I absolutely agree with this. I don’t feel good about giving this trash to ANYONE, not just my kids. How awful to unload this onto someone of lower means.

Peer pressure will lead them to do things they shouldn’t and you’ll not be there. Educating them about choices is good. But you have to let them live a little also or they will totally go the other way from you teachings. I am a father of three, grandfather of fourteen, great grandfather of three. So I know a little about kids.

Why is big industry trying to ruin our health by telling us we need to consume insane amounts of sugar on halloween, valentines day, birthdays, the weekend, and every other day that is “tradition”?

Why cant we just let kids have fun. Why are you trying to ruin Halloween. Yse common sense out there but dont go overboard and ruin Halloween.

I used to trade the kids their candy for a basket contains granola bars, gum, a movie, books, etc. They loved it. When they got older, we traded a dime for each piece of candy. They would have trick or treating with cousin and the next used their money towards something they actually wanted..and Their father would take it to work for coworkers.

I love your non-candy suggestions because we have a peanut allergy in our house. However if you’re gonna hand out candy, just buy whatever works. Ultimately you don’t need to spend a bunch of money to be a single organic treat in their giant bag of crap. I dislike the sugar overload and the fake crud but it is one day a year.

Lets turn Halloween from environmental damaging consumerism & health hazard to a green & kind holiday: From getting to giving; from shopping to creating; from toxic to healthy for the child and the planet.

I was one of those “deprived kids” whose mother didn’t allow us to eat Halloween candy, and I couldn’t be more grateful! We still went trick-or-treating and collected mountains of candy, and the rule was – we had three days to play with our candy (I loved counting it and making towers and big piles), we could choose two pieces to taste, and the rest would be traded in for “healthy candy,” such as sesame honey bars, dried fruit and organic chocolate/carob bars. Easter was the same way. My brother and I got all the fun of participating in celebrations, and none of the sugar crashes and allergic reactions from eating junk candy. I definitely got to experience candy at friends’ houses and school trips, but while I found it to be interesting it never appealed to me because it made me feel awful! I’m incredibly grateful that my mother provided an environment In which I could discern what felt good for my body and not. She also provided a solid model that I can emulate with my own children. And believe me – if you start the habits young, most children don’t mind the difference at all! I was the kid going to the birthday party with an avocado sandwich packed to eat instead of pizza, and homemade blueberry bread to eat instead of cake – One of my most vivid memories, and I think it’s just as funny now as I did then! Different food choices don’t have to be traumatic. It’s “we do different things but we have just as much fun.”

We should try and make Halloween Green, or “HalloGreen”. It should be about giving rather than getting, healthy rather than toxic, and healthy for the planet too.

If we want our children to have a livable planet, we must stop the consumption, the toxins, and the focus on getting, and, replace it with a focus on giving, connecting, and nurturing our bodies and our planet. We can start right here on Orcas, by transforming Halloween from a “go get” to a “go give” and from consumerism based to creative and sustainable celebration.

My son’s birthday is the beginning of November so we always do a pinata at his birthday party and put in all their extra Halloween candy.

We trick or treat and my kids love it, it is the only time candy enters the home (nearly). My son has some allergies so he has to switch out a bunch of his candy; then with some monitoring (candy after food only) I let them go a bit nuts…. they burn through it in a day or so and we’re done.

I am always looking for alternatives… party favours are pricey and hard to find where we live:.. so I did buy candy…. with natural colours…. best I could do this year. Think I’m gonna use some of these tips for next time though. Thanks

I never comment but this is just self absorbed and offensive. The cruel part isn’t that you aren’t letting your kid eat candy once a year, but that you’d consider it good enough to serve as actual sustenance for someone else. If you don’t feel good giving it to your child, why do you consider it kind to give it to Edward?

I agree Melanie- and in fact, I think that in most cases in our modern world, we protect our kids from too much and don’t give them enough independence or room to make mistakes. And my kids absolutely do enjoy treats every once in a while and have enjoyed much more than I would have chosen for them on several occasions. To be clear- this year, we live in a neighborhood and near other kids and they are dressing up and joining all the fun, but they’ve decided (on their own) to help hand out glow sticks and play with their friends rather than go door to door for candy. My goal is not to “protect” them from everything but rather to educate them and hope, as they get older, that they make wise choices but realizing I can’t and shouldn’t control these choices. That said, this doesn’t mean I should serve junk food at our house or keep candy around just so they can eat it once in a while in the name of “balance.”