For some, Halloween isn’t a quandary because they simply opt out of it altogether or conversely they embrace it as a yearly experience, candy and all. For others, concerns about the sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial ingredients and the like in candy arise in our community forums. We often see this question posed at this time of year: “So how does everyone deal with Halloween candy?”
There is The Teal Pumpkin Project for an Allergy-Friendly Halloween that I recommend folks take a look at. Meanwhile, parents in our community have reported that they offer small toys, temporary tattoos, and glow sticks at Halloween:
“Funny thing is my husband and I handed out candy last night and toys … The kids went crazy for the green army men and the mystical ponies??? We decided we are not handing out candy next year only toys. Small toys like glow bracelets., rings, etc.”
“We did no candy this year; just spider rings, glow bracelets, stickers and tattoos and they were a hit!”
Others hand out honey sticks, organic fruit leathers and organic lollipops in place of candy. The following answers are provided by our community members, the most popular of which is to swap the candy collected for an alternative:
The Swap
“See Julie Matthew’s The Candy Solution article that recommends the Switch Witch.” [My answer!]
“We do this ^ … just ran out and got Lego’s for the swap. We call it a Candy Fairy … she shows up for all occasions such as birthday parties, Valentines, Easter, Halloween, etc.
“I used to buy them from my kids … they like cash.” [There are formal buy back programs in place as well.]
“We do the switch witch and I also bought “good” candy for my son, so he can gorge for a couple days like the other kids. He got dark chocolates and Surf Sweets gummies for his candy this year. I don’t mind him having a candy gorge once a year, but yeah all the trick or treating candy is toxic and should really never be consumed.”
“We don’t do the Switch Witch, but my kids can sell me (aka the trash can) their candy for a nickel a piece, or trade large numbers for privileges like extended screen time, a day off school (we homeschool), etc. Perhaps I’ll add a toy on to that list!”
“We do the Switch Witch where they leave the candy from trick or treating and the Switch Witch takes it and leaves a toy instead. Also having a party as a tradition is fun, we do allow homemade treats so we are in control of how much sugar they are getting. I make gummies with juice and gelatin in fun Halloween ice cube trays, you can cut a banana in half and stick in two chocolate chips for eyes and one for a mouth. Oranges with Jack O’ Lanterns drawn on the peel.”
“My kids call it the Great Pumpkin. Same concept. At 11 and 12 I do let mine eat Halloween candy. But the Great Pumpkin takes most of it.”
“We do the Switch Witch. My daughter, now 3 years, has never had a piece of candy and I think she’s still to young and I don’t want her eating all of that junk food. Last year was the first time we took her trick or treating. We explained ahead of time that we would go trick or treating and then leave the bucket of treats out over night and that the “switch witch” would come while she was sleeping and take her bucket of treats and leave her a present. She was happy with that and is looking forward to the switch witch this year. The year before I hosted a Halloween party and served heathy themed snacks (oranges with a small celery stick out the top to look like pumpkins and bananas cut in half with raisin eyes and mouth, etc.”
“Our kids leave their candy hanging on the front door and it is swapped for a small toy every year. We make maple syrup popcorn balls Halloween day and that is their treat.”
“I take mine trick or treating to as many houses as they want and they love it. I swap the candy for organic lollipops and Cliff fruit rope. I’ve always told them the candy is bad and they are not allowed to have it. They grow up taking it as a fact rather than an alternative.”
“We have the Sugar Plum Faerie who comes all year round whenever DS has saved up 10 pieces of candy that people have given him (without him asking, exception for on Halloween). We volunteer with the elderly and it breaks their hearts when he refuses their candy. He then leaves the candy in a special bowl that he decorated for the faerie and finds a small toy or something in the morning. The Halloween candy haul gets traded for a slightly larger gift. He was about 20 months when we started and he understood the concept pretty quickly.”
“I have a few organic pieces on hand for a small treat. Their whole bags go on the table and after they go to bed, the Great Pumpkin takes all their candy for a small “present” or “prize.” They get so excited for him to come every year.”
“Switch Witch: take the candy, toss in an Annie bunnies cracker and small toy. Done.”
“When my kids were toddlers the candy was easy to avoid/replace with an acceptable substitute. As they got older I tried the “switch witch”, but alas, the kids wanted the candy since I had outlawed it. Since they’re older now (7 and 5) I strike a deal. They can keep 5 pieces from their trick or treat stash, and trade the rest in for something acceptable; treat or toy. We’ve had many, many discussions about healthy vs. not healthy food choices. It’s hard to find balance, but I’m trying.”
“I made an exchange with my kids. We agreed beforehand. They chose a nice toy – Lego. They give candy. In exchange, they get quality treats and the toy. Other rural) neighborhoods focused on the kids meeting up and playing games at various houses – and of course parading their costumes to much adult applause.”
“My kiddos are 3 and 4, and for the last few years, they’ve been happy enough to get dressed up and hand out candy at their grandmother’s house. Neither cared too much about actually eating it. This year I’m buying a couple of small bags of natural stuff and we’ll swap it out. They’re only getting a few pieces since I’m a stickler about no sugar, but it’s still way more sugar than they’re usually get. At least it’s not total crap. Both of them know that too much sugar will make them sick, and they’re pretty good about limiting themselves even at this age. And I prefer to make a bigger deal about dressing up than candy anyway.”
“We do the Switch Witch. My daughter, now 3 years, has never had a piece of candy and I think she’s still to young and like you I don’t want her eating all of that junk food. Last year was the first time we took her trick or treating. We explained ahead of time that we would go trick or treating and then leave the bucket of treats out over night and that the “switch witch” would come while she was sleeping and take her bucket of treats and leave her a present. She was happy with that and is looking forward to the switch witch this year. The year before I hosted a Halloween party and served heathy themed snacks (oranges with a small celery stick out the top to look like pumpkins and bananas cut in half with raisin eyes and mouth, etc.”
“Our trick or treat goes for two hours. My kids trick or treat for one hour, then come home pick out a few favorites, and give the rest out the second hour. Re-gift giving at its finest!”
“We give ours to the Sugar Sprites. Last Halloween when our daughter was 2, we burned the candy in the firepit in our backyard for them, and she got to help unwrap it. I think it satisfies some sensory curiosity to be able to see it, touch it, and smell it, but of course we don’t allow tasting. We also fed our Sugar Sprites recently after she won candy from a piñata at a friend’s birthday party, but it was too hot for a fire, so we just put it in the fire pit at dusk.”
Art and Science
“My kids like our tradition of saving any candy they have been “gifted or earned” for making candy houses. We do this the first week of November and they really enjoy it! They really like that we spend time together and get to make something to decorate the house. It helps to leave it out for month or so as a visual of how it doesn’t decompose like food should.”
“Google Halloween science experiments. There are tons!” [I found this list!]
“Set expectations. Mine go trick or treating and just know they won’t be eating it. Half the stuff they don’t know what it is. They still enjoy collecting it. Looking at it and admiring how much they’ve collected. But mine don’t even ask to eat it bc they know it’s junk. A few types of candies we like to keep and use for candy art projects. It’s all about expectation.”
Nourishing Our Children 
5 Responses to The Halloween Quandary
I love the emphasizing dressing up part and the Sugar Sprites idea! My little boy is 17 months and we are considering how to deal with Halloween. He’s fairly advanced, so I think he could handle a little trick-or-treating, and while I don’t think he will quite understand Sugar Sprites yet, that will be a great idea to have for the future. Perhaps we could even do it this year so maybe he will have a memory of the fire next year when he can understand more about why we did it (and be more accepting of it as “what we do.”)
Great post!
My children are now 11 and 13 years old. They have never eaten Halloween candy, but they love to trick-or-treat. We have participated in Christmas parades every year and the candy collected at Halloween is thrown from the floats. I object to having anyone eat the candy, especially poor children lining the streets to gather up the thrown candy, and I have been working to change that practice at the annual parade. Last year I put my foot down and threw the candy away right after Halloween. It is still an environmentally irresponsible thing to do. We should not purchase it in the first place … it feeds the companies who produce it and after all of that production, to throw it in the landfill adds yet another burden to planet earth. Sigh!
For those of you new to the Halloween event, I can say that my children understand clearly the damaging health effects of the candy and have never indicated the slightest interest in eating it. Two or three of our neighbors have offered alternatives, such as an organic lollipop or coins. My children have always been thrilled to receive one or two organic pieces of candy on Halloween. They aren’t used to eating anymore than one piece at a time at any event, so to receive two on Halloween makes them very happy. We do not restrict them on eating candy at holidays such as Easter. I go to great efforts to make a basket with numerous all organic candies, but I have always had most of the candy left by the end of the year. They are more excited at the thought of having it all, but they are excellent at self-limiting. I highly recommend talking with your children regularly about the ingredients in food (and candy) and emphasize how good they feel from eating healthy foods. Children are so very intelligent and I’ve found them to be quite capable of choosing the healthiest options with no fuss. Birthday parties are the most frustrating for us as we always have to plan ahead so that we have healthy alternative “treats” for them to eat when the cake, and juice, and ice cream, and candy is served!
Michelle, this is in reply to your comment from last year, but in case you are still following the comments, I’m interested in hearing more about how you handle birthday parties. Do you offer to bring something to contribute, or just bring your own thing for your own kids, or how do you handle it? It does seem like that’s one of the most challenging situations, since it’s often all about cake and sugar in various forms. I’m also interested in how you talked with your children about the damaging effects of sugar/candy in a way that has resulted in them not being interested in candy and being able to self-limit (as opposed to wanting it more since Mom said no). My little one is only 5 and isn’t interested in candy (doesn’t really ever come in contact with it); it’s not in our home, it’s not how we eat, so it just isn’t a thing. Whenever someone has offered any, he kind of hasn’t been sure how to respond and then says no, and I try to politely say “no thank you.” We do talk about ingredients, nutrients, giving our bodies things to help us be healthy, etc. So up till this point, it hasn’t really been any type of struggle. (He was given an M&M once and didn’t like it.) But I am conscious of the need to present the information on an ongoing basis in a way that inspires toward good things rather than prohibits harmful things in a way that would promote resentment or a greater desire for those harmful things. Just wondering how to best do this as time goes on and more potential exposures to candy/junk come our way. I believe it is not healthy to paint everything as “bad” and create a “this is no fun” environment around birthdays, food in general, time spent together, etc — or an “us versus them” or deprivation situation (they eat cake but we don’t get to). I’d rather focus on the beautiful things we do eat, so it seems the challenge is just how to best approach this when everybody else is eating completely opposite of that.
I take the money I used to spend on Halloween candy and turn it into change, pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. I put it in a basket with a gravy ladle and let the kids dig in for one scoop of change. That goes over very well! I decided organic raisin boxes do not compete with snickers (sadly).
When I saw the ‘switch witch’ idea, I started to cry. Such a simple solution–but I’d never thought about it. I’ve spent so much time being sad and yet indignant in my preventing my kids to eat candy but torn bc I don’t want them to miss out on the community aspect of Halloween and the fun, mischievous spirit. Thank you so much for writing this.