Cheap Green Costume Ideas for Halloween 

Let's help you get your Hallo-Green on.

With Halloween right around the corner, you may be looking for a quick, easy, & cheap costume idea for your kids, or maybe even yourselves. Maybe you want it to be something a little different, be a little more eco-friendly themed, or just do a fun DIY project for the Halloween season or some other costume event (i.e. Comic Con). Below are some costume ideas for Halloween or any occasion, with an environmental take. So, if you are going to an eco-themed Halloween party, here are some ideas for you. 

Reasons to create a green, eco-friendly, environmentally conscious costume:

1. Saves money (saves you green)

2. Demonstrates awareness and thoughtfulness

3. Environmentally responsible 

4. DIY project excuse and fun

5. Flexes your creativity

6. People enjoy seeing & doing something different

Green, Environmentally-Conscious Costume Criteria 

Note:   This is a more flexible definition of a green, or eco-conscious costume.

In order for a costume to be considered an eco-conscious or eco-themed(i.e. green), the costume idea should meet 1 or more (the more the better) of these criteria:

1. Created with recyclable or repurposed materials

   • This helps reduce cost and impact on the environment

   • Being creative with reuse helps reduce spending and overconsumption

2. Minimize use of one-time use items

   • This helps reduce impact on the environment

   • It may be noted that you may want to use recycled one time use items in your design to draw awareness, but try to avoid expending one-time use items yourself

3. Should be as affordable, or cheaper, than buying a costume

   • This helps create incentive to reduce individual impact on the environment, while having fun doing a project

4. Should be more untraditional/uncommon/DIY

   • With anything DIY, it saves money and creates something more unique

   • Homeade authenticity

5. Makes an eco-friendly related statement

   • Optionally, you can make a statement about climate change

   • Generate awareness with your costume

6. Can be worn again, expanded on

   • This ensures the costume itself isn't a one-time use item

   • If you create something, make sure it good enough quality to be given to someone else or donated for someone else to use again

Other criteria for green or eco-friendly costumes:

• Needs to be entirely made from recycled materials, or some majority percentage (>90%)

• Needs to made entirely with environmentally friendly materials, glues, fabrics, etc.

Some of these costume ideas are funny, some are more environmental; but overall most of these costumes can be made from recyclable or repurposed materials to help the environment, spur some ingenuity, and allow you to have a good time on a tight budget. 

Making your own costume can also create a talking piece for any party or event you may be attending. With eco-conscious Halloween parties and climate awareness events on the rise, you may find yourself wanting to look for a more eco-friendly alternative.

Listed below are some green-themed, or more eco-friendly, costume ideas for everyone:

Easy & General Green Costume Ideas:

1. Shaman/Healer - As people have crystals and get more into herbal supplements, they may have some accesories that could fit this kind of costume. This is something that could be hodgepodged together, if the right items are laying around. The individual may have pieces in their wardrobe as well.

2. Belly Dancer - This can probably be pieced together with recycled clothing or clothes that you may already have in your closet. You many need a few other pieces to bring out the costume and tie it all together, but this is a good cheap option for most part. Looking to keep it simple, affordable, and eco-friendly. You can choose any color or any theme, and even mix it with others to make it your own i.e. alien belly dancer, green leafed belly dancer, etc.

3.  Hogwarts Student – Make a wand out of a tree branch, and go as a newly accepted Hogwarts student studying magic. Don't forget your book of spells or your special brew potions. If you don't look like Harry, Ron, or Hermoine; this may be a good alternative for you.

4.  Tree of Life - This one is relatively straigtforward and a little bit symbolic, literally being a tree. Grab some branches and be the "Tree of Life". You can make it as detailed or as simplistic as you want. If you have a Tree of Life shirt, or Tree of Life tattoo; it could compliment the costume nicely.   

5.  Jack O'Lantern - This is fairly low maintenance. The idea is if you have a t-shirt or sweater with a jack-o-lantern design on it, you can simply wear it and go as that. Keep an eye out for these designs after Halloween has passed to get a good deal on these. If you have Halloween parties and keep extra costumes for unspirited guests, this is an easy one for people to wear if they slacked it over Halloween season. Its also a good shirt to repurpose or give to someone else in the family to reuse for another party. You can easily create these with a free jack-o-lantern pattern like the one above, or look for them at thrift stores. 

6. Face Paint - This is a broad category and is considered more of an accessory than a costume itself. However, if you have a small child or kids in general, rather than buying a bunch of costumes they will only wear one time, you may find it helpful and have more fun doing their faces as animal characters, zombies, or giving them a fake gash on their eye with lots of fake blood. This is a good option as its creative and it allows flexibility in each minimal costume choice as well as allows the option to repurpose old clothes in their closets, etc.

7. Butterfly / Fairy / Angel – From a cardboard box, cut out a pair of wing frames. Shape them however you want. As a tip, you may want to double it up on the outer edge or keep some cardboard support within the wing frame itself. Paint the cardboard frames whatever color you like;  a nice gradient is good for effect. After painted and dried, you can use tissue paper or saran wrap for rest of the wing material. You can either secure it via clip, straps, or create some kind of necklace for it to hang.

Easy Movie and Video Game Character Costumes:

1. Shaggy (from Scooby Doo) - Grab a green v-neck and some khaki pants with some black shoes. This is super easy, and can probably be thrifted.  You can grow your hair out as well. This one is miminalistic and low cost for sure. Shaggy was pretty minimalistic himself, even better if you have a dog that can be Scooby as well!

2.  Jimmy Neutron - All you need is a colored t-shirt, the right hair, and some hair-gel. It's fairly straightforward, but I bet its a challenge to get the curl just right. That's probably the hardest part. This is minimalistic as well.

3. Donkey Kong - If you have a burly figure and want a costume with some sex appeal, this could be what you are looking for. You could just wear a red tie and paint DK on it in yellow with some khaki pants.

4. Diddy Kong - Just like the one above, Diddy Kong is simple as well, just needs a red shirt with stars and a red Nintendo hat. 

Other Simple Costume Ideas:

1.  Soldier – Some people have camo in their closets and if you do, you could be a guerilla soldier or something of that nature. You could repurpose or thrift for this if you plan ahead. If you decide this fits you, please don't bring any real weapons and be responsible. Even if you can repurpose those items to make a better costume, it's best to omit them for safety.

2. Hippie - This one is a common repurposed costume. It's fairly common, but it's a good eco-conscious costume that repurposes things that can be found in most family wardrobes, as a collective. It also represents a subculture that advocates for climate preservation and proper use of land.

3. Bum - This is another common repurposed costume. Grab a piece of card board and some old clothes that can be sacrificed and dirtied. 

Other Green-colored Costume Ideas:

1. Peter Pan

2. Boogers

3. Monsters (i.e. Monsters, Inc)