think about it really. And what on earth has it got to do with Halloween anyway? The end of the harvest, the blurring of the boundaries between the living and the dead, a fun size Mars Bar. A perfect fit, I think not! Am all for a bit of fun but when society is crying out about obesity I think we need to rethink these sort of things. I love the idea of beetroot juice for blood though…MUHAHAHAHAHA!
Of course, it’s always possible to go too far ; ) Check out this video! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol4C_eNWdwM
hahaha brilliant!!