69 // Allergen-friendly, candy-free ideas for Halloween
Kid-friendly, candy-free ideas for Halloween
How to be considerate of food allergies, conscious of cost, and still keep it fun (with low to no added sugar)!
Based on the analytics for this podcast, one of my most popular episodes since launching in January was this one talking about non-candy Easter basket ideas.
With that, I made the assumption that many of you might also like to know some non-candy options for Halloween.
I'm going to give you some really fun novelty ways that you can still enjoy the holiday with less sugar offerings. So if you are wanting to minimize the amount of added sugar that's being passed out from your house or given to your kids or you are looking for more allergen-friendly ideas, this episode is going to be right up your alley.
Listen to this episode of The Veggies & Virtue Podcast now!
Full Episode Transcription
Please note this a raw transcription. If something doesn’t read correctly, toggle to that timestamp in the show so that you can listen in on what was actually being said!
[00:00:00] Hey, and welcome to today's episode of the Veggie and Virtue Podcast. I know from looking at the analytics on this podcast since I launched in January, that one of my most popular episodes is talking about non candy Easter basket and Easter egg fillers. And so with that, I thought I'm just going to make an assumption that you all might also like to know some non candy.
[00:00:25] options for Halloween as well, and so that's what we are going to dive into today. I'm gonna give you some really fun novelty ways that you can still enjoy the holiday with less sugar offerings, if that's something that you're after, if you're looking to go allergen friendly or to just minimize the amount of added sugar that's being passed out from your house or given to your kids.
[00:00:46] This episode is going to give you tons of ideas that you can get on ordering in time for Halloween. This.
[00:01:28] If you listen to the last episode that I shared on Monday, you know that this is not me out for sugar. I'm not looking to eliminate sugar from Halloween. Yes, full confession. I have tried to hand out raisins and apple sauce pouches before when my daughter was not even one year old yet, and thought that that would be a fine option.
[00:01:49] However, as we expected, I did go over that. Great. And as a first time mom, yes, I learned my lesson. So we have done a lot of alternative ideas over the years, so I'm gonna share some of those with you, but also just share some of the other fun idea. That I've heard about or seen that I think are some great non-candy alternatives, if that's something that you're looking to have, particularly if you have a younger child and you haven't introduced added sugar yet.
[00:02:12] That would be the recommendations for kids to and under, which I know, especially at times like Halloween, that can be really hard to continue to reinforce. But if you have younger children and you still want to include them in the holiday, but you maybe don't want them having items with a lot of added sugar, or if it's just something that you as a family want to do that you're offering something, A little bit more original or a little bit different, or from most mom's perspective, a little bit more useful than this episode is going to give you some great ideas.
[00:02:40] Last, I also want to help promote. The messaging that comes with the Teal Pumpkin project. If this isn't something that you're familiar with, I'll include a link in my show notes. But you can also Google Te Pumpkin Project because hopefully it's something that year after year you'll continue to see more of.
[00:02:56] But doing non candy or non-food items can also be a great way to support those kids who have food allergies and may have to avoid a lot of the items that are traditionally in trick or treat offering. So we're gonna get into. First though, I wanna share a funny story with you guys because I think it helps give some perspective, and this is very, very, very isolated to just my own example.
[00:03:19] So I'm by no means trying to demonstrate that this is reflective of everyone's Halloween reality. But just to show a little bit of comparison that my husband and I learned early on when we were. Still kind of newlyweds. I mean, I guess we'd been married a couple years and Claire, my oldest, she would've been just under one years old and we were in our old house and it was a sweet little neighborhood and people would go and trick or treat about, but it was pretty open neighborhood.
[00:03:44] So people would kind of drive in and out and drive about. And there was a lot more people driving by than like say, walking around. And we kind of did like. Block party where that was where more of like the daytime trick or trading was happening for younger kids. So anyways you know, it was our first real time interacting on Halloween since it was our first Halloween with a kid in this new neighborhood.
[00:04:04] And it was great. It was fun. But my husband and I were really, really excited for, once Claire was asleep and we could just sit there and pass out candy to the trick or traders mind you that this was the year I tried to do the apple sauce and the raisins, which yes, I. Was not my coolest mom moment, which I'm kind of content with as a dietician.
[00:04:21] I don't have a lot of cool mom moments, but we also did have candy and things, and my husband and I sat there and we had all of these decorations up and we sat inside our dark house just waiting for the doorbell to ring. And I kid you not, I think the entire night it maybe. the doorbell rang, or you know, they knocked or whatever it was that we had them do since Claire was sleeping seven times.
[00:04:43] I mean, there was no one showing up at our house. And here we had all this candy and you know, all these packages of raisins and apple sauce and no one to hand them out. To counter that to the house that we live in right now. And we live in a large neighborhood. It's technically like a city in and of itself, but within our large neighborhood of several thousand people.
[00:05:06] Our little one mile loop is where the entire neighborhood goes to trick or treat. So similar to in our old neighborhood where they kind of marked off a single cut through road that had less through traffic as kind of the designated safe spot for trick or treating to happen. And this neighborhood, it's a one mile circle, so there's no through traffic anyways, but it gets blocked off and it's super fun.
[00:05:27] But the first year we lived here, People warned us that we were going to have no idea how many tricker traders we got. And my husband and I having come off of an experience where we had such few tricker traders thought, This is gonna be amazing. This is gonna be so great. And it is. It truly is one of the most fun holidays of the year in our neighborhood because it's so community oriented.
[00:05:49] All the kids are out. There's a lot of safety precautions in place. Parents are everywhere, and everyone in our community is really just getting to have a great time and it's super. But I kid you not now we plan for like 500 to a thousand kids every year and it's crazy. And the reason I'm sharing this is a few fold because as I give you suggestions of what I think are some great non candy options, I'm gonna be keeping these two ends of the spectrum in mind.
[00:06:16] Again, not saying that this is representative of everyone's Halloween reality, but I think it's important for us to think about there are varying considerations depending on where you live. and how many kids you anticipate having because at our old house I could have budgeted for like 10 cute little trick or treat alternatives and it would've been fine here.
[00:06:39] A lot of the really cute ideas that I can come up with as my Dian mom friendly alternatives are just not feasible for that many kids. I can't hand package anything, or I should say that many things as we learned the. Maybe five years in the house with another family, we would do glow sticks and we would have you know, bible verses that we would hold, punch and put around the glow stick.
[00:07:02] And there were like bracelets and necklaces and things like that, that the kids could have. And it was a blast. But once we started getting upwards of 500, we physically could not keep up with cracking that many glow sticks and assembling that many bracelets or necklaces as quick as the trick or treaters were coming.
[00:07:17] And so even though it was more cost effective for a large group, it ultimately. Was very time intensive where that would've been something that was much more doable in our old neighborhood. And so I wanna share that because I think it's so easy for us to see what other people are doing and to compare each of our experiences on Halloween as if it's apples to apples.
[00:07:35] But the reality is it's not. Each of us are having the opportunity to engage in different communities, and each of us have different priorities when it comes to Halloween. So as a first time mom, something that was important to me, If I'm handing out these options, I want it to be something that my daughter could have if, which was the reality that happened.
[00:07:54] We don't have a ton of kids come and we don't pass out all of our snacks. I wanted to know that it was things that I wanted around the house while sure, having some candy at the house was fine. Having things like raisins and apple sauce for my 10 month old made a lot more sense than having a ton of candy because that wasn't something I was gonna be offering her.
[00:08:12] So I wanted things that were safe and age appropriate for her, but that were also things. Additionally, if it is a family who's living with a family member who has food allergies, of course the priorities are going to shift not only on, I don't have it slated for this year, next year. I think I should make a point to do that.
[00:08:29] So someone remind me. Next year I'm gonna have a fellow allergy mom on, and we can interview her about kind of how that Halloween process goes, especially for those of you with young children who have food allergies. That would be a great episode that I would love to include in next year's Halloween lineup.
[00:08:45] I think it's important for us to recognize that those families are going to be passing out different candy because again, they want their house to be safe. They want whatever leftovers of these trick or treat I items that they have to be safe for their kids to consume, but their entire night is going to be shifted in order to ensure that family member's safety.
[00:09:03] So that's again, another really important consider. and as we are all experiencing this year with inflation, there's varying price points, and I've mentioned it before and I could probably mention on every episode in some capacity, I can geek out over unit price. It's something I was raised very early on in life to understand when doing canned food drives and my dad taught me how to get the most bang for my buck when I was trying to, you know, win the class competitions for who?
[00:09:31] Collect the most canned foods and I would, you know, translate how much can I get for a dollar of this and things like that. Anyways, I will forever hold that skill near and dear to my heart. But with that, I will find out the unit price of the different offerings that I might be handing out a Halloween.
[00:09:47] And if I'm hand handing out 10. Not only from the physical dynamic of am I putting this in a little baggy with a little bow around it, but the cost equivalent of what is it costing me per item or per child to give it out these items? And that's going to be altered by how many people you anticipate having to give out Halloween items too.
[00:10:09] It's also impacted and it's a personal decision based on how much you're able or willing. To budget for something like Halloween. So I share all these considerations because I want us to be really respectful of one another and of moms and of those in our community as we see how different people approach offering different things and knowing that there's a lot of different priorities that come into play when we think about some of these options.
[00:10:33] So now I'm sure you're wanting to just get to the nitty gritty of what are some of these options first, and for. as I allude to with the raisins and the apple juice. I love that food manufacturers are starting to market some of the snack items as Halloween friendly, because while it, you know, changes the packaging a little bit, the product itself tends to still be the same.
[00:10:57] So things like an apple sauce container. Or that bag of goldfish crackers or the little fruit leather from the store, or a little thing of pirate booty, or made good bars that are miniature size, that could easily be added into a lunch box or for snack. But they also make it a really functional, fun option to hand out as a snack item.
[00:11:19] So I would look for those prepackaged snack items and see whether they're labeled from Halloween or not. Which ones would you want to have on hand? Should you have leftovers after Halloween? Which ones would you be sending with your child to school anyways? What are some of those snack options? What are some of those individually portioned things that you could hand out to trick or traders?
[00:11:39] Again, depending on the scale and the cost that works for your. , but that you also would want to keep on hand, should you have extras or as a mom that you would want to actually keep when your child's going through their keep and give away pile. I know I enjoy this a lot because some of these foods are not things that I commonly buy for my kids, but they enjoy getting them in their trick or treat thing.
[00:12:03] So here's the bag of goldfish. Isn't a mainstay in our pantry, but it's a fun addition to the snack bin. We can tuck it in their lunch box or they can bring it for snack in the days following Halloween, and it's something that we can incorporate that doesn't fall into the giant bucket of candy. And you know, be offered more sparingly, which I'm going to get into that in future episodes as well.
[00:12:25] Additionally, I want you to think about whether it's a snack item or a non-food item, something that you can do that we did last year, and I mentioned we did the glow sticks for several years, and that was really fun. Last year I did try and emphasize the teal pumpkin project at our house specifically because again, knowing I was on this one mile loop, knowing what to expect from the things that were offered.
[00:12:47] I also. That I had yet to ever seen Na teal, Pumpkin on our block, and I wanted to start raising awareness about this initiative. And I wanted to start supporting the kids that maybe were kids with food allergies or families who did want to look for that teal pumpkin because it is an iconic aspect of not only bringing awareness to food allergies, but inclusivity of those children who have food allergies yet still wanna part.
[00:13:12] In events like Trick or Treat. So when you're looking at the options that you could offer, that is a food item, but that would be more food allergy friendly. Thinking about things like I mentioned, Made Good is a brand that I share often. They're great for being top eight, allergen free, or things like applesauce or even, you know, naturally colored fruit snacks.
[00:13:33] Some kids, as I mentioned in the last episode, can be sensitive to food dye, so if that's something that. Want to avoid or minimize, that can be an option as well. But thinking of the fruits, or excuse me, thinking of the snack foods, that would be free of what we call the top eight, and that's gonna be the top eight Most common allergies, of course, there's going to be other allergies out there that we can't always account for.
[00:13:58] However, by raising awareness and showing, you know, we're, we're making the effort, we're aware of what is being offered at our. To be more food allergen friendly. Were being more intentional to provide offerings for the kids who might be allergic to peanuts, dairy, gluten, or wheat soy, and some of those that can commonly show up in traditional candies and traditional trick or treat baskets.
[00:14:25] Now to talk about some non-food related trick or treat options, I'm gonna go ahead and share several. Obviously you have to discern if it. Your family's priorities, your lifestyle, your budget, the number of kids that you have to account for, but I'll let you determine that from some of these ideas. First and foremost, I mentioned glow sticks.
[00:14:46] These can be a front, really fun and functional option for promoting some additional safety during the night of trick or treating, and then things like mini bubble containers or little. You know, spider rings or plastic gooey, you know ping pong ball type things. There's also things like slime or Plato noting that Plato will have weep.
[00:15:06] So just be aware of that. If you're trying to do something like a pumpkin project, there's a lot of other little trinkety things that may offer that you could do with you know, that you could pick up at like a target dollar spot that are going to have, you know, fun crayons or fun pencil. Or little fun pen and paper pads or little Halloween erasers.
[00:15:28] Other fun options might be tiny little craft options. You know, like those that you can get in multi packs at Hobby Lobby type things. Those can be a cost effective option that you could easily just kind of baggy up to give to each trick or treater. Also, little games, things like those small little decks of playing cards can be really fun.
[00:15:46] Stickers, stencil. Bouncy balls, whistles. There's a lot of different little novelty things, those kind of things that you would maybe even tuck in a pinata if you were trying to do something that was a non-food option or that you wanted to offer in addition to, you know, the candy that you maybe had in another bucket.
[00:16:05] So I hope that this has given you some ideas of what you could do, whether you choose to do it or you choose to go, the more tradit. Candy route is completely up to you. And as I wanna support you in with all the episodes always, but especially in October, is I want you to understand that how you approach Halloween is a personal decision.
[00:16:23] How you celebrate it as a quote holiday, or how you approach it from a feeding perspective is unique to you and your family. And there's a lot that we can be mindful about. There's a lot that we can be intentional about, and there's a lot that we can be opportunistic about as we go into all the festivities that are upon us.
