It’s the time of year health-minded parents across the nation dread: Halloween. While I love and cherish celebrating holidays and the changing of the seasons, I loathe the trappings of Halloween - and Christmas, too, for that matter. What once we honored with care, storytelling and feasts from a local harvest we now celebrate with mass-market plastic trinkets and candies laced with neurotoxic food coloring and genetically engineered emulsifiers and processing agents. As with many traditions, we’ve lost our focus.
Change the Focus of Halloween
While trick-or-treating is, undoubtedly, the single activity most people associate with Halloween, that doesn’t have to be the case. Indeed, focusing on other aspects of celebrating Halloween and minimizing, but not avoiding, trick-or-treating and candy can help to flesh out the fall holiday. Place extra emphasis on carving the jack-o-lantern, preparing wholesome autumn-inspired treats, creating costumes, story-telling or visiting age-appropriated haunted houses. You might even take the kids on a day-time visit to a historic cemetery in effort to learn more about your community and its early settlers. By focusing on other aspects of the holiday, you can engage your children in a more holistic celebration rather than one that only feeds the pockets of candy manufacturers to the detriment of your children’s health.
Host a Halloween Feast
Consider how fondly we think of Thanksgiving with its turkeys, hams, sauces, sides and pies. Why not celebrate Halloween with a similar feast? Set aside time to create a supper filled with special, seasonal foods – foods that are just a touch above and beyond your everyday fare. Roast a leg of lamb and serve it alongside braised root vegetables, baked apples, pumpkin custard or molasses cookies. Prepare a cauldron of simmering mulled wine for the adults and older children and spiced cider for the young children. Whatever meal you prepare, make it special and unique so that you look forward to it all year and your children will want to continue your new-found tradition in their homes once they’re grown.
Offer Healthier Halloween Treats
While I believe trick-or-treating and candy should not be the primary focus of Halloween, neither do I believe we should avoid it completely. What child wants to feel left out? What mom wants her house TPed because she was the only scrooge on the block not to offer treats to assuage tricksters? Instead, prepare goodie bags filled with wholesome treats like sesame candies, spiced cookies or yogurt taffy for the children you know well and, for the children you don’t know well, consider handing out small organic chocolates (free from soy lecithin and GMO sugar), ginger chews, boxes of crayons, packages of nuts, dime store toys or other goodies in lieu of candy made from GM soy lecithin, high fructose corn syrup, beet sugar, artificial colors and other worrisome components from industrial food manufacturers.
Consider Reverse Trick-or-Treating
If you believe in food activism, consider reverse trick-or-treating. The chocolate industry is plagued by some very serious social problems including persistent child slavery. Children – usually aged between 12 and 14 years old are forced to work at cocoa farms in West Africa for 80 to 100 hours per week. They’re denied education, adequate nutrition and suffer severe, routine beatings. All of this to feed the west’s addiction to chocolate. Teach your children about the importance of taking a stand by participating in reverse trick-or-treating. Simply by a few bags of fair trade chocolate, print a few flyers, and go door-to-door handing fair trade candies to residents in effort to raise awareness about the plight of children held as slaves to support the cheap chocolate industry.
Invite the Candy Fairy for a Visit
In our home, we invite the Candy Fairy for a visit on Halloween and other candy-filled holidays. After a short round of trick-or-treating, the children may bundle up their candies and set them aside for the sweet-toothed Candy Fairy who comes under the dark cloak of night, takes the candy and leaves a bundle of much-sought-after toys in the candy’s place. While not a perfect solution, the Candy Fairy keeps the candy from your babies’ bellies.
Load Up on Foods Rich in B Vitamins
Inevitably, your child will come across some sugary sweets this Halloween – a taste from the candy bag, from well-meaning strangers who don’t listen to the word “No,” or even from your own homemade, treats. Sugar depletes B vitamins, so stay one step ahead by making sure to have foods rich in B vitamins on hand for Halloween and the days following the holiday. Liver (try chicken liver pâté), beef, nutritional yeast, kombucha and fermented foods present good sources of B vitamins.
In the end, do what you can, and have fun.
Moroccan Preserved Lemons
campfire roast chicken with flowering onion and dill
Our Daily Bread: No-knead Sourdough
A Story of Recovery (and a Recipe for Grain-free Carrot Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting)
A Recipe for Beet Kvass: A Deeply Cleansing Tonic
The First Salsa of the Season: Radish & Green Tomato
While we love trick or treating as a neighborhood-building activity, I also love your ideas. I will plan to spend the money on fair trade and/or organic candies next year. Great ideas!
We are collecting for UNICEF this year: http://runawaylawyer.blogspot.com/2009/10/trick-or-treat-to-make-difference.html
Also, my kids will not be getting a lot of their haul – it goes to Daddy’s office to “share with the poor grown-ups who don’t get to trick or treat.”
Except the Reese’s products….they all go to mommy.
We haven’t done trick or treating in a while, but my imperfect solution to the candy issue is to pass out cheap glow in the dark bracelets from Oriental Trading Co or a similar company. That has a safety aspect to it too, and is one less piece of candy to give to kids.
i love this!! well done!!
Great ideas! Thank you!
Ca you point me in he direction of a reipe for yogurt Taffy!? That sounds amazinG!
Love the “candy fairy” and the tips for becoming more socially aware.
I just posted a quote today that I heard Udo Erasmus (Udo’s oils) say on the radio about how uninspired people make bad stuff just to make money. He called for “inspired” people to make (and educate others about) the stuff that really makes a difference.
Fabulous ideas!! We are a little behind on Halloween prep this year, but I am totally reconsidering what I want to do in the future. I had a Halloween party one year with family which was very memorable (I lived in England then and Trick or Treating isn’t done very much). It was great fun and was much more “traditional” to me than asking strangers for chemical-laden candy.
This year we decorated the porch with mini-pumpkins that we grew and the leftover cornstalks from our garden. We don’t go all crazy like some people do with their giant inflatable yard-grossness, but I love to use lights, candles, and retro window decor. More than that is just garish, not ghoulish.
We are giving out some (storebought) fruit leather strips that are all natural. If kids don’t like them, oh well! I’m sure parents will see the benefit of them and they will probably end up in lunchbags next week.
I am absolutely going to make something festive to eat like pumpkin custard tonight now, so thanks for that idea. And as my son’s school does NOT do much in the way of seasonal art, I am thinking of a craft we can do after school today. You have truly put me in the mood to create new traditions!
Very good ideas. It is difficult to find a balance between too much and too little and you offer some good compromises! I especially like the “Sam Hain” idea!
“What mom wants her house TPed because she was the only scrooge on the block not to offer treats to assuage tricksters?” My mom was a diabetic and was very passionate about sugar “being poison in your body”, her personal mantra. She used to give out crayons, raisins or pencils with fun-shaped erasers to trick-or-treaters when I was a kid. At the time I was mortified to be from “that house”. Now that I’m older I think it was pretty forward thinking of her to not pass out candy and at least try to give out an alternative to all the sugar and chemicals. Plus, it deterred the kids that were way too old to be out. They didn’t want any crayons.
Great post! It is hard to find a way to celebrate Halloween without going overboard with candy and other “junk”. We’re taking it easy this year. Thanks for linking to my Jack O Lantern fruit cups! They are a cute (and healthier) festive snack!
There is a solution to unhealthy, not-sustainable produced chocolate all parents can feel good about – Xocai! I am an independent distributor of this amazing chocolate and everyone in our house eats this chocolate every day. This is the world’s only cold-pressed chocolate, is NOT candy, and is a superfood. It contains some of the highest levels of flavonoids and antioxidants of any food available. It’s the best tasting chocolate I have ever eaten. It is sustainable produced on small family farms with fair wages off the Ivory Coast, so you your social conscience can be satisfied. And, it is with a patented process that no other chocolate company can offer which preserves all the health benefits of chocolate. If anyone is interested, please contact me. This is a wonderful alternative to commercially-produced chocolate and is actually healthy to eat. It has been endorsed by various professionals in medical and health communities – both mainstream and alternative. Just a few pieces a day can satisfy even the most voracious chocolate tooth!
Thank you, what a great post for parents! I love all the ideas. My only question is: where do you find soy lecithin-free chocolate? Even in the organic and fair trade varieties it is in there…not sure what other emulsifier can be used. Do you have any resources for soy-free chocolate and treats?
Thanks again!
Hi Jessica -
I recommend Rapunzel and Askinosie chocolate – both of which are fair trade and lecithin-free. Excellent, high quality chocolate. And something I should indulge in less often.
Take Care -
Jenny
We do the Switch Witch…on Halloween night she visits trick-or-treaters after they go to bed and switches out all the candy for a toy.
Great suggestions! I have also heard that certain local companies will often “buy back” your Halloween candy from you… by the pound. So, not only do you get rid of the excess candy, but you get paid! I have a feeling kids will love this…
Here’s a directory for a buy back program. Enter your zip and find a particpating dentist your area.
Ooops, here’s the link: http://www.halloweencandybuyback.com/
The Halloween Fariey comes to our neighbourhood…..my girls divide their loot in half that night and leave one part of it out on the porch for the fairey to get in the night…she replaces it with a wee present or book. Then she gives it to children who didn’t get any! It gets rid of 1/2, anyways!
My kids are grown now, but what I did was feed my kids liver before trick-or-treat. The extra incentive helped them eat something they were not terribly fond of and the extra nutrition helped them get through the candy eating without too much damage. They are in their 30′s now and still remember the required pre Halloween dinner.
Growing up my mom always had us take half of our candy to the local retirement home to share with the elderly. The residents were always so excited to see us in our costumes (we would wear them for the outing) and they loved the candy too. Since my kids aren’t exposed to junk in our home, I have found that they eat very little of their loot every year (just not part of their palate I guess) and I throw the rest out (wasteful, but a type of waste I can live with).
I’m the biggest scrooge! We’re handing out honey sticks. Actually, now we can’t even do that because my kids have the pox- so we would be passing out germs instead, but we were going to. And I don’t like the skulls and gore everywhere either, it’s gross and somewhat disturbing for the little ones. I’m a (Christian) scrooge about Christmas too- we’re celebrating the Festival of Lights this year instead.
If I could I’d send my kid to your house in a heartbeat – he needs to get the pox! I’ve tried exposing him to chicken pox two or three times (every time it goes around) and it just doesn’t take.
This year we’re giving out glow sticks, stickers and bubbles. I might do honey sticks too, because we don’t have enough to go around.
I’m with you on Christmas, too. WAY too commercialized and it really detracts from the message of the holiday.
You’re more than welcome to come visit!
We’ve exposed them a few times too, it wasn’t until our best friends got it and we were around it for about a week straight, sharing cups and stuff, that I finally got my kids to catch it. And they don’t even really seem bothered by it- so glad to get it over with!
I keep forgetting that not everyone feels the same way and have had to cancel all our plans for this week. People keep saying, but don’t your kids have chicken pox? Oh yea, better stay home
Thanks for these great tips and ideas! We always trade our son’s candy for a toy of his choosing. He’s too logical to believe in the “candy fairy” or the “candy goblin”, but he is more than willing to pick out something new at the toy store, since he knows he’s not going to get the candy anyway!! Thanks for your great site, and for all the tips for kids! I blogged about healthy/spooky halloween snacks recently:
http://redwoodcottage.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/healthy-halloween-booo/
and I firmly believe that over time, if we keep it up, we can change the culture around the holiday, which I feel is slowly happening in my community!
AMI
I do enjoy your health food posts. You always try to encourage us to make right choices in our food choices, eating healthy whole foods. This post has got me stumped I have to say. How many know the origins of halloween, the origins of trick or treating? Did you know that trick or treating is associated with child sacrifice? Our family just posted about the origins of halloween for those who are interested in learning more in trying to encourage our children in making right choices in other parts of our life. Please take the time to read it if you can. http://pebblecrossing.blogspot.com/2010/10/two-weeks-ago-we-posted-poll-to-find.html
blessings ~ Carmen
Carmen -
While I certainly appreciate your readership, your information is incorrect. Halloween is not rooted in child sacrifice and neither is trick-or-treating.
Furthermore, Nourished Kitchen is not a place for you to extrapolate upon your personal religious beliefs particularly when they degrade the cultural traditions of others; rather, we welcome and respect all religious and cultural traditions: from the FAQs.
Jenny, I apologize, no harm intended, I will understand if you choose to delete my comment.
I’m so glad to hear about the importance of fair trade chocolate. This is the first time I have heard that information, but I’m not sure if reverse trick or treating is an effective way to approach it with the general populous. It would seem it would be something to the effect of “Knock knock, who’s there, a big fat guilt trip for hurting kids with your ignorance when all you were trying to do honor a traditional American holiday and give gifts to neighborhood children.”
I think it is very rude for someone to take the candy that they know they are going to throw away. The people handing out the candy paid for it! If you don’t want the candy…don’t take it. Your child can just walk around and show off his/her costume but not take something that is going to be thrown out. The child can just say “No thank you, I don’t eat candy. I just want to show off my costume.”
Seriously? There’s not a kid on the planet who would say that! Unless, of course, they were reciting it under duress. Parents can force kids to say pretty much anything. I mean it’s all very noble in theory, but in reality if you honestly think that a child wouldn’t feel completely alienated by having to watch every other kid on the block make a big haul while he or she is stuck going door-to-door being told to refuse every treat that’s offered… well, that’s just wrong.
BTW, once a gift is out of your possession it’s no longer yours to control. They can choose to eat their candy, take it to the office, throw it out, or set fire to it. It’s kind of out of your hands how they choose to dispose of it.
Thanks for all the great ideas! This is our first Halloween since we started eating real food, and I’ve been pondering how to best handle it. We have our church Halloween party/trunk-or-treat tonight, and for my potluck contribution I think I’m going to bring some almond flour brownies (sweetened with Rapadura) and put a little “gluten-free” tag on it since there are people in our congregation with celiac. As far as the trick-or-treating, I went out today and got some Halloween pencils, fun erasers, and little Halloween toys (spider rings, creepy crawlies, glow-in-the-dark snakes) to pass out. I figure the kids will be getting a ton of candy, so we can be one less person contributing to that.
I also try to be eco-friendly and struggle with that as well. Dime store toys are a great alternative, but they take so much energy to produce, package, ship, and often end up in the trash within a week or so anyway. How to strike a good balance?
Love the idea for a home-cooked seasonal meal to mark the day! We are leaning towards the traditional holidays and this time of year is about letting the “light” go and preparing for the “dark”. The sun is growing weaker and weaker in this hemisphere so we should put on a party for him! And prepare ourselves for the dark days ahead.
Excellent post! Thank you!
Welcome the Switch Witch! She visits our home every year. Read the legend/myth and create a Halloween tradition in your home. Your kids will love to see it in print and read the story over and over. The Switch Witch fosters creativity and healthier living.