Instagram Message: Sweet.
My hub and I always lived in high rise condos together which meant we didn’t have trick or treaters. So for our first Halloween in Minneapolis, I was very excited for the opportunity to hand out candy. I wanted to make sure I had enough (I bought 200+ pieces of candy) so I asked the neighbor how many trick or treaters came to our block. He told me only 20 kids. Ok, so I had enough candy. By the next Halloween my daughter was a toddler and my “parenting conscience” had started to develop. I decided that we were not going to give out candy because I was going to be socially responsible. I bought tiny containers of play dough instead. My hub just about died when he found out we were giving out play dough on Halloween night. He was certain that our house would get egged because kids didn’t want something practical, they wanted C-A-N-D-Y. Luckily for us, our house did not get egged. Nowadays, we have more than 20 trick or treaters and yes, we ONLY give out candy.
12 party cups called Something Wicked by Meri Meri. Bought at Kiddywampus last December for $3.
I bought these cute cups last year from Kiddywampus at half price because I envisioned some thoughtful pinches for the teachers for Halloween. I thought I would fill them up with something sweet. But over the summer, I found these candles at Dollar Tree and thought it was a cute way to give something sweet without it being edible. We all know that Halloween marks the beginning of the sugar frenzy and continues all the way until January 1st. Halloween candy, pies from Thanksgiving, Advent Calendars, Christmas cookies, cakes - wow, my teeth hurt just listing all these wonderful traditions. Halloween is the first holiday of the school year - so let the thoughtful pinches begin!
Skittles candles - $1 each at Dollar Tree.
I also like to get my kids’ classmates something small. Paranoid, I always attach a honey stick as my "sweet" treat. This year for my son’s first grade classmates, he will hand out activity books ($1 each from Target) and my third grade daughter will give the girls candy flavored lip gloss (from Target) and the boys will get Nerds flavored lip balm (which I ordered from Amazon). Of course all the kids will get a honey stick.
Last year our classmate pinches were two Halloween themed scratch off cards (Kiddywampus) and a couple of honey sticks in each treat bag. Look at all the flavors of honey!
We put the teacher candles (Dollar Tree) in a cellophane bag (Target). We tied a honey stick to an activity book (book from Target, honey sticks from The Minnesota Honey Company, Tags from Brown Ink and twine from Michaels). Treat bags and lip gloss are from Target and a honey stick from my daughter.
For the trick or treaters in my family, my thoughtful pinches to them this year will be DVDs. Yes, we still watch DVDs. And we stream and/or buy movies from iTunes to watch on an IPad. But these were a bargain at $5/$8 from Target. Plus, I am able to give them something tangible. With all the candy that my kids will get from parties and trick or treating, I wanted to give them a small, non-edible gift that was related to Halloween. They will also get a Halloween card which I bought from Dollar Tree. So I’m ready Freddy (and I don’t mean Krueger).
Some clean spookiness.
My social responsibility has evolved and morphed when it comes to "sweet" treats for Halloween. I like to think of it as giving something sweet and thoughtful as opposed to giving something sweet and full of sugar.
Pinches,
Barb
P.S. Stay tuned to see what I end up doing with the witches cups that I originally bought for the teacher gifts.