Pumpkins are probably the best of all green Halloween decorations:  they’re 100% organic, they’re the perfect color for Halloween, and they are nutritious too.  Our favorite pumpkin decorations are Jack-O-Lanterns.  Every year we set aside an evening for making them.  Here are a few tips for carving your Halloween pumpkins:

1) Line your work area with old newspapers.  This makes cleanup easy, and allows you to reuse any old newspaper you have laying around.

2) For help with making the faces on your Halloween pumpkins, go through your kitchen cabinets to find just the right shapes.  Sometimes the bottom of a drinking glass, pepper grinder, or spice container is the perfect shape for an eye, or a mouth.  Just trace the bottom of the container right onto the pumpkin, and carve.

3) For more complicated designs, draw them on paper first, and cut out the designs.  Attach to your pumpkin with toothpicks or tape, and rub on a little cornstarch or baby powder.  When you remove the paper pattern, the powder remains, giving you a guide for cutting.

4) No-carve pumpkins:  Let small children use up scraps of old fabric, buttons, or shapes cut from colorful cardboard packaging by gluing on their own pumpkin designs.

5) What to do with your pumpkins after the carving is done?  For a nutritious snack, you can make roasted pumpkin seeds, or for a sweet treat, make pumpkin pie squares.  Also, used up Jack-O-Lanterns make great composting material.

As you search for green Halloween ideas, don’t forget about solar powered Halloween decorations to help create some ghastly fun and a spooky atmosphere for your Halloween party.  With these solar powered decorations, you won’t have to worry about wasting energy, running up your power bill, or adding disposable batteries to landfills.

The solar powered corpse above is 16 inches tall, and holds a solar lantern.  Place the corpse at  ground level to create the look the it is emerging from the ground.  A built-in solar panel charges the included rechargeable batteries during the day, and the lantern automatically turns on at night.  There is an on/off switch if you don’t want to use the automatic feature. The solar corpse is available at Oriental Trading Company.

Here’s more green Halloween décor.  This string of of solar powered LED lights will operate for up to 8 hours from one day of charging in the sun.  The strand of Halloween lights is 26 feet long, and is comprised of 60 individual LED light bulbs that are rated to last 100,000 hours.  I found the solar powered Halloween lights at Improvements for $24.97.

Here’s the best idea in green Halloween decorations I’ve seen yet- a wreath made from garlic. Not only will this garlic wreath make an all natural addition to your Halloween décor, but you will have a good dose of vampire repellent hanging right on the front door (just in case). Here’s some information on garlic and vampire folklore to share at your Halloween party.

And don’t forget about solar-powered Halloween decorations for great green Halloween ideas. This evil little gargoyle is solar-powered, and he’ll creep out your guests with his illuminated green eyes when it gets dark. One of these on each side of your front steps would make a very Gothic entrance to your Halloween party. I found the gargoyle at Online Discount Mart.