Make Your Easter Eco-Friendly
Green Tips for Easter Baskets, Eggs and More
Feb 1, 2008 Shirley Siluk Gregory
Easter arrives early this year (March 23), so if you celebrate the holiday and are looking for ways to be festive and green, it's not too soon to start your preparations.
So much about Easter, sadly, has become commercialized and mass-produced ... hardly eco-friendly. So forget shopping at the big-box retailers or dollar chains: there are more environmentally responsible ways to create decorations and baskets of goodies for the kids.
Start with egg dyes. If you're planning on coloring regular eggs for Easter, choose natural dyes over those nasty pellets that come with traditional decorating kits. Natural dyes, in fact, give you more color possibilities: every shade from greenish-yellow and lavender to brown, blue and orange. Just boil your eggs in water with a bit of vinegar and one of these ingredients below, then let simmer for at least 15 minutes:
- Purple grape juice (for lavender)
- Red cabbage (for blue)
- Spinach (for green)
- Carrot tops, orange peels or lemon peels (for yellow)
- Coffee or black walnut shells (for brown)
- Yellow onion skins (for orange)
- Beets or cranberries (for pink)
- Red onion skins (for red)
And what about the eggs themselves? If you plan to color real ones, choose eggs labeled "free-farmed," if possible. It's the only designation that ensures the hens were verifiably raised in a comfortable environment without any unnecessary antibiotics. If you're vegan, or just choose to skip real eggs, try making your own fake eggs with this neat pearly soda play clay made from cornstarch and baking soda. Once dry, this clay feels almost like porcelain.
Need a new basket this Easter? Instead of buying one, why not try making your own? You can learn the basics at Basket Weaving 101, or follow a simple pattern from FunRoom for making beautiful baskets from old wallpaper samples.
Once you've got your basket, fill it with real grass. The Website Creative Kids at Home offers instructions for creating a unique and Earth-friendly alternative to the standard plastic Easter basket filler: real grass. This project requires you to get started a couple of weeks before the holiday, so check it out soon if you're interested in a compostable base for your baskets.
Finally, when it comes to the goodies you place in your baskets, make sure you choose fair-trade and/or organic chocolates or treats if possible. You can find plenty of fair-trade retailers by using Co-op America's National Green Pages. And if you decide to give toys or gifts instead of (or in addition to) sweet treats, try to shop locally and buy natural or resale.
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