A Swamp Yankee Halloween

I can’t help but notice that the trends in holiday decorating seem to be towards the less and less energy efficient. Take for instance those giant inflatable decorations that started with just Christmas but now include just about everything (I once saw a flamingo). Besides the energy that went into manufacturing these there is also the energy required to keep them constantly inflated. It is undeniable that these are far less energy efficient then the old standard of a pumpkin with a candle in it.

Besides being interested in lower impact decorations I just couldn’t afford one of those giant inflatable things to begin with. So this year we came up with a few alternatives:

Jack-o-lantern alternative: I’m not crazy about the idea of buying a pumpkin and throwing it away after Halloween so instead we bought two sugar pumpkins which we can use for decoration and then make into delicious pie filling afterwards! We also bought some decorative corn and we have a plan to reuse it afterwards but you’ll just have to wait to see what the plan is.

Finally, instead of buying one of those giant bundles of corn or hay or whatever they are we made our own. Since we don’t have any corn (or hay) fields close by we used what is in abundance…phragmites!

This reed commonly found in marshes is a mean nasty invasive species so we didn’t feel bad about cutting some down and when we’re all done we can just throw it back in the marsh.

There is the phragmites, corn and pumpkins. Ignore the chipped paint, thanks.

Granted we will have to come up with something involving candles on Halloween night to signal to trick-or-treaters that we are open for business but it will most likely be homemade and a heck of a lot cheaper then a giant inflatable pumpkin!

Now if we could just give the trick-or-treaters phragmites too we'd be all set.