Halloween is a holiday that children and many adults love! In fact, it's the second most celebrated holiday in the country! Like all holidays, there has been a certain amount of consumerism. We don't have to look far to see that it's now linked to overconsumption, as well as the wrong kind of consummation.
We only have to think of all those decorations made from plastic and sometimes single-use, all those pumpkins that end up on the way to the garbage dump, all those costumes made from environmentally unfriendly materials, the fact that some families even spend Halloween in their cars, and all those candies in individual wrappers! We'd love to be able to celebrate without thinking about the ecological impact we're having. To do so, we believe it's simply a matter of being prepared. This preparation doesn't have to be arduous or expensive. On the contrary, it can be much more economical and part of the party.
From the list of potentially polluting elements mentioned above, we'd like to share with you a few ideas for solutions concerning costumes and decorations under the gaze of textiles.
The costumes
Will you be happier with a new suit you've bought that will most likely be unoriginal and, what's more, likely to be worn only once? Rather than buying a new suit, it will certainly be more fun and more original to choose one or more of the following options.
Renting a suit is a great idea! It's less expensive, so you can change your suit every year, and you'll have less impact on the environment, without generating waste! You can also buy second-hand on platforms such as Kijiji or lesPac.
Design your own costume and get creative! Lacking inspiration? Pinterest is certainly a great source of inspiration. To find elements that go with your costume idea, you can have several strategies.
You could even celebrate Halloween ahead of time by organizing a costume swap, old clothes that are no longer of use anyway and are just cluttering up your home.
You can always find great Halloween costumes searching through crafts and toy bins. You'll be amazed at what you can find. From cape to magic wand, tutu to fireman's helmet... the layout will be your ally when it comes to originality. The possibilities are endless!
You can also visit thrift stores or garage sales. It's always surprising to see all those unused items on the side of the road, waiting to be snapped up. You can even match your candy bag to your costume. Take an old pillowcase and let your kids decorate it with paint and other craft items available at home or in the recycling bin.
Masks and false teeth are scary! How true! The plastics used to make them are often dubious and may, for example, contain lead and phthalates. It's best to avoid them!
Once the Halloween party's over, maximize the life of your costumes by making them available for your kids to play dress-up all year round, taking them back to a thrift store, selling them through platforms like Kijiji or donating them to a school or daycare center.
Makeup
Halloween night is a time for children (and adults!) to get daring and cover their faces in make-up. It's been proven that widely sold Halloween make-up is unsafe, as some contains lead or other heavy metals, powerful allergens and endocrine disruptors. Opt for make-up of natural origin. You can even create it with ingredients from your pantry, such as flour, cornstarch, syrup and food coloring. Even fake blood can be created from edible ingredients.
The decorations
Decorations are also an important aspect of your ecological impact, depending on what you choose to use. An impressive variety exists on the market, and most of them are made from plastic, even the textiles incorporated into them, such as spider's web.
In the same spirit as your costumes, you can create your own Halloween decorations and turn it into a fun activity! Here, too, you can take inspiration from what you find on Pinterest, and make the most of your plastic art materials and recycling bin!
Autumn also presents many elements to bring to the fore for your decorations. Decorating with branches and dead leaves will make your home even more original. All decorations can be composted after Halloween! Combine old clothes, such as jeans and a plaid shirt, and fill them with dead leaves to form a scarecrow. The same goes for an old sheet, which can be transformed into a ghost.
If you already have plastic decorations, it's best to use them year after year. Plastic decorations can take between 500 and 1,000 years to decompose once discarded. So it's best to keep using them until they reach the end of their useful life.
A constant element in Halloween decorations is the pumpkin. It seems obvious, but make sure the one you choose is locally grown and ideally organic. Every year, it's surprising how many pumpkins end up in landfill sites! Pumpkins can be eaten: soup, pie, sweet or savoury roasted pumpkin seeds... To keep the pumpkin fresh and give it the best possible chance of being eaten, it's best to dig your lantern one or two days ahead of time, and use a candle (natural or LED) only on the day of the festivities.
As mentioned above, just about every aspect of Halloween can be questioned from an ecological point of view. We've chosen to talk about the textile aspects, and already there are some great ways to make this a more eco-friendly celebration. In addition to making it more environmentally friendly, these tips will make it both more festive and more economical. What more could you ask for?
Ecologically yours,
