What Not To Hand Out At Halloween
Recently there’s been some discussion among my friends about wanting to get away from the over-sugarification of Halloween. A teacher friend of mine described November 1 as “the worst day of the year, behaviorwise” because everyone’s up too late the night before and is all hopped up on sugar. Not to mention that those dang kids will neeever gooo to sleeeep when they’ve eaten so much candy.
So it makes sense that people want to hand out things that aren’t all sugary. Some of the things that have been suggested, though, have been a little dicey. I’m going to ask people to refrain from handing out any of the following things to unsuspecting kids who come to trick or treat:
Acorns, Polished Rocks, and Soap
My friend’s local paper suggested these as alternatives to candy that kids would love. The whole point of Halloween, I thought, was that people give you things you don’t already have at your house freely available. We have piles of rocks and acorns, and I have a shelf full of soap, all of which my kids can have any time they’d like. Also, acorns? Really?
Raisins
Raisins are disgusting, and one raisin has as much sugar as an M&M* but without the good taste.
*I completely made that up. It’s probably not true. But it makes you feel better about all those M&Ms you’re going to steal from your kids’ bags after they’re asleep Wednesday night, doesn’t it?
Toothbrushes
This may be controversial because some people love getting toothbrushes. I love getting them any other time of the year and get disappointed if I don’t get a new one in my Christmas stocking. But there’s just something weird about a toothbrush at Halloween, the day that candy rules. It’s a little like making ham for Thanksgiving instead of turkey.
Halloween Tracts
Either you participate in Halloween or you don’t. Don’t go all bait-and-switch on kids by making them think you’re part of it and then giving them a pamphlet about why Halloween is bad. That’s like telling little kids there’s no Santa Claus.
Carob Candies
What is this, 1982 at the co-op??
Baked Beans
When my dad was an undergraduate majoring in Extreme Nerdery at MIT, he and his roommates completely forgot that it was Halloween until their doorbell rang and kids were there in costumes saying “Trick or Treat.” Instead of just saying they didn’t have any candy, my dad grabbed the baked beans he was cooking for dinner and put a scoop of beans in each kid’s bag. Be careful if you’re trick or treating in student housing in Cambridge.
In place of those inferior hand-outs, may I suggest the following non-candy items as delightful treats:
temporary tattoos
spider rings, rubber spiders, vampire teeth
superballs (especially the kind that light up)
individually packaged goldfish or pretzels
clementines with jack-o-lantern faces drawn on with sharpie
Happy Halloween, and just say no to acorns!
Magda Pecsenye writes about parenting at AskMoxie.org and about co-parenting after divorce with her ex-husband at When The Flames Go Up.
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We were asked to provide “healthy treats” to the school parade/trick-or-treating, and I couldn’t handle it. My kids eat veggies at lunch and dinner, good clean protein, no juice, sugar rarely, etc, and Halloween and a few other holidays are about sugar candy and that’s OK! Why exactly is it bad to indulge in a candy fest a few times a year?
Anyway, we are providing LED light-up rings and bracelets. They are pretty cheap on Amazon and a fun toy with the DST change coming.
My kids love it when they get Doritos or Cheetos. I know, it is still junk but it is junk they rarely eat so it is just as special to them as candy.
Glow bracelets!
This year I have whistles and stickers, I’ve also done spinny tops and bouncy balls and stretchy skeletons. Luckily my kid doesn’t really like candy, and usually hands out everything she collects except the Hershey bars.
And rocks? That way every kid can be Charlie Brown.
Acorns are poisonous, so that seems like a dangerous (and super lame) idea. Also I did read (I believe it was on Mental Floss) that raisins are actually worse for your teeth than some types of candy, because they get stuck in your teeth and still have a lot of tooth-decaying sugar.
For non-candy alternatives, I vote either still something edible (chips, juice, etc.) or else something useful like pencils. Cute pencils, not the boring yellow ones my neighbor gives out.
When we lived in an apartment complex when I was a teenager, one of the parents handed out homemade cookies in sandwich baggies. She included a card with her name and address, and the recipe of the cookies. It works when you know that the majority of the people trick-or-treating will know you personally.
Before that, we lived down the block from a house that would pass out mulled cider for the kids, and mulled wine for the adults. Pretty much everyone would start trick-or-treating by heading for that house, standing around and schmoozing, and then going our different ways.
We just usually order toys from Oriental Trading for kids with good costumes, and pass out mediocre candy to kids whose costumes my wife judges inferior. (She’s threatened to hand out Brussels sprouts to teenagers who show up in minimal costume, but I’ve stopped her by explaining that Brussels sprouts are expensive.)
Hilarious! I love the baked beans story, so funny. My kids always come home with some oriental trading stuff (pencils, spider rings, that sort of things). They enjoy those but really – it’s all about the candy.
My way of managing it is to let them gorge themselves for a few days, then throw out the rest. Only rule is no candy before school (which is of course what my 4yo begged for this morning after this weekend’s local downtown trick or treating).
Wiki Sticks, duckies in monster costumes, glow bracelets and bubbles. BIG hit!
We lived in a townhouse neighborhood outside of Washington, DC with lots of singles in their 40s-50s. Most of them looked surprised when they opened the door to find my 3-year old dressed up like a ladybug. She got a lot of loose change that Halloween and she loved it.
Healthy alternatives for Halloween reminds me of the segments on the news before Thanksgiving where they give you tips for a low-fat Thanksgiving. Come on, it’s only one friggin’ day of the year. Eat the potatoes with butter AND gravy.
Amy
http://www.sofiabean.com
“We just usually order toys from Oriental Trading for kids with good costumes, and pass out mediocre candy to kids whose costumes my wife judges inferior. (She’s threatened to hand out Brussels sprouts to teenagers who show up in minimal costume, but I’ve stopped her by explaining that Brussels sprouts are expensive.)”
That, Julia, is pure awesome.