Plan a Healthy Halloween This Year!

There is a movement underfoot toward making Halloween a healthier, spooky night. In my article, "Join the Healthy Halloween Movement", I outlined the Healthy Halloween movement that was initiated in New York City in 2009. But for those of us who don't live anywhere near New York City, that doesn't mean we can't copy their lead and get creative in planning a safe and happy Ghostarama for October 31st. Here are ideas to cut the sugar without losing the witchery.

Websites with Healthy Halloween Ideas

The internet is filled with ideas for healthier Halloween spookfests, so surf for them! Here are some websites I found eerily helpful:

My recipes.com
This site is great site for recipes of all types, but their "Healthy Kids" and 'Diabetic Recipes" sections would be especially helpful in planning a healthier and sugar-free Halloween. Check out their "Pack a Lunch with a Healthy Punch" and "Smart Snacks for Kids", "Low Sugar Snacks" and "Low-Sugar Party Foods". Their kid approved videos provide kid's opinions on certain recipes and will earn a smile from you.

Startcooking.com
Go directly to their "9 Healthy Halloween Treats" article for healthy Halloween treat ideas.

Mahalo.com
If you are looking for a sugar-free cookie recipe, you'll find it here.

WebMD.com
I love this site for information on anything related to health. Refer to their article, "The Best Healthy Snacks in Your Supermarket" for Trick or Treat ideas.

Squidboo.com
This is a great website, filled with ideas for every aspect of Halloween. Visit their "Healthy Halloween Treats" and (if you must) "Healthy Halloween Candy for Little Trick or Treaters" sections.

365 Halloween
This site has everything for Halloween, including a Healthy Halloween ingredients and tips section.

Parents.com
Go here for their 100 Days of Holidays "Halloween" ideas which is filled ideas for costumes, Halloween printables, games and activities. You'll also find party ideas and safety guidelines.

Healthy Trick or Treat Ideas

Scanning several online sites, I found an abundance of ideas for treats you can drop into those little witches' and goblins' Halloween bags. If your local grocer doesn't offer boxes of single serving packets of non-candy snacks during Halloween, most warehouse-type stores carry single servings year-round.

Here are some healthy-food treat ideas:

-Packet of sugar-free hot chocolate or cocoa
-Box of raisins
-Small bags of pretzels
-Fruit cup (packed in their own juice)
-Pre-packaged pretzel sticks and cheese dip
-Single serving package of whole grain Fig Newtons
-Small apple
-Low-fat mini-bags of microwave popcorn
-Packets of instant oatmeal
-Pre-packaged apple slices or carrot sticks
-Individually wrapped beef jerky or Slim Jims
-100% Fruit roll ups or fruit leather
-Individual packets of sunflower seeds
-Pre-packaged fruit with peanutbutter dip (Ask parents before you drop into the child's bag since some youngsters may be allergic to nuts)
-Granola bars
-100-calorie Pepperidge Farm Goldfish packs, Nabisco Wheat Thin packs, or Honey Maid Cinnamon Thin Crisps
-Juice boxes (Juicy Juice is 100% juice)
-Animal cracker boxes
-Sugarless gum

Non-food Halloween treats:

Check out your local warehouse store or order online through sites like Amazon.com to buy in volume:

-Halloween inspired pencils or erasers
-Coloring books or crayons
-Halloween Tattoos
-Halloween stickers

By offering these healthy and fun alternatives to sugary sweets, you can get into costume and rest assured that your ghoulish efforts won't tempt diabetic or overweight children and adults into risking their health.

Hold Halloween Events

To take the focus off candy and treats this year, plan your Halloween so that the emphasis is more on fun and less on food. Here are eight ideas.

1. Trick or Treat toward a destination. Make it a family event to walk through the neighborhood toward a park or party, trick or treating along the way. This instills a real goal for the evening rather then just filling a bag with candy.

2. Have a Family Game Night - After the Ghosts and Goblins have stopped ringing the doorbell, enjoy a Halloween-themed board game by dim light, with spooky music playing in the back ground.

3. Decorate a Spook House for the Neighborhood - If you are a Halloween fanatic, channel your inner Boris Karloff to create a Spook house filled with fun and screams.

4. Organize a block costume exchange and contest - Help keep the costs of Halloween down by exchanging costumes this year with your neighbors. On Halloween night hold a costume contest.

5. Visit a local pumpkin patch - Dress up in your bewitching costumes and let the kids bring their hand-picked pumpkin prize home. Then carve or decorate them, and bake the seeds to be enjoyed as a healthy snack with hot apple cider later .

6. Set up a neighborhood face painting event for Halloween night - Rent a canister of Helium and blow up balloons, set up folding tables and chairs and have the teens paint the younger children's faces with face paint, play spooky music on boom boxes and play musical chairs. Get creative and the kids won't even miss the candy!

7. Take a Haunted Halloween walk in your city - Nothing is better than a mug of steamy hot cider or hot cocoa after an organized walk with friends through a route in your city filled with frightening history!

8. Have children collect for charity - Rather than asking for candy, teach children to ask for donations of money for charities or canned goods for local food banks. Check with your local charities to determine Halloween donation events that need assistance.

Don't continue the commercialized Halloweens you have settled for in the past, where filling a plastic pumpkin with calorie-packed, sugary candy is the focus. Halloween used to be about becoming incognito and transforming oneself into a cool, scary character. It was about walking the neighborhood with our friends, hoping the neighbors couldn't guess our real identities as they dropped a treat into our bags. We loved the spooky aspect of the holiday and having the wits scared out of us as we solved a cornfield maze under a cloud-obscured full moon.

Make an effort this year to bring back the spooky fun we have always loved about Halloween, and find ways to make it healthy as well. The kids may not even miss the sugar in their healthier treats, but the parents will be thankful for the less hyper kids they put to bed Halloween night.

Have a safe, happy and healthy Halloween!

Related Reading:
"Join the Healthy Halloween Movement"
"Halloween Pumpkin Patches in Arizona"
"Halloween Costume Idea: A Pair of Fuzzy Dice"
"Ten Fun Halloween Board Games"
"Halloween Pumpkin Decorating Ideas for Kids"

Resources:

Myrecipes.com
Startcooking.com
Mahalo.com
WebMD.com
Squidboo.com
365Halloween.com
Parents.com
Bellybytes.com