Halloween is supposed to be a fun holiday where kids carve pumpkins, dress up as their favorite superheroes, and run around the neighborhood collecting candy. That’s how most kids experience Halloween. However, many kids can’t eat the candy they collect because of allergies, food sensitivities, and dietary restrictions.
Halloween should be a fun fall activity for every child. If you’re going to pass out candy this Halloween, here are some ideas for making all trick-or-treaters happy.
1. Have a stash of candy for kids with dietary restrictions
When young trick-or-treaters come to your door, take a moment to admire their costumes and compliment them on their outfit before throwing out a bunch of candy. While you’re doing this, ask if anyone has any dietary restrictions. An adult will more than likely be present to answer for the kids if they’re too shy.
If anyone has a dietary restriction, give them a generous amount of candy. Chances are, that could be the only edible candy they’ll get. Include old fashioned candy like Tootsie Rolls and Junior Mints. Both of these are peanut-free and the chocolate isn’t made from whey.
Don’t just toss the candy into their sacks or it will get lost in a sea of inedible candy. Instead, package it up in a Halloween bag that includes a list of what candy is in the bag, along with the ingredients list from the manufacturer.
Trick-or-treaters aren’t likely to find a house that passes out special candy that fits their dietary restrictions. In fact, most adults could probably say they’ve never seen that happen, or if they did see a neighbor pass out special candy, it was just one house. You’ll be the hero among the neighborhood parents if you do this for their kids.
2. Hand out a mix that includes high-quality, luxury candy
Trick-or-treaters don’t want their sacks filled with Jolly Ranchers and chewy caramels. Yes, hard candy is cheap, but if that’s all you pass out, you’ll be contributing to a disappointing Halloween.
Spend a little more money on good candy your neighborhood kids aren’t likely to get from the other houses. If you have to toss in some hard or common candies to bulk up your rations, that’s okay. Just be sure to throw in some high-quality luxury candy like full-size peanut butter cups and Twix bars.
3. Only hand out wrapped candy
Although poisoned Halloween candy is extremely rare, many parents won’t allow their kids to eat any candy that isn’t wrapped. Even if you’re friends with the family, by the time the kids get home, they won’t remember what house their unwrapped candy came from.
To save kids the disappointment of watching their parents take away their candy, only hand out wrapped candy. If you’re known and trusted in the neighborhood and want to hand out special candy to the kids, wrap it up like a gift and hand it directly to the parents before Halloween.
4. Hand out braces-friendly candy
If you had braces as a kid, or even as an adult, you know how annoying it is to eat. Everything gets stuck in braces, although, some foods are easier than others.
On Halloween, you’re going to encounter trick-or-treaters with braces, so make sure you hand out candy they can eat. Hand out goodies like:
- Peanut butter cups
- Hershey’s Kisses
- Sour candy tubes
- Whoppers
- Kit-Kats
- Pixie Sticks
- Pop Rocks
Kids with braces will be thrilled to find these edible candies in their stash.
5. Toss out some vegan candy
With a bunch of antsy trick-or-treaters at your door, it’s not feasible to accommodate everyone’s specific food preferences and sensitivities. You can, however, pass out candy that aligns with most food sensitivities and dietary restrictions. For example, these delicious candies are vegan:
- Twizzlers
- Skittles
- Smarties
- Sour Patch Kids
- Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups
- Unreal vegan M&Ms
The best part is that kids don’t need to be vegan to enjoy these candies, so hand these out generously and everyone will be happy.
You can’t please everyone, but you can certainly try
You’ll never make every trick-or-treater happy, and that’s okay. You won’t be around when those kids throw a fit because they didn’t get as many Milky Way bars as their siblings. However, if you up your game and start handing out better candy, kids will appreciate your contribution to their stash, even if they don’t know where it came from.
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