The Ying and Yang of Halloween

The Ying and Yang of Halloween

Trick or Treat time. Once again many of us are plagued by the ying yang of what to do. Give out candy, which perpetuates poor health and health habits, or give out something healthy that kids will likely throw away. I have two suggestions. One is to give out non-food items. There are many inexpensive and small items kids like to have. Try temporary tattoos, shiny rocks, shells, pencils, erasers, small rubber balls, glow sticks, stickers or even coins. If you are feeling creative, make something yourself. Give each child one or two pieces of origami paper and directions to make an animal. Buy a book of Mad Libs or crossword puzzles. Give each child a page of the book, rolled up with a ribbon. You can even make your own mad lib or crossword puzzle. Find the directions to a unique paper airplane and attach them to the appropriate size piece of paper.

If you want to give out candy type items I recommend sticking with real food. By real food I mean nuts, seeds, dried fruit (with no sugar added), honey based treat (as opposed to high fructose corn syrup) and popcorn. Buy small individual serving size bags of sunflower seeds, nuts or pumpkin seeds; or bag them yourself. There are several different brands of sesame honey candy available. Even peanut brittle is real food; nuts and sugar. Dried fruit such as raisins, mango and berries are widely available, but also may require you bagging them in small sizes.

Popcorn is great for kids. If you like you can pop it yourself and give it out warm in small bags. The children can eat it as they walk from house to house. You can also give out small bags of unpopped popcorn kernels with directions on how to pop it on the stove top with oil. Many children think popcorn needs to be micro waved and are amazed that it can be popped in a pot. Please do not give out microwave popcorn, the bag liners have carcinogenic ingredients that escape into the popcorn when heated. Also, flavored popcorn usually has high levels of food coloring, artificial flavors and salt. Another corn based real food is dried corn kernels. These also come in small snack bags.

Although honey is just pure sugar, it is a natural real food. Purchase honey in small plastic tubes. Also, the amount of honey in the tubes is very small, but kids love to suck it out. You might consider serving real apple cider on Halloween night, let the kids and adults drink it at your home. Warm the cider if it is cold on Halloween night. Hot chocolate, made with real milk, may also be appreciated in some areas of the country. So enjoy, and have a great, guilt free evening.

Halloween is Not an Entitlement

When I was a child we would spend hours running through the neighborhood trick or treating, though snow, rain, sleet, whatever. We would move in the dark, from house to house, trying to find the fastest approach. This was independence, survival and great fun. Unfortunately, too many of us now take our children trick or treating at an indoor mall, an office complex, or a covered strip mall. There are lights everywhere, no on gets wet, and those indoors don't even have to figure out how to keep warm and have their costume show. Stores are so close together that your child gets a new piece of candy every 5 steps. Well, where is the adventure in that?

Many children today have been brought up to feel entitled to all sorts of foods, privileges and material goods. I don't think children are entitled to Halloween candy without a little effort. I am all for letting our kids get out there in the elements: running, jumping in leaves, feeling the cold, smelling the candles burn in pumpkins. I want to see a costume, especially one home made. I want to hear kids yell "TRICK OR TREAT". Kids need to earn all of those treats.

Maybe you won't feel so bad letting your children eat a few pieces of candy if their Halloween night is an active one. If you are worried about their safety, walk with your children, or follow on a bike. Make sure that each child has a patch of glow-in the-dark on them, either a vest, sticker, glow stick bracelet or necklace, or a flashlight. Give your children neighborhood boundaries and times to check in or be home. But let kids have Halloween--they might even get some exercise!

Need some tips on healthy and not-so-unhealthy Halloween treats? All that and more in October.

The Great Candy Give Away

Halloween is the official beginning for The Great Candy Give-Away. It starts after sunset on October thirty-first and goes until February fourteenth. This season spans Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Kwanza, Christmas, Winter Solstice, New Years Eve/day and Valentines Day. This season also coincides with the least availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, the shortest hours of day light, and in most areas of the country the coldest weather of the year. Blended together, this season encourages us to stay inside, visit with friends, and eat lots of sweets. Unfortunately, our bodies don't seem to realize that we don't need to build up an extra layer of fat to stay warm, most of us have central heating and wool socks for that.

So how do we avoid all the sweets this season brings? I recommend a combination of moderation and creating new traditions. Let me show you how this works using Halloween as an example. Instead of passing out candy bars (or boxes of raisins that few kids want) hand out one small individually wrapped candy (like Hershey Kisses or individual Star Bursts). If you are worried about looking cheap add some other small toys or prizes such as key chains, colorful mini tissue packets, stickers or brightly colored markers. You could even eliminate the candy all together and just give out the gifts. When your child comes home with too much candy, let them keep a few pieces and leave the rest for The Great Pumpkin. The Great Pumpkin comes at night while children are asleep and exchanges their candy for a gift.

For most kids, the costumes, decorating and Trick or Treating is more fun than the candy. Create a few new traditions, making a visit to your house memorable. Invest in some reuseable decorations, lights, scarry music or skeletons to place on your walkway or porch. Add on each year until you have the best display on the block. Better yet, have your kids help create a haunted house effect for your entrance way with appliance boxes, tin cans, or anything else you can think of. Stuff old worn out clothes to make people and let your kids figure out how to make them look spooky, place them in your yard with flashing lights around them.

You can have a lot of fun coming up with new, candy free ideas, if you give it a try. Halloween is a great tradition, so lets keep it alive with a heathy twist. Try your hand at moderation and tradition for other holidays. Let me know your ideas so I can share them with others.