Non-Toxic, Easy and Fun Halloween Crafts

I don’t know what Halloween will look like this year with COVID still being an issue, but at my house the arrival of the first weekend of October means one thing : time to decorate for Halloween.

Halloween has garnered a pretty bad reputation as being probably the most unhealthy holiday of all: candies filled with artificial flavors, colors and high fructose corn syrup, costumes made of PVC, that contain flame retardants and/or made of polyester which will never biodegrade and decorations also made of plastic that end up in the landfill for years and years.

At home we try to do a somewhat more earth friendly Halloween.

1. We use the same decorations year after year

2. We try to purchase few plastic decor and instead better quality (ceramic or wood) decors that last from year to year.

3. We decorate with art and craft projects they kids make: they love showing them off and love seeing their old creations from years past.

4. We love using different types of pumpkins to decorate (make sure to compost when you are done!)

5. When possible we reuse costumes and never buy costumes made of PVC

Now, back to the decorating! My youngest son has been asking to do some Halloween crafts this weekends, so, I collected some ideas from around the web that I included here. When possible these are crafts that you can do with items you have around the house: no need to go out and buy more stuff; non-toxic, easy and fun!!

1. Toilet Paper Roll Bat

• WHAT YOU NEED: toilet paper rolls, scrap paper, glue, black paint. Optional: googly eyes (you can paint them on!)

  INSPIRED BY (and full instructions) : SaavySassyMoms.com

2. Haunted House

WHAT YOU NEED:

• A large sheet of  cardboard, at least 30″x 20″ in size for the house shape and additional cardboard scraps for the floors, chimney and peaked roof

• Black duct tape

• Xacto knife and self healing mat (or wax paper and scissors) for cutting duct tape

• Hot glue/gun or packing tape to assemble the house

• Black paint and paint brush for painting on roof tiles

• Paper for the interior of the walls of the house- or use paint!

  INSPIRED BY (and full instructions) : MerMagBlog

3. Paper Plate Spooky animals

Ideal for younger kiddos

WHAT YOU NEED: Large and small paper plates, scissors, black and white craft paper, black paint, tape or glue

INSPIRED BY (and full instructions. Note: they recommend downloading templates but you can also do it without templates! Halloween doesnt have to be perfect!) : Easypapercrafts.com

4. Sheet Ghost

WHAT YOU NEED: a white bed sheet, a balloon and a black market to paint a friendly or scary face on your ghost!

INSPIRED BY (and full instructions.) : Rhythms of play

5. Halloween Hand Print Art

WHAT YOU NEED: non-toxic paint

INSPIRED BY (and instructions) : The bestideasforkids

Pumpkin Art

WHAT YOU NEED: pumpkins and paint!

INSPIRED BY: US! WE do this every year. In addition to carving faces on pumpkin, and leaving some pumpkins au natural (ie not doing anything to them ) the kids love painting pumpkins with fun designs and colors. This is a completely open ended creative exercise so let them do what they want!

SAFE ART SUPPLIES

I always recommend water based paints and for the youngest munchkins who like to place every their mouths, when possible natural pigments are ideal. My Amazon Shop has a list of approved art supplies (including glue)