(All treat, no trick!)
My daughter was just over a year old when she went trick-or-treating for the first time.
We took her out at my mom’s insistence.
Grandma dropped 50 bucks to dress her first-born grandkid in a Disney Dalmatian costume, and by gosh the neighbors were going to get an eyeful of cuteness whether they wanted to or not.
Given my daughter’s very young age, clearly our goal was not to score as many sweets as possible.
In fact, when one neighbor handed my costumed child an individual tub of Play-Doh, I nearly shed a tear.
Finally, a house that wasn’t Laffy Taffy happy.
Halloween may be a holiday known for its endless supply of sugary treats, but you don’t have to give into to the cavity-causing gluttony. Rather, why not consider these affordable alternatives to traditional Halloween candy:
Small boxes of crayons
Mini bags of Trail Mix
Individual bags of animal crackers
Fruit Roll-ups or Fun Fruits
Halloween stickers
Glow sticks
Halloween pencils or erasers from the Dollar Store
Snack-size pretzels
Plastic spider rings
Bubbles
Temporary tattoos
False teeth
Miniature magnifying glasses
Tiny decks of cards
Fake money
Packets of hot chocolate
Packages of cheese and crackers
Sugar free gum
Coloring pages
Individual bags of Teddy Grahams
Seed packets
Toothbrushes
Single-serve microwave popcorn
Bookmarks
Trading cards
Rubber wristbands
Granted, some kids may consider the aforementioned items more trick than treat, but getting a nice packet of seeds to grow your own cucumber plant is quite a clever idea in my opinion.
(Thanks to my crunchy neighbor for suggesting it.)
If you still have no desire to go the alternative route this Halloween consider this frightening fact: A 5.6-pound bag of fun-sized chocolates contains 150 pieces of sweet goodness, or roughly the amount of candy the average trick-or-treater hauls home on Halloween night. However, if you take the serving size on the mega-bag of chocolate and multiply it by 170 calories, you get a grand total of 12,750.
That’s right; more than 12,000 empty calories are contained in a large bag of mini chocolate bars.
Play-Doh is looking a lot more attractive now, isn’t it?
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