Trick-or-Treating the GREEN Way --->

Okay, your kids have been waiting for Halloween night for 10 months or more, and if you're anything like me then you've been dying for the holiday too (pun intended)! So here a few great ways to stay GREEN while you're out enjoying the festivities and gathering up all that loot!

• 1st-The Goody Bag! *Sturdy, ginormous, & most importantly REUSABLE!
• 2nd-The Candy! *Feel free to indulge a little! Fall off the diet wagon for the evening and enjoy some treats with your kids. Maybe set a time limit or ration it out, or put it away for another day. NO NEED to throw it out! If it's wrapped it can be donated to shelters, Senior Centers, nursing homes, Boys' & Girls' Clubs, etc.
• 3rd-As always, my favorite no-brainer tip:*Clean it up! Little eyes see more than we think, we should all be setting great examples and teaching our kids to love & protect our Earth! "Leave no litter behind!"

The GOOD Stuff!

For ME, there is nothing more frightening on Halloween than my kids running around all cracked out on sugar, followed but tummy aches, & the looming thought of pediatric dental work. So...
If you're worried about artificial ingredients in your kiddos' goody bag, here are a few HEALTHY Trick-or-treating alternatives I've come across, thanks to The Green Parent:

• If you're concerned about child labor chocolate factories look for "Fair Trade Chocolates" instead: *Exquisit Chocolate @ http://store.gxonlinestore.org/chocolateminis.html *Endangered Species Chocolates @ http://www.chocolatebar.com/


• Try Fruitabu's @ http://www.stretch-island.com/ for organic fruities in festive flavors.


• College Farm Organic @ http://www.collegefarmorganic.com/ offers a wide variety of all natural hard candies & lollipops. But wait, there's more...The clear candy wrappers are made of a "fully-compostable material derived from cornstarch" (an annually renewable resource).


• If Popcorn is your thing try individually-wrapped organic microwave popcorn like Newman's Own Organics (R.I.P. Paul).


• Earthbound Farms are the way to go for great tasting raisins (in "fun size" packages), or anything organic @ http://www.ebfarm.com/


• And for a longer lasting treat (at least maybe in your house), there's always Soy Crayons, stickers, temporary tattoos, and so on...

Go GREEN for Halloween!

Okay, so what's better than pumpkins to decorate for Halloween, right? Well, here are a few helpful tid bits I learned about while visiting another great site:

The Green Parent at http://thegreenparent.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

• Pumpkins totally rock! *They inspire us in dones of ways, everything from decorations to food! *They have "super powers"-while they grow they remove Toxic DDT from our soil!
  So you're GREEN tips for this holiday are as follows:
  
• Buying from your LOCAL Pumpkin People-helps save ENERGY and RESOURCES otherwise spent on packaging & shipping, etc.
  
• NO LEFTOVERS! Bake the seeds or feed the squirrels, or call your local zoo about donating them.
  
• COMPOST-When your pumpkins are no longer looking their best then put them in your compost pile. Here's a great site to help you get started...http://www.howtocompost.org/Giant_Compost_Pumpkins.asp