Safer Alternatives for Halloween and Trick or Treating

All parents want to protect their family and in this day and time you can't be too careful, especially on Halloween. I know there are probably a lot of parents looking for safer alternatives for Halloween and trick or treating, rather than the yearly traditional Halloween activities. There are so many different concerns when your children and even older kids and teens go trick or treating. Are the homes safe they visit? Is the candy they are collecting safe to eat? And if that is not enough to worry about, there are the concerns that arise from the busy traffic. Trying to keep your children together and safe when crossing or walking down the street can be a stressful task. I have a solution for safer alternatives for Halloween and trick or treating.

Several years ago, I started a new Halloween tradition with my children because I had so many of the same concerns about Halloween and trick or treating. The church that my family and I attend hosts an annual Harvest Hayday every Halloween. My children and I started volunteering and helping out at this event every year. Our Harvest Hayday has a lot to offer for families looking for safer alternatives to Halloween and trick or treating. We have games, hotdogs, drinks, a hayride, moonwalk, and "Trunk or Treating" available and it's all free. My children still get to dress up in their Halloween costume, they get plenty of candy, they get to play a lot of fun games and I feel good about it. Now you don't have to volunteer if you don't want to, just find a similar event in your area and go have a worry-free good time with your family on Halloween.

Check the local churches in your area, there are usually several churches hosting an event like our Harvest Hayday or that just offer "Trunk or Treating". "Trunk or Treating" is where people hand out candy from the trunk of their automobiles. My church gets as many volunteers as they can to park their automobiles in a line in the back parking lot; they decorate their trunks, wear costumes and hand out candy to the families that come by. At our Halloween event the families park in the front parking lot and safely walk around to the back where all the games and the "trunk or treating" area are set up. There is no traffic to worry about and all the candy is either purchased by the church or donated by church members. Now if you have trouble finding a church hosting safer alternatives for Halloween, talk to your home church about starting an annual Halloween event.

Changing Halloween and trick or treating traditions can be hard, but your families' safety is worth it! Your children may complain at first, but they will have so much fun with this new experience, they shouldn't complain for long.