You can also skip carving altogether and decorate your pumpkins with paint instead. In doing so, you’ll have an extra week or so to transform your pumpkin into a pie or a yummy stuffed pumpkin dinner.

Sustainable Halloween Decorations

Halloween and Thanksgiving both fall during the harvest season, which makes them prime for the incredibly beautiful decorations generously provided by Mother Earth. If you have at least one deciduous tree in your yard, chances are it’ll change from lively green to gorgeous fall hues of yellow, orange, and red. Letting nature decorate for you is both sustainable and straightforward.

Want to add a little more Halloween pizzazz? Steer clear of those cheap, one-time-use decorations and opt for edible, compostable, and reusable décor.

• Squash comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors, including the orb-like acorn squash, funky striped carnival squash, and long orange butternut squash. The best part is, most squash can be cooked and eaten once you’re done displaying them!
• Dried corn stalks and bundles of dried grass are a classic Halloween decoration directly from the harvested fields. Gather them up from your own garden or find them inexpensively at local farms and pumpkin patches. Tie them together with twine, and compost these beautiful bundles when you’re ready to transition to Christmas décor.
• Wreaths make a statement when hung on your front door, garage, or gate and can be designed in any style you like. Save your wreaths to use every Halloween.
• Scarecrows are another harvest decoration perfect for Halloween. They’re easy to make with just one set of old clothes you plan to donate, a pole and a plump stuffing of grass clippings, fallen leaves, and dry brush.
• Paper bats and ghosts can be quickly crafted from paper grocery bags, cardboard boxes, magazines, and junk mail. Just cut your shape (a die cutter or stencil will make this a speedy task) and let the kids help color, paint, and decorate them. Then, thread them on a string and hang them up. These paper garlands are a fun decoration that can be composted, recycled, or reused.
• LED candles and lights are available in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes that are perfect for creating a spooky front porch.