Costume Holiday – Environmental Awareness On Holidays

Purim is my favorite holiday, everyone is dressed up and masked, rejoicing and celebrating. It’s an opportunity for one day to be someone else. But whether the costume we have chosen is of a real or imaginary figure, one still has to take into account the environmental damage to our world that follows. (Purim is a Jewish holiday where people dress up and distribute sweets, very similar in concept to Halloween, so this post is relevant to any costume party).

So how can you celebrate a costume holiday ecologically?

Let’s start with the costumes that are the essence of the holiday. There are several ways to dress up more ecologically than to order and buy a different costume each year, that at the end of the day will find itself collecting dust in a cupboard.

1. Lending/exchanging with friends – after all, most of us dress up and every year we choose something different, which means most people you know already have a stock of costumes. You can create a neighborhood fair of costume exchange or just ask a friend/neighbor or groups on Facebook.

2. Buy second-hand – At this time of year most second-hand stores also stock costume items and accessories. You can combine accessories from different stores and put together a costume or go to a targeted fair of second-hand costumes. In a quick search on Google or Facebook you will find one nearby.

3. Make your own – Part of the fun of Purim/Halloween is dressing up in an original costume and what is more original than a costume you have made yourself? It does not have to be very complex and there are lots of costumes that can be created from things we have at home. The network is full with ‘do-it-yourself’ costume tutorials. I’m adding some ideas here.

4. Recycle old costumes or create new ones from them – I believe you do not have to reinvent the wheel every year. Even as a child I remember myself dressing up in the same costume year after year, admittedly it did not come from an ecological place, but because I really liked the costume, but also this year I plan to use my costume from last year (which includes elf ears and clothes from my closet). In addition, if you go through your costume databases, you may find accessories that can be combined from different costumes and create something completely new.

Let’s continue with baskets of goodies.

Giving is an amazing, joyful and also empowering custom. I am in favor of giving surprises and participating in the custom of giving baskets of goodies. However it is important to pay attention to the material of our wrapper and also the contents of the basket. In my opinion it is better not to fill the basket with small plastic gifts that will be thrown away after the holiday. Also wrapping in cling film / cellophane or sending on a disposable plate creates a lot of garbage.

If you decide not to use a basket, the package can be made from boxes that already exist in your home, such as shoe boxes, cornflake boxes or a box in which you received a delivery that you ordered. You can also use empty jars or send in a beautiful bowl that will be part of your gift or even wrap it in old newspaper. The boxes can be decorated and painted and filled with good things.

We usually fill the parcel deliveries with snacks and sweets that are themselves packed in plastic and made of processed sugar. If you have time, I would recommend that you include in your delivery cookies or a cake that you made yourself, so the nutritional values are better, there is less use of plastic and it is more personal and exciting.

Even if you do not have time you can create a self-preparation jar. So inside the jar put the dry ingredients of the cookies with a nice note attached to it of preparation instructions. It is beautiful, original and experiential. I recommend arranging the cookie ingredients in layers in a jar. Here you will find a recipe for making a ‘make your own’ cookies jar.

There are many more things you can make yourself and send in parcels. For example, homemade jam, olives or various pickles, granola, etc. Of course if you have different skills you can also take advantage of them to possibly make things such as solid soaps or homemade candles.

If we are talking about Purim and costumes, it is impossible not to mention glitter.

I personally love glitter, it’s happy and beautiful. But at the end of the day the glitter is made from small, non-perishable pieces of plastic. Here too we have an ecological alternative, glitter made from eucalyptus. This way you can spread and disperse the magical powder for fun without thinking about it staying forever and seeping into our water reservoirs.

In addition, I have to share with you something I have recently discovered.

It is more related to art work, but colored feathers can also be used in costumes. All my life I was sure that these colored feathers were made of plastic, but in fact there is no option to create a feather artificially. All the feathers that exist in the market were once on a bird. I doubt that in such a commercial quantity the feathers that you can buy were collected from the floor after having fallen naturally from birds.

Even on Purim and Halloween we can be more ecological and considerate of the environment for the sake of our future on Earth. We are here to have fun and celebrate, but with a little thought we can do it even in a way that is less polluting. Ecological life is achievable, there are so many ecological alternatives to our day-to-day activities and also to the way we celebrate our holidays. All we need to do is choose them instead of the polluting options.

I wish you a happy, ecological and colorful holiday.