Don’t let entertaining for Halloween scare the greenie out of you. Throwing a party with the earth in mind is a lot easier – and cheaper – than you think. All it takes is a bit of creativity and planning. In this post, I’m going to share a few tips and products from Greenfeet we used to create a party theme that’ll make the scariest of zombies grin from ear to ear.

1. Decide on the type of Halloween party you want to host. Here we chose a simple dessert party. Since Halloween is an after-dark affair, this was an easy choice. Keeping it to desserts accomplishes two things. First, it means less food. Most folks won’t have more than 1-2 pieces of pie, cake or servings of ice cream so it’s an easy way to keep the cost down.  Second, we didn’t need much space. As you can see by the table scape, we used my dinner table pushed up against my pantry doors. That left more room to mix and mingle.

2. Decide on your theme. We decided to stick with the Halloween sweet tooth idea and offered some traditional and not-so-traditional options for guests. We chose a simple chocolate bundt cake adorned with peep ghosts on toothpicks, a fruit topped cheesecake (displayed with a lovely brain-looking seasonal Celosia flower on top – berries served on the side), ice cream drizzled with lemon olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt (seriously, you HAVE to try this), root beer floats and a selection of candy corn and other goodies. Simple, easy and fast to prep. Bake yourself or pick up at the bakery – you choose based on time available.

I would kindly like to request that if you choose to use disposables, please consider compostable options. At Greenfeet, we offer a large selection of affordable, durable ‘responsible disposables’ to help you green up your parties and events. We used bagasse (rice straw) bowls and plates, compostable straws, cups and even napkins.  These are all very affordable and more earth friendly than traditional plastic or paper varieties (these are all tree free).

3. Display and serving pieces.  Keeping it green, we blended both re-purposed, new and as I mentioned above we used ‘responsible disposables’ into the mix. For our bundt cake we used our gorgeous Fire and Light cake pedestal in Twilight which is a smokey grey.  We’re going to be doing more with cake plates so stay tuned for an upcoming post…

Here the cheese cake is dispayed on a DIY cakestand – they’re easy to make using a pie plate and a candle holder. For height, we used a sturdy wide mouth vase turned upside down with the Fire and Light cake stand on top of it (you can see it behind the cheesecake). Look in your closets (or a friends) and pull together pieces you already own. The colors all melded together for a cohesive, yet eclectic look.

We used recycled cleaned out candle jars for the toppings. To get rid of candle residue, just pop your holders in the freezer and the wax will constrict popping right out when it starts to cool. We then washed them thoroughly and they make interesting holders for everything from utensils to treats.

4. Partner with a friend. My BFF  Tina Glover gets full credit for this display. She’s what I call a Martha MacGyver – give her 30 minutes in your house and she’ll make magic out of mish-mash. And that’s a VERY good thing! We blended some of her treasures with some of mine and Voila! Monster magic! The table runner we used was nothing more than a long strip of black felt I had left over from a craft project eons ago and tucked away for future use. I did pick up some LED lights which I’ll use for years  - I really love them as they are low heat and 90% less energy!

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention my 2 liter Frigoverre glass pitcher! Oh, how I LOVE this thing. It’s a customer favorite and I know why. Here we used it for root beer floats, but I use it for fresh squeezed juice, iced tea, chai, cider – you get the idea. The lid hermitically seals (watch the video on the product page) keeping odors out and freshness in. And, it looks great on the table as a serving piece. It also serves as a great vase for BBQ’s.

So, what do you think? See how easy incorporating green can be! I invite you to chime in with your party tips for a green halloween. We’ve only skimmed the surface here, so bring it on and have a BOO-tiful Halloween!

Oh, and if you have used Greenfeet products in any of your events, please send me a photo at val at greenfeet dot com. I’d love to share them with our readers and customers!