Halloween Choices?

ok, a brief history.

For my family, Halloween has always been a well thought out and planned event. We usually give out little bags filled with candy and silly toys to the neighborhood kids, and save the mini-bars for the deluge of other kids that show up later in the night. We all dress up for the event and much fun is had by all. Our son, typically bringss in a haul that by christmas most of must be thrown in the trash... He loves the haul though.

My wife an I were discussing what we would do this year. Both of us are now eating healthy, and sugar is pretty well out of our diets. The big question is... What will we give out?

It seems hypocrytical to hand out candy and sugar filled treats... not to mention the temptation of mountains of chocolate spending the evening staring us in the face... What are monster movies without chocolate.. especially if the chocolate is only feet away.

So, has anyone else thought ahead on this one? What are you guys thinking of giving out? and... What preventative measures may you be planning to take this Halloween?

Why does it seem hyocritical to give out sweets?

I was talking about this with the fiancee. The plan is.. we're still going to get candy, just something neither of us would eat on a dare (like Almond Joy). Anything that doesn't get taken by the kids gets brought into work with one of us to share with our coworkers.

That way, we still get to enjoy the holiday with people, and take part in it, tradiionally, but don't necessarily go nuts eating garbage ourselves :)

If you are concern with that, you can give dry fruits and nuts. Little boxes of raisin, nuts mixes, etc... That's what I give and kids seems to love it cause it is different. :)

Ugh. No offense, vive.. but I hated houses like yours ;)

Oh... Is that why I have to chase the kids down the street to gave them the raisins?!?

I'm handing out candy!  Kids don't want healthy treats on Halloween and I'm not their parent so it isn't my job to monitor. 

Besides, if you pass out healthy snacks, you become "that guy" and the older kids may choose "trick".

Candy I wouldn't eat on dare - Almond Joy, Mounds, Chick-O-Sticks and those weird peanut butter ones.  Sugar Babies... Sour Patch Kids. 

For better or for worse, Halloween is about dressing up in silly costumes, and going off with friends or family to get CANDY! :)
And then having a huge stash of candy to EAT! :)

In and of itself, I don't think candy's bad, and you could divy it up and give your child and "allowance" of candy per day or week so he doesn't overdo it :) (Though this only works until the child is old enough to find the candy himself and *cough* "borrow" some :D )

I am not too sure - you can get Fruit snacks - they are healthier - the thing to remember is if you put out money for anything that is no packaged the parents will just throw it out if they are doing their job!!  The day of Caramel apples and popcorn balls are over!! :) 

Granola bars, raisins, nuts....you could do glossette raisins - good with the bad??  Personally I just hand out the candy - it's part of being a kid - it only comes once a year! 

Don't go too nuts on the healthy things - you might get egged!!  LOL

Fruit snacks are a really good idea. Fruit rollups; choc or yogurt-covered raisins (still choc I know, but raisins are good); pretzels (maybe covered in choc as well).

I don't buy candy until the day of Halloween. If I did, it would be gone by Halloween anyway. The selection isn't as good, but sometimes it goes on sale.

I like the idea of buying candy that I won't eat. Humm.....I can't think of any.

I agree with HK.  I buy candy that I don't like so I won't be tempted to eat it.  I usually don't have left overs because once it starts getting later, I unload it all on the last of the kids that come by. 

I also think you should stick with handing out candy.  That's the whole point of trick-or-treating.  The kids just want candy.  Personally, I hated getting healthy stuff.  And if it wasn't something prepackaged/wrapped, my mom threw it away.  What I really hated getting were those little comic book things about how Halloween was a devil worshiping holiday!  Give me a break!  If your religion doesn't celebrate Halloween, then turn your d**n light off!  I always felt cheated, like I wasted my time, going to those houses.

But I digress.  I think it should be up to the parents on whether they want their kids to eat candy and how much.  If they are letting them go trick-or-treating, they probably don't mind the kids getting candy.  I still think it's up to parents to enforce healthy eating, and that shouldn't have to be your responsibility.  Especially on a holiday centered around sweets! 

Have a fun Halloween!

Try the mini dark chocolate bars.  Dark chocolate is better health-wise than milk chocolate and it doesn't come with all the caramel, peanut butter, nuts, etc that the others do.  Of course I think most kids tend to like the milk chocolate better but you never know, you might have a neighborhood full of little freak kids like I was that prefer the dark :-)

I don't know about hypocritical.  The kids do enjoy it.  I hand out packs of smartees because I hate them and I'm not tempted by them. 

My daughter was 9 when she and her friends began collecting for UNICEF instead of bringing home candy.  They had a ball, and most people gave them a treat anyway.

Do you remember the complex bartering system involved in going through the haul?
I had two siblings and we would spend an hour arguing over how many smarties one reese's peanut butter cup cost.  Raisins and pencils were tossed and our mother insisted on sorting the candy "for safety" but we all knew she was swiping Three Muskateers.  Sub-par retirement community for her.

Well, to elaborate a bit.. it's not hypocrytical because we dont eat candy... it seems a tad, because we have gone to great lengths to teach our child about making wise eating decisions. We have never had a problem where he ate too much candy.. but we do wonder what kind of message it sends when you teach your child to avoid such things, then one night a year you send him off to fill a bag full of candy, and freely distribute it to other children.

That being said.. I don't feel it's overtly hypocrytical.. just a tiny bit, in relation to what we teach. Neither my wife or I liked the idea of giving out healthy snacks. We came to the same conclusion most of you have drawn, and well, I dont want to be cleaning egg and TP from my home the following day. The idea of toys or noveltys from someplace like Oriental Trading Co. had occured, and may be the best bet... If not.. well we could fall back on candy ;-)

As parents who check the candy for our child.. yeah there was no way we would give out unwrapped anything.

I always give out freezies.  Kid's love them, they are thirsty.  You could do that with sugar-free freezies.  I keep them in the fridge, so they are cold..  Trust me, it's a big hit.

Freezies - what a cool idea!  Now going off to check and see if I can find some (plus I won't be tempted to eat them).
Another option would be the small bags of pretzels or sunflower seeds.  Not too icky for kids but they still have some redeeming goodness.

They're not really healthy per se, but if you are looking for something with less sugar, goldfish cracker have halloween-size baggies this time of year.

Fruit snacks are popular with my kids. Costco has huge boxes of them.

We hand out candy. It's only once a year and fits in with my goals of everything in moderation. 

the freezies are a fantastic idea-my kids got some last year and were out of their minds with joy over them. they're just not something you usually get in October, you know?

my mom has always handed out neat pencils and funky plastic rings and stuff like that-the kids who come to her house are still trick or treating past the usual age because they want the neat little toys she gives. XD

I always give out the same thing: suckers. I don't care all that much for them, littler ones can normally have candy on a stick so their mom knows they aren't gonna swallow the thing, and pretty much every kid likes them. I get half sour and half regular. always a hit.

so when i was at safeway a few weeks ago, they had a bag of little tubs of playdoh (instead of candy). i thought it was a faboulous idea (but i also love legos and playdoh) but my boyfriend thought it was horrible and that we'd be the 'sucky' house if we gave those out.

I think the playdoh idea rocks-it would drive the parents more batty than the candy. XD

I agree that you should just give out candy you won't be tempted by. Kids are only kids once! Their parents can and should decide what they can eat and how much.

I am SO in a late-autumn Halloween-y mood now. Why is it only September???