The Secret to Having a Healthy Halloween

October has dawned, and the inevitable has happened: People are starting to talk about Halloween.

Costumes.

Trick-or-Treat ideas.

And of course…the food.

What To Do About All That Halloween Candy

Must Halloween be an all-out sugar fest for our kids? Luckily, my little one is still (just barely!) young enough that when he gets one (small) piece of candy as a dessert after a meal, he’s content with that and sees it as a treat. (Would I like it better if he ate no candy? Of course! But I still eat it occasionally, so I can’t complain too loudly.) We have Halloween candy around until the summer parade candy takes over. But I still dread the onslaught of unknown sugar that comes with October 31st.

Is there a better way?

What options does a “real food” household have for trick-or-treating?

When we first moved into a real house in a neighborhood, I was pretty excited about hosting trick-or-treaters. Even then I didn’t want to contribute to the sugar fest, so I went to a local novelty store and bought small toys in bulk: bouncy balls, fake fangs, gooey balls, witches’ fingers, toy boats, and more.

I spent about twenty-five bucks ($13 of which was the huge bag of bouncy balls that I’ll still have when I’m a senior citizen). Turns out our neighborhood doesn’t host a big trick-or-treating crowd. I was so disappointed that first year!

To Sugar or Not to Sugar?

I’m an anti-materialist, too, and I have a healthy fear of “things” coming into our house. We’re running out of places to put “things”, so I’d rather not acquire more than what I need (or really, really want!). My kids both get a lot of toys as gifts from family members, and I wasn’t thrilled about contributing to other folks’ “junk piles”…BUT I decided “things” that won’t hurt anyone’s health are better than candy.

If you’re not Christian and could care less about the next section, skip down this page for “Sweet-less Trick-or-Treat” ideas!

The History of Trick-or-Treating

I enjoyed discovering the following in an old book my cousin found in our Busia’s (Polish grandma’s) attic, The Year and our Children: Planning the Family Activities for Christian Feasts and Seasons by Mary Reed Newland:

Begging at the door grew from an ancient English custom of knocking at doors to beg for a “soul cake” in return for which the beggars promised to pray for the dead of the household. Soul cakes, a form of shortbread… became more important for the beggars than prayers for the dead,  it is said. Florence Berger tells in her Cooking for Christ a legend of a zealous cook who vowed she wold invent soul cakes to remind them of eternity at every bite. So she cut a hole in the middle and dropped it in hot fat, and lo — a doughnut. Circle that it is, it suggests the never-ending of eternity. Truth or legend, it serves a good purpose at Halloween.

The refrains sung at the door varied from “a soul cake, a sol cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake,” to the later:

Soul, soul, an apple or two,
If you haven’t an apple, a pear will do,
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for the Man Who made us all.

[People put on pantomimes and dramas to remind people of the] reality of life after death and the means to attain it. it is probably from these that the custom of masquerading on Halloween had its beginning. The folly of a life of selfishness would be the message pantomimed by the damned; the torment of waiting, the message of the souls from Purgatory; the delights of the beatific vision, the message of he Heavensent. Together they warned the living to heed the means of salvation before it was too late. Doubtless the presence of goblins and witches and cats (ancient symbols of the devil) were remnants of pagan times bespeaking to Christians of spirits loosed from hell to keep track of their own and herd them back at cockcrow.

I’m not about to make homemade doughnuts to feed the neighborhood, so for me, I’m sticking with my toy basket. I wish I had some suggestions for how to quell the flow of Halloween candy coming IN, but we just ration it and allow the excitement that comes along with Halloween.

Ideas for a Sweet-less Trick-or-Treat

Time to chime in! What ideas do you have to help people avoid being a candy supplier to the neighborhood kids? How do you manage your own kids and their trick-or-treating loot?

I asked this question on Twitter and Facebook and got some good ideas to start you off, beginning with my own:

1. little raisin boxes or natural fruit snacks (my S-I-L always gets them for my son from Trader Joe’s)
2. holy cards/saint cards (for the bold)
3. trading cards (baseball, what’s that anime one?)
4. little soaps (not anti-bacterial!)
5. pencils, erasers, crayons (bought at the back-to-school sales, of course)
6. Snack-packs of Goldfish or something else relatively not-un-healthy (better than HFCS or white sugar)
7. Kids love a few coins!
8. Playdough (maybe even homemade!)
9. Activity books and crayons

Fancy Treats for Halloween

If you have a neighborhood like the one I grew up in, you might do special treat bags for the neighborhood kids. We didn’t get many trick-or-treaters, so my mom always bought a full-size candy bar for the local kiddos. If you’re willing to spend a little more time or money on your visiting ghouls, here are some ideas (homemade food is probably frowned upon unless you know the giver, right?):

• Salted, spiced nuts
• Roasted pumpkin seeds
• @rcwant2be has deep pockets:  Lara bars (they’re so good though!)
• @LoverHealthFood recommended @yummololaberry ‘s chocolate fudge balls
• Kettle Corn or Popcorn Balls

How about minimally sweet popcorn balls . . . there’s a recipe on allrecipes for kettle corn that only uses about a tablespoon of sugar and it works great! (The recipe I found has 1/4 cup, but I bet you could cut it. Of course, use melted butter or coconut oil instead of vegetable oil!)  Less sweet than caramel corn or popcorn balls (though popcorn balls that include peanut butter are pretty good too!)

Crispy Pumpkin Seeds

After you carve the pumpkin (or bake pie pumpkins or even spaghetti squash or butternut squash, be sure to read up on how to make pumpkin seeds and know that you can definitely soak and dehydrate them just like other nuts and seeds. Click through for all my tricks, including how to make the job wait for you when you just don’t have time to roast pumpkin seeds.

Healthy Trick-or-Treat Dinner

It’s made of real food, cute as all get-out, and can be made in advance to put in the oven quickly – the perfect meal for Halloween when you have to be getting out to trick-or-treat by a normal dinnertime hour. Shepherd’s Pie is a very popular recipe here at KS (and here at the Kimball  house too), and the spooky version is just right for October 31.

The After Party: Washing Faces

And finally, if your little clown or ghoul will be wearing facepaint, you’ll love this real-food-based super simple tip for getting facepaint off without tears (or toxins).

If you want to start the face painting process without toxins too, we got to test out Elegant Minerals brand of face paints – they’re great, and the ingredients are not only actually listed, but quite nicely non-toxic, too. (a relief!)

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post to both courses from which I will earn some commission if you make a purchase. See my full disclosure statement here.