I was at the store the other day, and I instinctively grabbed a bag of candy. I was thinking “Halloween is around the corner, I need to have something to hand out.”
And I stopped myself.
Looked at the ingredients, put it back. I scoured the shelf for anything remotely healthy, and couldn’t find it (of course).
Andrea was at Planet Organic and spotted organic candies (which translates into more expensive sugar in my world).
And I was stumped.
I want to promote health and wellness to the children of our planet, but you know how well received that is.
I remember having to toss apples because of an urban legend (and it was an urban legend) about razor blades in apples. I lived in a small town, where most everyone knew everyone, and we still had to toss the homemade and healthy treats… because they could have been tampered with (while there have been a handful of these such incidents, they exist largely as urban legend… it is sickening).
Anyways… I would love to hear from the parents out there, or even healthy non-parents – what are you giving out tomorrow night.
Throw it in the comments below, because I am hungry for some inspiration!
Great question! What do you hand out? I live in a small town where the kids have the opportunity to travel between businesses trick or treating. Instead of handing out the junk, we made little coloring books that we put into their bags. A great idea for the little kids and no sugar (or expensive sugar) added!
Clinton buddy! You're over thinking things 🙂 Remember being a kid going door to door, then coming home and dumping all your loot out on the floor in excited anticipation? What was the first thing you ate, and what did you scorn at? My mom used to give out those little raisin packs and peanuts on Halloween to be healthy and we always thought it was totally lame! (ironically they don't even make those peanut packets anymore).
I was going to suggest popcorn balls as a (relativity) healthy yummy alternative, but as mentioned, they'd probably just get thrown out unfortunately.
This is all good stuff – Lyle, I really dig that idea, and someone suggested dollar store toys. They do sell coloring books too (probably a lot less fancy than your own :o)
Terri – I remember those days, and you got me thinking back to what I really thought was awesome when I was a kid – like the people that handed out full size chocolate bars (which, incidentally, were a lot smaller then than now 😉 and I remember someone gave out cans of pop, which is a bit weird, but I thought it was AWESOME.
Hmmm…. what to do?
Why not something like pre packaged dried fruit and nuts? Or healthier granola bars, or packs of microwave popcorn (without fake butter) They might be more expensive options but if its important to you…
Or buy small toys instead (obviously without small parts that present choking hazards to little kids). You can get those little rubber ball attached to a paddle pretty cheaply, or little things like you’d find in a “Kinder Surprise”.
Great article! I agree with you that too much garbage candy is handed out on Halloween. I come from a small town and am old enough that I remember being given apples and popcorn but that eventually stopped as society changed form being able to trust people to being scared of people. It might be an urban legend but I know I wouldn’t eat anything given to me as a treat that is home made.
In Brazil , specifically in Rio de Janeiro , there are urban legends saying that some street-made barbecue is made of cat meat, which is called “churrasquinho de gato” (literally, cat barbecue). Such urban legends, referring to pie filling, kebabs, hamburgers, gyros, etc., are commonplace, with varying degrees of truth or ironic scorn at street vendors’ quality to them.
This stuff is poison. I buy my kids healthy foods and little toys. I give this stuff out to other kids because thats what they want and i figure thats up to their parents.