This post previously appeared in the Pilot News, Plymouth, Indiana.
Halloween’s been super-sized. Americans now drop $6 billion a year on costumes, treats, and décor, second only to Christmas. When did something as simple, local, deliciously creepy, and delightfully homemade as Halloween become an orgy of spending? Kids now sport pricey, imported costumes. My children lug home more candy than they can eat, so their parents are forced to help them. Jack-o-lanterns? How about an inflatable cemetery, complete with zombies, for your yard?
Recently I spoke to Corey Colwell-Lipson, founder of an organization called Green Halloween, who has found ways to make this annual ghoul-fest fun, affordable, and easier on the earth.
Colwell-Lipson first took her daughters trick-or-treating in 2006. She observed that if they had the choice between a treasure (a small toy, sticker, or bubbles) and a piece of candy, they almost always chose the treasure. “When I was young, candy was a treat,” says Colwell-Lipson. “Nowadays, kids get candy all the time, even from their teachers!”
She also noticed that her kids got handfuls of candy at each house. The hand-me-down treat bag they used (formerly her father’s) was dwarfed by the treat bags hauled around by other kids. “My dad’s treat bag is about the size of a bowling ball with a 2” opening,” she says. “Enough for one piece. But people were handing out fistfuls of treats.”
After that experience, Colwell-Lipson launched Green Halloween, a local effort that has expanded across the U. S. and Canada. She emphasizes that the movement is not about taking the fun out of Halloween, but putting it back in. The group’s Web site, www.greenhalloween.org, suggests ways to emphasize meaningful activities, to create less waste, and to make their observance more affordable.
Take trick-or-treating, for instance. “Kids crave simple treasures,” says Colwell-Lipson, a certified marriage and family therapist. She based her own treasure ideas from the things that fell out of her daughters’ pockets on laundry day. “Fill a bowl with assorted treasures and ask each child to pick just one. They love to choose their own, and it can be something as simple as a feather, a polished rock, or a sticker. Children tend to place more value on an object when they can only pick one.”
Americans spend $2 billion on costumes annually, says Colwell-Lipson. Be resourceful and help your child design one from homemade materials – DIY costumes are usually cheaper, create less waste, and you can find simple patterns and suggestions for them on the Web, at the library, or a local craft store. My daughter is going as a bunch of grapes this year, a costume she designed with purple balloons and a few sprigs of fake greenery I have left over.
Rather than buy a new ready-made costume, borrow from friends and family members. Corey Colwell-Lipson’s organization just sponsored the first National Costume Swap Day, and at last report, communities in 23 states and Canada hosted swap events. The Marshall County Neighborhood Center in my town, Plymouth, Indiana, is sponsoring a costume give-away on October 21, 2010 and needs donations of gently used costumes. I’m planning to donate the Barbie ball gowns my girls have outgrown.
Reclaim Halloween. Carve a jack-o-lantern, or trick-or-treat with friends and then gather afterwards for a simple meal of soup and sandwiches with caramel apples for dessert. Go on a hayride or have a bonfire. It’s not just another Halloween – it’s fun memories to treasure. They last longer than that stash of candy.
For more information, check out www.greenhalloween.org.
