Tree Hugging Family » green-halloween

Last Minute DIY Organic Halloween Treats

Jennifer — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:05:26 +0000

If you’re still looking for some super cute Halloween treats that are fast and easy, I’ve got a round up of some ideas for you. All of these treats take very little time and some, like the first adorable Halloween ghosts are even somewhat healthy. Note, of course like always, not all these treats are branded organic. It’s an easy enough switch though. Simply exchange conventional ingredients for organic.

BOO! Ghost Strawberries

Frighteningly cute ghost strawberries! I LOVE these. It’s crazy how simple but adorable a treat can be. Kids will adore these.

More spooky edible fun…

I’d never eat spider eggs – not for a million buck. But you might like them.

Pear “Ghosts” and Apple “Jack-o’-Lanterns” – really, ultra, super cute.

I’m not a huge fan of quick foods like ready made biscuits or cookies, but if you’re willing to make your own organic quick biscuit or cookie dough, Pillsbury has some cute and very fast Halloween ideas you can use with it, such as Crescent Mummy Dogs (PLEASE use organic hot dogs or soy though!!!), Black Beans in Boo Bowls, and Spooky Spider Cookies.

Mini Halloween Cakes

And one treat that takes a little longer. I KNOW I did say fast, but I found these and can’t believe how amazing they are. I think it’d be worth the extra time to make these truly unique little Mini Pumpkin Cakes. Seriously cute right!?

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Healthy & Fun Halloween Treats

Jennifer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:51:29 +0000

Mixing healthy with fun is easy if you’re creative. Take a look at these cool Halloween treats below which are both healthy and spooky fun for kids. Click the links or images to learn how to make them with your own kiddos.

Haunted Forest Platter – toooooooo cute! And so darn creative. Who would have thought that eggs could look so evil?

The most adorable Snack-o’-Lantern and Pizza Mummies you’ve ever seen!

Screaming Red Punch with a Hand – make this with organic juice for optimal healthy drinking.

Spider rolls – one word – ICK! I hate spiders. Kids would love this though.

This Calavera Sandwich amazes me! Just totally cool.

Also see a killer watermelon brain. If you’re looking for something amazing, but not as healthy, take a look at an adorable Halloween cupcake round-up. If you make any of the recipes, just switch out ingredients for organic.

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Green Halloween is Coming Soon

Jennifer — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:21:31 +0000

Halloween, or more appropriately for tree hugging families, “green” Halloween is coming soon, so it’s time to get planning. Before we kick off this season, let’s take a look back at some previous green Halloween tips you can use.

TIPS:

Buy Nothing New Halloween was an idea last year, but it still holds up as an excellent plan for this year.
Green Halloween Costume Ideas
Non-toxic face paints for Halloween
Should you buy an organic pumpkin for Halloween?
Green Your Halloween Party

TREATS:

ECO-HALLOWEEN CRAFTS!:

THIS YEAR:

There’s still time to enter the ChicoBag & Green Halloween’s 2nd Annual Trick-Or-Treat Bag Design Contest and get signed up for Fair Trade Reverse Trick-or-Treating.

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ChicoBag & Green Halloween’s 2nd Annual Trick-Or-Treat Bag Design Contest

Jennifer — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:21:06 +0000

I love Green Halloween and I also love ChicoBags, so I’m happy to announce that they’ve partnered up again this year for the 2nd Annual Trick-Or-Treat Bag Design Contest. The first annual contest was a big success last year and I’m hoping that many of you will come out for this year’s event.

What’s this contest about?:

ChicoBags, maker of yes, all things reusable bags, and Green Halloween, a non-profit, grassroots movement that was created by Celebrate Green author Corey Colwell-Lipson, in order to promote sustainable Halloween traditions teamed up to bring this contest to kids.

Children ages 1-13 are encouraged to enter the contest by submitting an original drawing best depicting the spirit of a Green Halloween. Artistic talent is not the focus of the contest, but the design that best captures the “spirit” of a Green Halloween is. The hope is that children participating will be inspired to make greener choices for Halloween and other celebrations throughout the year.

Images are due by October 24, 2009 – 5:00 PM Pacific Time. (Winner will be notified no later than 11/5/09.)

PRIZES!

If your child wins, her design will be printed on ChicoBags sold through retailers nation-wide and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Treeswing, a nonprofit organization that promotes healthy eating and lifestyle habits for children. (Last year’s bag was even featured on The Bonnie Hunt Show!). First and second place winners, as well as a runner up, will receive a variety of fantastic prizes including some of the most popular eco-friendly goodies and some shriek-worthy monetary awards to be announced in the coming weeks.

Learn more about the 2nd Annual Trick-Or-Treat Bag Design Contest.

Learn more about Green Halloween & ChicoBags:

Let me know if your kids enter and good luck!

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Tree Hugging Family’s busy green autumn!

Jennifer — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:00:22 +0000

It’s going to be a super busy green autumn here at Tree Hugging Family. So you don’t feel lost here’s what’s coming up this September.

Tomorrow we’ll be finding out which three readers will be winning a copy of the DVD DisneyNature: Earth. If you haven’t entered yet skip over quick-like and do so because you’ve got until midnight tonight.

In the next couple of days I’ll also be kicking off an awesome giveaway event sponsored by one of my fave eco-art shops, INK + WIT – the prize is totally green and fab (you will LOVE it) so don’t miss it.

Other cool stuff happening:

Finishing up the Green Diapers 101: Eco-friendly Diaper Round-Up post that I started last week. By the end of the line-up you’ll have all the green diaper news you need to make a smart eco-diaper choice.

Hopefully some more news about the “is there a good recycled toilet paper out there” challenge. As I test brands I’ll post reviews, although since I’ve got a bunch of brands in mind this could take a while. Still, my plans include getting this going asap.

Green Halloween time is getting close so of course we’ll be looking at some spooky green tips and supplies.

A green challenge!

You may remember some of our previous challenges such as the Buy Nothing Day Challenge, the use fewer Paper Towels Challenge, and the wildly popular BYOB Challenge – the bring your own reusable bag challenge. In any case, we haven’t done a challenge in a while, so we’re due. Since I recently merged households with my boyfriend and his kiddos I was thinking that a green home audit challenge might be fun and useful for you and me. My son Cedar and me have been living green for Cedar’s whole life, but not perfectly of course; there have been major challenges, and stuff we miss, so we could always use another audit.

My boyfriend’s family does the basic stuff like recycling, but they don’t buy organic juice or milk, they use some questionable bathroom products (i.e. shampoo for kids with toxins) and have been used to living with paper towels and plastic PVC shower curtains which are off limits in my house. However, my boyfriend is not opposed to living green, and wants to learn more so an audit may be just the thing to get everyone on board and at the same level. I’ve been thinking about how to pull off a green home audit challenge, and once I fine tune the details, we’ll get started.

So you don’t miss any of this you may want to subscribe to Tree Hugging Family – it’s free to subscribe and a great way to keep up with new events, giveaways, and more. As always feel free to contact me with questions or comments about Tree Hugging Family as well.

[images via stock.xchng]

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Happy Halloween!

Jennifer — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:00:24 +0000

Do you know how hard it is to find a picture of a “green” pumpkin? Well, since you asked, I’ll tell you – it’s freakishly hard. Orange will have to do…

I hope you and your family have a wonderfully spooky (and eco-friendly) Halloween. In case you’re in the mood for some light Halloween reading, here’s a round-up of Tree Hugging Family’s 2008 Halloween tips:

Be safe tonight and have fun! Oh, and don’t forget to snap some great photos of the kiddos tonight; then head over to Simply Thrifty and enter the Little Monsters Costume Contest! You could win a Seagate FreeAgent Go.

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How are you greening your Halloween?

Peggy — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:00:39 +0000

Since we’ve been posting on greening your Halloween all month, you must be thinking about it already, right?

Please take our poll in the sidebar. If you don’t see an answer you like, add your own. We’ll take the poll down and discuss on Halloween.

Have you missed any Halloween-related posts? Here they are, just in case:

Organic Etsy Halloween Treats

Buy Nothing New Halloween

My Little Green Ghost & Green Halloween Costume Ideas

Non-toxic face paints for Halloween

Oodles of Free Recycled Halloween Craft Ideas

Green Your Halloween Party

Should you buy an organic pumpkin for Halloween?

Fair Trade Halloween: Reverse Trick or Treat!

Start Planning A Green Halloween

Fair Trade Treats for Halloween

Image via stock.xchng.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes and everything else going on at Tree Hugging Family in October 2008 – that includes Blogtoberfest, (we’re giving away over $7,000 in prizes)!

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Organic Etsy Halloween Treats

Jennifer — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:00:40 +0000

I love Etsy; all those unique items,, and many of them eco-friendly. Right now Halloween is in full swing at Etsy, so I figured we’d better take a look. Here are some cool Halloween treats I found for the kiddos…

How flipping adorable is this Organic Cotton Knit Pumpkin Hat? If you have a babe, there’s no way to resist.

I’m obsessed with these…

Recycled Recolored Crayons – I’ve made homemade recycled crayons, but never in holiday molds, and it’s a stellar idea. I’d try it at home, but if you’ve got no time, these are a good deal. You could divvy them out into trick or treat baskets even!

For the hipster Halloween baby, the Skull Baby Hat is totally unique and organic.

It’s rare that I post about animal items of any kind, but these Halloween Pupcakes, are made with natural and organic ingredients, plus, honestly, they’re too darn cute to resist. Your doggy won’t fully appreciate the cute factor, but I bet he’d love a treat this Halloween.

Say it with me now – yes, Etsy rules.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes and everything else going on at Tree Hugging Family in October 2008

[Images via Etsy]

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My Little Green Ghost & Green Halloween Costume Ideas

Jennifer — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:00:03 +0000

So here’s the conversation I had with my son Cedar yesterday:

Me: What were you thinking of being for Halloween?

Cedar: I don’t think I’m going trick-or-treating this year.

Me: Why not?

Cedar: Because I want to be a ghost.

Me: Um, you can be a ghost.

Cedar: Yeah, but we’d have to cut holes in a sheet!

Me: That’s fine. It’s no big.

Cedar: Mama! Why would you cut holes in a sheet? That is a BIG WASTE of resources!

Then he looks at me as if I’ve gone insane. Yeah… I’m the weird one. This just goes to show you that one, our kids are turning our way more thoughtful and green-minded than we adults are, and two, I guess recycled and reused costumes are best.

You don’t have to purchase a costume new; in fact, you shouldn’t.

In most cases your kid will only wear the outfit once or twice, and even if you give it away, most are made of non-organic fabrics and icky synthetics, and also break and rip easily. It’s a waste of resources and money. If you’re considering making your own costumes, instead of buying you can slack, or go hard core. I’m not big on the sewing, so I’d slack.

For slackers (Note that I do mean slacker in the nicest of ways): Raid the closets, use face paints instead, or buy a used costume at the thrift store.

For sewers and creative types with more free time: Visit the following links for ideas and instructions about making your own costume…

The Best Recycled Halloween Costumes on the Web – this slide show is so awesome it hurts.
Eco-fabrics for your Halloween costume
4 Ways to Green a Halloween Costume
Green Halloween Costume Ideas for Busy Parents
Spookiest, Wackiest, Most Original Homemade Costumes

Whatever you do, just don’t cut holes in a perfectly good sheet, or Cedar will get ya.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes and everything else going on at Tree Hugging Family in October 2008

[images via stock.xchng]

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Oodles of Free Recycled Halloween Craft Ideas

Jennifer — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:00:21 +0000

All Free Crafts has cool craft ideas all the time, but I didn’t know about their Halloween Crafts. Many are recycled, super cute and spooky, and look like loads of fun.

For example:

Egg Carton Bat…

Plus other Halloween crafts like:

Visit to see all the fun recycled crafts. Also, don’t forget, even if a Halloween craft is not noted as being recycled or earth friendly, you can always take an idea, run with it, and see how you can make it more green.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes and everything else going on at Tree Hugging Family in October 2008

[image via All Free Crafts]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family