With Labor Day long since past, Recycla’s mailbox is being filled on a daily basis with catalogs that encourage her to decorate her house from top to bottom for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas — page after page of wreaths, lights, centerpieces, table linens, outdoor displays, and more.
When Recycla was growing up, houses had a carved pumpkin or two by the front door for Halloween, maybe some paper Pilgrims on the table for Thanksgiving, and a few strings of lights and wreath on the door for Christmas. Nowadays, however, it appears as though the trend to decorate heavily for all holidays is the norm.
This is not Recycla’s house. Lovely though, isn’t it?
Recycla is not a grumpy curmudgeon who doesn’t believe in festive celebration, in fact, she thinks it’s fun to celebrate the holidays with some decorative touches around the house. She does, however, question the “need” to decorate anything that doesn’t move. Does she really need an enormous, horror movie-sized black spider on her front porch? Is it imperative that the dining room have a themed centerpiece AND matching linens and possibly even seasonal dishes? Should it be mandatory to have a themed-flag for each season hanging on her front porch? No, definitely not.
Recycla does think it’s fun to have a few small things around her house, but she draws the line at spending a lot (or even a little) money on something that will have to be stored for 11 months of the year. It’s a waste of money and it’s a waste of Earth’s resources.
Definitely not Recycla’s house. Cute, but a bit more than she normally does.
So, with fall arriving this week and October just around the corner, here’s what Recycla does to make her house look a bit more autumnal:
- The local organic grocery store has little pie pumpkins in already. Recycla bought several yesterday and, for now, they’re by her front door and on the dining room table. In November, she’ll cook them and make pumpkin puree for pies and muffins.
- Any day now, local stores will have those wee pumpkins and colorful gourds on sale. Recycla plans to buy a half dozen or so to put in a bowl and display somewhere in the house. After Thanksgiving, she’ll cut them open and put them in the garden for the birds and squirrels to eat the seeds.
- Recycla’s not big on Halloween decorations, but her girls are, so at some point she’s certain the girls will make spiders, ghosts, scary faces, and more out of paper and other recycled materials. Those will be hung wherever the girls put them. After Halloween, they’ll go into the recycling bin.
- Recycla’s daughters also like to collect pine cones and acorns and put them in pretty bowls and platters. After they’re no longer needed, they get tossed outside again.
Recycla is not against buying seasonal decorations — after all, she’ll go a little nuts at Christmas — but she does encourage thoughtful consumption. Try not to buy cheap plastic crappe. And, if you do buy something, use it for years so that you get your money’s worth.
Tell the Eco Women: Do you decorate your house for fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving? If so, what do you do? Do have just a little bowl of gourds on your table or do you transform your front yard into a spooky graveyard. Inquiring minds want to know!
I’m so ready for fall decorating, but don’t have a ton. Mostly fall sheets and table linens. In my old house I swapped out the curtains every fall, but not now.
I did pick up the stuff to make these:
http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/09/todays-project-frightfully-fun-frames.html
I can see using a similar approach for so many holidays I figure it’s worth it. And the outlay was only $4 without the frames, $15 for the frames which I can sure use no matter what.
I did spend a lot of time in Hobby Lobby drooling however. : )
Cute!
I have to admit that I got a cute oversized Halloween dish towel that I’m going to use as a small table runner — I’ll just add some pumpkins and gourds and maybe some of the black plastic spiders I already have.
In the meantime, I’m obsessed with making a certain type of Christmas decoration that I saw online but don’t want to spend the money on.
This is what happens when I’m unemployed! Hopefully I’ll find gainful employment soon before I spend too much time/money at the hardware and craft stores. The only thing that kept me away today is that Ellie is home sick. Still, I’ve been painting some old picture frames…
We’re au naturale–fall-blooming flowers, gourds, pumpkins, bales of hay (which get spread on the garden beds as mulch later), and pinecones. The only extra stuff either entered the house by way of gifts or by way of school projects the boys did.
I decorate the outdoors for Halloween and Christmas. I reuse the same decorations from year to year. I don’t have a bunch, just garland, a door wreath/basket and a string of lights on a timer. Halloween my husband wanted to go a little further. We also put up a Seadog Cemetery built around our lone Halloween decoration for way too many years a plastic pirate skeleton. We prop him up with a pile of empty wine (why else would he be there but for the boozing?), reusable headstones (which I bought and later found out that they are very easy to make – oops), and repurposed wooden sign I made to look old that says Sea Dog Cemetery but all the pirate buried there are short because it’s only 6 headstones in my flower bed.
Although some may think I’m a horrible consumerist, I have a huge number of fall and/or Halloween decorations I have used and re-used for many years. They were nearly ALL carefully purchased at garage sales and second-hand stores over time. Many were brand NEW in the boxes and never used. We conserve energy by using timers to light electric pumpkins and re-purpose pumpkins that no longer light. My nine-year-old thinks it’s great fun. When he is no longer into it, we will donate them (still nearly-new looking in boxes) so a local charity for others to enjoy.