Writergirl/ Build your clientel. I buy treat bags, a bag of cheap little toys and candy. Put one or more of each in the bag. The extra time and cost is worth it. Each year word gets out and I have a nice little crew to ooo and ahh over. I save leftover bags and toys for the next year and it costs even less. Wearing a friendly witch costume helps too.

I'm stuck on whether to even buy candy this year. Last year was our first year in town and we were really excited to hand out candy... and we got FOUR trick or treaters! :( We were so bummed!! I'll probably pick up a bag, but I sure hope we get a few more kids this year because I don't want all that candy sitting in my house tempting me!

Frogger/ Yes! The plastic princess mask with the elastic string that always broke shortly after halloween! Somebody always ended up stepping on my mask and squishing it beyond repair, good times.

Who could afford healthy the candy is pricey enough.

"Most hard candies that take awhile to eat "tend to be more like pure sugar," she said, and all are about 110 calories per ounce."
Careful what you write- the longer the exposure to the teeth the worse it is for you. Sure less fat but now you have rotten teeth. You cannot walk off rotten teeth!

Raisins- yuck- unless you collect enough to make some cookies!

Good comment on the chalk- naughty words on your house with chalk.
Give them candy already- they can have healthy stuff the rest of the year.

Maryfan- WOW ONE piece- lame-sorry

Careful when you say a "handful" to a teenager-haha-oops

"One year a house was giving out religious pamphlets which is fine "

No not fine- RUDE- like on Dan Conry show the other day giving this out as a TIP- NO this is not a tip.

"Interesting that a box of raisins has 30 g of sugar and a roll of Smarties has 6 g of sugar. Just a little tip for the kiddies looking for a good argument."

I will take 5 smarties please- I love the just poor it in already sugar stick. Funny the raisin will decay your teeth faster than the smarties!

I would still trick or treat, in my costume for work, when I was in my 20's. I would park at the end of the road go up and down then drive back home. Some would say aren't you a little old. I said NO. If I dressed up and knocked on your door I should get candy! I had a couple teens last year who wanted candy. I gave them some but said next time AT LEAST DRESS UP!

Tj- I always had to wear big coat OVER the outfit- UGH- what is the point then?
Also remember the slobber and hot air behind the cinderella mask with the eyes cut out. Hard to breath under there. Then try to lick off some sweat and cut your tongue on the breath hole for your face-GOOD TIMES!

Sarah :)

Halloween back in the day was the best!! Pick out a costume and wear it over your clothes especially when it was cold! Big brown grocery bag, they were made not to tear back then. We went to every house we could before we got tired. Starting point was South Main at the river and we worked uphill to Roosevelt school, then back down again. We had the best supply of candy and hid the good stuff before my Dad came home from GM at night. We always broke down though and gave him the Snickers or Milky Ways so we could feel like the 'good' kid for a few moments. Those were the days of FULL size candy bars! I still give them out today!

JustStoppinBy -

That makes no sense. Why would anybody want to egg their own house? I think you have pronoun trouble. Still - it was a pretty funny comment.

I too have great memories of Halloween. The plotting the route and using an appropriate bag really hits home.
I also agree with others that for a few days the kids can eat their 'bad' treats.
Let's say that one wanted to eat a healthy diet 95% of the time. That leaves 18 days a year to splurge and get the sugar/fat/salt craving out of your system. Works for kids too!

A goods parent will limit the amount of Junk the kids get.
An easy way to do that is to limit the number of houses visited. It should't be a competition to see whose bag is fuller at the end of the night.
And the less candy coming into the house, the less fat going into the Parents

Good lord.
Whenever I got raisins in my Trick or Treat bag, they were left to get even more dried out and hard and then thrown out. There was a "pencil lady" and a "toothbrush lady" along with a "junk trinket toy" lady and those houses were skipped along with the house that handed out Chick tracts warning of how we'd burn for turning away from God by participating in Pagan holidays. Don't get me started on the people that would give two cents to UNICEF and then hand you coupons.

Give the kids candy. It won't kill them and the kids with allergies and disorders should have parents who screen their haul so just buy the bulk bag of rock hard Dubble Bubble and Reese's Peanut butter Cups and have some fun.

This PC BS has got to stop. Let kids be kids and have a night of fun before they're hauled the next day via minivan to their sub-par schools and over-scheduled activities so you can pretend they're becoming well rounded.

Ah yes, you may be correct futurerichguy about the Smarties only having 6 grams of sugar, but it's refined sugar or corn syrup. While the raisins sugar occur naturally and you get a serving a fruit. Where's the argument?

Interesting that a box of raisins has 30 g of sugar and a roll of Smarties has 6 g of sugar. Just a little tip for the kiddies looking for a good argument.

reminds me of "That 70's Show" when Kitty hands out raisins for Halloween and tells Red that raisins are nature's candy. Just then their living room window gets egged and Red laughs...says eggs are nature's hand grenades :)

My son is 6 and has juvenile diabetes so I give him the option to "sell" his candy so that he can pick out a toy at the store. He likes that alot better than the candy anyway!

Well we live in the country and no one ever comes here to trick r treat, so we leave and go to "town" . I have in the past left a bowl of candy on the front porch just incase, but never any takers...

So true on the childhood memories. How fun is Halloween for kid! Trying to decide what you want to be, planning what streets to go down based on the previous year's booty, picking out an appropriate bag to carry the loot... I have great memories of Halloween and I'd like to make sure my kids have the same experience. Healthy treats have no place on Halloween! One year a house was giving out religious pamphlets which is fine but you KNOW we stayed clear of that house the next year! Funny how kids can remember which houses give out the good candy but they can't remember to clean their bedroom!

No candy on Halloween ??? Really ??? That is being "Scrooge" at Halloween.

Most of that stuff comes 6-8 in a pack. If you had even 50 trick or treaters, that'd be a pretty penny, huh?... Healthier eating or spending a fortune?

Maryfan/ You apparently have a stick stuck up somewhere. Lighten up. I have little respect for adults who turn lights off and hide on Halloween. It just says 'Cheap and Lazy' regardless. You're missing out on the cute costumes, little faces and socializing with neighbors. What about denying your children a right of passage? I'm sure they would rather be out there instead of playing a 'bored' game.

Maryfan - Lets say you got a huge promotion at work, it was a big presentation and you were honored. And when you were asked to come up and recieve your bonus in front of everyone all you got was a pencil? No raise, nothing else. Wouldnt that be awesome? No offense but im so glad i didnt have a mother like you.

Be real, no kid wants those things pictured. Its the one day a year that you can splurge. And like the first post says... pass them out and ya....you'll get egged.

Interesting article...my kids haven't trick or treated since the oldest was in kindergarten, which was several years ago. When they did, I let them have one piece of candy and the rest disappeared to the college students at daddy's work and no one ever asked about it. I decided to go for something healthier to hand out. One year I did raisins and the kids at the door refused to take them. The next year we moved to a new neighborhood where we saw about 200 kids on Halloween. I ordered trinkets and pencils to give out....kids made rude comments. I gave up. Now we spend trick or treat time as family game night downstairs with all the lights off on the main floor. Candy is just not part of our life and it felt weird to be giving it out.

I like the comment about trinkets .. my kids are also excited to get that junk too, they love the lil notebooks and stuff. However IN SOME CASES this stuff this article is talking about is NOT healthy! If my daughter got peanut butter crackers and granola bars she would be heartbroken! She has deathly peanut allergies. If she gets a Reeses it comes out right away and daddy eats it later ..
Now isnt that the real point of Halloween candy?
So mom and dad can sneak it after they go to bed and have their own stash?? We think it is ;-)

Do you have any tips on how I will get the toilet paper out of my tree in the morning?

I actually appreciate the attempt to offer examples of healthier Halloween treats, but, I have to say, many of the examples of healthier options aren't much better than the candy. Most stores now offer lots of non-candy Halloween items. My kids are still excited to receive those trinkets. If you are old enough to even know about egging a house, you probably shouldn't even be trick-or-treating in the first place.

If your that worried about the candy don't let your kids go out.

Oh for Pete's Sake!! It's Halloween. It's not supposed to be ruined by health conscious do-gooders. Worry about what kid's eat the rest of the year, one day of the tasty, unhealthy stuff isn't going to ruin the kids life!

And the "short tag" read unhealthy "heating"! Good grief! Way to go Gazette!

Actually, the little playdoh containers go over pretty big.

I've heard of kids getting toothbrushes in their bags. Now that goes over the top, as far as I'm concerned!

JustStoppingBy-

I was going to say the same thing haha. Handing out raisins is practically an invitation for vandalism!

HAHAHA, yep that's how I see it too.

if you pass out healthy treats, do yourself a favor and egg your own house.