Green your Halloween

Katharine Robinson considers a night in telling ghost stories a great way to be green.

Image by Eti Swiford

Inspired when I came across GreenHalloween.org, I thought you would like a few ideas on how to make this pester-power heavy day into something a little less destructive to the planet.

Imagine... a small group of friends gather for a Halloween party. There are no lights on, the TV and radio lay abandoned for the night. The room is lit only by a solitary jack-o-lantern, carved lovingly from a home-grown pumpkin the day before.

The group sit in a circle; perhaps a little local cider is on offer to warm them through...They begin to tell ghost stories.

You can’t get an evening much greener than that!

Here’s the usual list of tips to help you make Halloween that little bit greener:

• Source your pumpkin locally, or consider growing your own next year.


• Give out sweets to trick-or-treaters bought locally or home made from local ingredients.


• Consider costume swapping with friends, especially good for children that may have grown out of last year’s costume.


• If you can’t costume swap, try not to buy something new, but consider trawling charity shops for that illusive bowler hat or old bed sheet to cut two holes in


• When buying candles, make sure they are the eco-friendly variety, soy wax is a good alternative to the usual paraffin products


• If you decide to illuminate your face with a torch while telling ghost stories (a method popular in movies, especially when our cast are sat in a dark tree-house), use re-chargeable batteries to reduce your waste

Any other suggestions for a green Halloween, please leave them below in the comments...