Five Halloween Themes for Brown-Bag Lunches

Whether you are entertaining your children or embarrassing your husband, packing a Halloween themed brown bag lunch is a great way to celebrate Halloween and have fun, too. Here are five ideas for fun, festive, inexpensive brown bag lunches for Halloween.

Black and Orange. This is probably the easiest option. For the orange parts, send an orange soda or juice box, carrots, an orange, and a peanut butter cup. Black is a little harder, but if you are not packing for a picky eater, try a black rye bread sandwich (cheddar cheese or orange marmalade are good choices for filling).

The Eyes Have It. If you are in the habit of sending leftovers for lunch this is a fun option, but it also works on any type of lunch. Whatever you are serving, just add imitation eyeballs to it. Use stuffed olives, icing on sweets, vegetables cut in the shape of eyes, baked potatoes with eyes carved into them, or cut eye shapes out of the top layer of bread on a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich (package this carefully) to get the oogling effect. Older children and grown-ups can have their eyeballs attached using toothpicks, but you want to avoid that with your little ones.

Just Plain Gross. This lunch is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Anything vaguely disgusting (looking, not tasting) should work just fine. Jiggly green or orange gelatin, gummy worms, booger candy (yes, there really is booger candy available in many Halloween aisles . . . also look for brain and bug candy there), cupcakes with brown crushed sandwich cookies and gummy worms and bugs covering the icing, leftover spaghetti, and many more options are yours to enjoy.

Wrap it Up. If you are not into festive food, but still want to get in on some brown bag fun, simply package your normal lunch in Halloween colors.

Theme-tastic. If the person you are packing for is going to school or work in costume, then theme their lunch to their outfit. If your girl is going as a princess, package her food in pink wrapping and sparkling ribbons. You can include pink sweets, a pink drink, and strawberries. If your boy is going as a flying ninja, wrapping everything in black, and including items like black licorice and chocolate cake is fun. Since there are millions of costume ideas, you have millions of fun themes to choose from.

If you are asking yourself why anyone would do this, the answer is why not? You already know your family loves a napkin note from you in their lunch, why not dazzle them this Halloween?

Have a safe and happy and fun Halloween!