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Trick-Or-Treat, Smell My Feet, Gimme Something Good To Eat! Putting A Spin On Halloween Treats!Dec 27 '05 (Updated Mar 13 '08) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line There are alternatives to candy ... they might not like it but their teeth with thank you!
Every year hundreds of thousands of pounds of candy are purchased and handed out on Halloween. I am sure that this is something that dentists thoroughly enjoy and there aren't many kids that will pass up getting some treats when the opportunity presents itself. So what do you do when you are planning a party and know that you are going to have a house full of kids - kids that are going to have way too much sugar in their systems to start with? If you are looking for some alternatives to candy treats there are a lot of options available to you. Most of them are inexpensive and some of the parents might even thank you for not tossing another Snickers or Kit Kat Bar bar into their kids treat bag. First off, you want to ball park the number of kids you will have at the party or the number of kids that visit you on Halloween. If you get tons of kids knocking at your door you aren't going to want to go for the higher priced things but if you live on a dead end street, cul du sac or just don't have many kids in the neighborhood then you might want to give them a little something extra. You may get an occasional kid that gives you some flack about not handing out candy but give them a gentle reminder that your treat will be around long after the candy bars are devoured. Here are some of the alternatives that I've come up with and have used in the past.... some of these were my own ideas and others were ones that I picked up from other people in the neighborhood. Fast Food Coupons Most fast food places now offer Halloween treat books; just rip off a coupon, toss it in their bag and be done. Well, that’s how simple it should be. Certain establishments have age restrictions, Mc Donald's has it stamped on theirs that they can be redeemed by children ages twelve and under while Wendy's has no age restriction. This makes them a nicer pick so if you get stuck with ten or twenty of them, you can still redeem them or give them to other adults to use. Glow Sticks Pick these up after Halloween and get ready for next year! Most cost about .99 cents each and glow for at least a few hours so they are a nice thing to hand out. Kids can wear one for safety or if their flashlight gets too heavy, they can use the glow stick to light their way to the next house. Be sure to read the packages to make sure that they are non-toxic, you never know when a kid is going to get curious and try to bust one of them open. Oriental Trading Company is a great plce to get themin bulk. Coloring Books Check your local Big Lots or Family Dollar / Dollar General stores for coloring books. Most places have Little Tikes, Bratz, Rescue Heroes and other popular titles for .50 cents or two for a dollar. These may be a little bulky for kids who don't have a large sack with them but like I said, long after the candy bars are gone, they'll have something cool to play with. Dover Publications is a great place to check out if you are into online shopping and bargain hunting. Crayola Halloween Crayon Treat Pack You can get these by the bag for about three dollars but I like to try to find them after Halloween to save up for next year. Crayola changes them from year to year but there are usually two to three crayons in each pack and they have cool colors like silver, black, purple and orange. They used to sell these at the website but you needed to order them early so you could be guaranteed to get them by Halloween. Crayola offers a lot of cool things at their website, another great choice is the Crayola Halloween Gel Pen set. School Supplies Yes, that's right, I said school supplies. When I was at Staples this year, right before school started, they had the 24 Pack of Crayola crayons on sale for .18 cents a pack. You could grab twenty or thirty boxes of these for the same price you would pay for a bag of candy. Same thing goes for markers, colored pencils and erasers. If you don’t end up getting rid of all of them with the trick-or-treaters you can drop them off at a Toys For Tots bin when they start their holiday toy drive. Stencils are also a good pick and don’t forget the color rulers with the stencil templates in them; girls really seem to love these! You can also look for the ultra nifty Crayola Crayon Sharpener, at .50 cents a piece they are a steal and something that kids will use over and over again long after all that candy disappears. Toys Check places like Jo-Anne Fabrics, this year they had a cool line of "Spooky Hollow" items that included wind up toys, clackers, glow sticks and other toys. Get them a week before Halloween and you can save 50 - 70% off the suggested retail price. Most of them come in a package so you aren’t tossing loose things into their trick-or-treat bag. Other small toys can be the Special or Pals Playmobil sets, Lego sets and one of my personal favorites - the Pez Keychain. You can check party supply stores too, they have a lot of different toys to choose from and if you are buying them by the dozen the price makes it more affordable than candy in most cases. Packets Last year someone was handing out packets of Pop Rocks and these were a huge hit with kids. I went with the idea and picked up some along with some Kool-Aid packets. When kids saw the choices that they had to pick from more than a few of them opted to grab a few of the Kool-Aid packets; cherry and grape seem to be the most popular flavors but the flavor blends or ones that change color were favorites too. You can stock up on these when they are on sale for ten for a dollar and toss a couple of each flavor into their bags. These are some of the ideas that I came up with when I wanted to have an alternative to handing out candy on Halloween. When we lived in San Diego and some of the soccer moms saw the kitchen table filled with large bowls they initially let out a groan - they thought they were all filled with candy. When they got into the dining room and saw that they were filled with toys, crayons, mini coloring books and other items they all let out a laugh and said they wished more people had non-candy treats for kids. We wouldn't get more than twenty to thirty kids the whole night so they were free to choose a couple of things from the bowls. You'd be surprised at how long a kid in a Shrek costume could deliberate between picking crayons and markers or a Lego sampler pack. You know what I really want to see? Toothbrush companies that put out special items for Halloween. As unpopular as it may seem, handing out a toothbrush is a great idea. You figure even if a kid only gets fifty sweet treats, that's still a lot of sugar for teeth to have to deal with. Since most kids get into some kind of theme like Dora, Bob The Builder or The Wiggles - why can't they come up with some kind of marketing scheme that targets people like me who like to have candy alternatives on hand for trick-or-treaters. Maybe a twenty pack of toothbrushes that you can hand out or let kids pick from the different styles. Why hasn't anyone else thought of this? Is this something that dentists are fighting tooth and nail [no pun]? I bet if Colgate or Crest put out a special spooky toothpaste with little magical sparkles in it kids would use it. What if they had a co-pack of toothpaste and toothbrush for a special price? They could get kids a little more into brushing their teeth and get some advertising for their main line of products. The Bottom Line Having non edible types of treats is a great choice to offer trick-or-treaters; with so many different food allergies to have to worry about I'd rather spend the money buying stuff that they can have some fun with than to toss something in their bag that their parents will shake their heads and take off of them. One thing that still makes me smile was a repeat trick-or-treater, he was walking up the path and said, "Oh this lady gives out the coolest stuff!" to which all his little cohorts replied, "Oh cool!". Some kids might not like the fact that you robbed them of a Snickers bar or bag of Whoppers but when they are going through their candy at the end of the night, they'll see that special little treat or two from you and get a lot more use out of it than a candy bar that they suck down in thirty seconds. As always, thanks for the read! ~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~ © 2008 Freak369 Haunt Your House for Halloween Halloween Fun For EveryoneScary Scenes For Halloween Halloween Laser Cut Stencils Trick-Or-Treat, Smell My Feet, Gimme Something Good To Eat! Putting A Spin On Halloween Treats! Cool Ghouls, Spooky Snacks, Wicked Windows, Creepy Coffins, Evil Embellishments: Planning The Perfect Halloween Party  |
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