Fall is here and Halloween isn’t far from knocking on our door. (Pun intended.) But maybe you aren’t sure about the whole ‘trick or treating’ experience for your kids. What can you do? What are some alternatives to give your kids a good time without all of the other baggage that comes along with Halloween?

I think that we can probably all agree that at the very least, Halloween brings with it some pretty mixed messages. We spend 364 days a year telling our kids not to take candy from strangers and then on that one day a year, not only are they encouraged to take candy from strangers, but to actually walk up to strangers houses with the expectation of getting candy from them. That while offering a saying that essentially indicates a treat is expected or a ‘trick’ (something bad) will soon follow. Now, for those of you who love trick or treating, I’m not out to step on any toes here. I’m just standing on the outside, telling you what it looks like. Then there is the whole moral dilemma for those who struggle with the idea of the ‘devil’s’ holiday as it were. I get it. You don’t want your kids to miss out on the fun and the candy and the dressing up, but you just don’t feel comfortable with the whole Halloween thing.

Or maybe you’re here looking for alternatives because for some reason, maybe health related, trick or treating is not a good fit for you right now. Maybe you just had a baby, or you run out of energy easily or maybe it’s one of your kids who has a health issue. Maybe it’s something else entirely. When my younger kids were little, we had so much stuff going on in our lives; it just wasn’t even funny. Our oldest daughter spent many Halloweens on chemo. She certainly didn’t have the umph to go out trick or treating. Two of those year’s I had surgery right before Halloween and I wasn’t up for the whole trick or treating experience either. But I had little people who had friends who were all going out trick or treating and they didn’t want to be left out of the fun and let’s face it, the candy.

Alternatives to Trick Or Treating

1. Candy – I know this seems simple, but seriously, some kids are just happy if you get them a little bag, or not so little bag of candy. And before you tell me about how much a bag of candy is, well, believe you me, I know. But, if your kid is happy with ten dollars worth of candy and you don’t have to spend thirty dollars on a costume…. You’re saving money. I’m just saying. Look at the math. If you don’t do new costumes, yes, the cost of the candy can make you question this decision.
2. Harvest Parties – It’s becoming more and more common for harvest parties to be a good option in place of, or in addition to, trick or treating. I’ve seen a lot of churches host harvest parties, although some of them host their harvest parties.
3. Make homemade cookies together– This might be a prime opportunity to make cookies together. A great option for this would be making sugar cookies and then frosting them together with colored frosting. And if you don’t have time or desire to make the sugar cookies all the way from scratch, the local grocery store should have the rolls of premade dough. I believe those ones just have to be sliced and put on a cookie sheet. One year we made ‘cookie’s’ by taking a box of vanilla cake mix and adding the eggs and oil, but then substituting the water with a 15oz can of pumpkin and adding pumpkin spice to it. Then just scooped it onto a baking sheet like drop cookies and baked it. Then frosted them. That was actually pretty good.
4. Game night– Now personally, if you wanted to go this route, I would suggest there also being candy or favorite snacks involved. This is a great option especially if you have some friends or family who would like to join in and make it more of a party. Games could be whatever you wanted. Slow paced like Monopoly. Quick paced like Next Level Uno (That’s the only way to play if you ask me. You get two decks of uno cards, remove all of the number cards from the second deck and toss them in a closet to forget about lol. Then take all of the remaining ‘good’ cards and combine them. Then for example, you lay down a draw 2 and then the next person lays down a draw two on top of that and it continues until the next person runs out of draw twos. And then, you count up the cards. I think the highest we have ever gotten to was 36 cards that had to get drawn from the deck. We also like to keep playing after the first person ‘goes out’. We keep playing as person after person goes out until it becomes a battle between the last two people to finish. ‘Winning’ when you are down to the last two is by far the most satisfying way to ‘win’. For me at least lol.) One year when my kids were littler we played hide and go seek. Depending on weather and location, games could be indoors or outdoors.
5. Now, my personal favorite, is Movie Night- Typically for us, when the kids were younger, we would try and ‘rent’ (Back in the days of Redbox) a movie that they had never seen before. I always figured that a movie they hadn’t seen before would help promote the desirability of this option. Then we would do candy and popcorn and when we could, I would also order pizza. This year, since my ‘little people’ are now all older teens, they are intending to invite some friends over for ‘movie night’ on Halloween night. The movies of choice won’t be ‘new’ movies, but always good options I think. They’ve narrowed it down to Ghostbusters, Clue, and Goosebumps. (The one with Jack Black in it.) My daughter used her newly acquired skills with Canva to make up actual invitations. We are going to made some food and desserts and it’ll be a little party.

One thing that I noticed over the years. No matter what I/we decided to do, go for it with gusto. Don’t allow doubt to have a place in your mind. If I was uncertain about what we were doing, it wouldn’t go as well. If I chose to believe that we were going to have a good time and moved forward with enthusiasm, my kids seemed to accept and enjoy the experience more. Some years we dressed up. Some years we didn’t. One year we had some family come over and we were all in costume. There were a few years that we did decide to do a little bit of trick or treating. But now, looking back, those years of trick or treating don’t even stand out to them as exceptional. (Either that or they just didn’t want to hurt my feelings when I asked them about it.) What makes it exceptional is just making it a time that is ‘all about them.’ Kids really just need to feel seen and like they are important in our lives. That doesn’t require candy. It just requires us. Our time. Our attention. Our focus. And, a little bit of fun.