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Halloween is near and the little ghosts and goblins in your neighborhood will soon be out and about gathering as many treats as they are able to acquire before the get shooed back home again. When the kids come out trick or treating this year hand out a treat for them that is fun instead of sweet.
Candy is great but at Halloween there can definitely be an over abundance of this sweet gift. Sometimes it is nice to give a treat that isn't quite so hard on the teeth. Fortunately there are hundreds of great Halloween treats that are not sweet but that the kids will love to discover in their trick or treat bag. Consider skipping the candy and instead popping a not so sweet treat into kid's bags.
Non-Edible Halloween Treats Can be Fun to Receive
Of course all those chocolate bars, jelly beans, licorice and other candied sweets may not be the absolutely best thing to be gnawed on by the teeth of those little Halloween creatures.
When you add sugar to kids they can tend to get a little super energized, potentially out of control, and sometimes out and out right not so sweet. It is for this reason that a lot of households choose to not hand out candy as a Halloween treat.
Finding a suitable alternative to hand out to the little witches, ghouls and mummies on Halloween night can prove to be a little expensive if you choose the wrong items. Toothbrushes and tiny toys can be great to hand out but they can also tend to be a little more expensive. Sometimes buying in bulk can reduce this cost substantially.
So exactly what are some cheap Halloween candy alternatives? As a child I remember finding a few items at the bottom of my goodie bag that were not candy and I was very excited by their uniqueness.
Don't feel like shopping? Pop in a Little Cold Hard Cash
When I was a kid a favorite item to find in my treat bag was money. Many children do not receive an allowance and with no means yet of earning cash it can be pretty exciting to acquire even a small amount of moolah as a Halloween treat.
A standard quarter or a fifty cent piece may not seem like much to an adult but it really does add up for a kid when a few families throw this amount into the treat bags. When you consider that most tiny chocolate bars now cost between 25 to 50 cents a bar, giving that amount out in cash is actually quite a reasonable investment and may even save you some money versus handing out purchased sweets.
McDonald's, Ice Cream shops, and other child friendly restaurants often put out dollar treat coupons that can be handed out to the kids when they come treating. These are very popular with kids and their parents.
Pencils are another old time treat that was quite exciting to find at the bottom of the Halloween bag and it is a gift that would be even more so now a days. Pencils come in such a wide array of styles, colors, and themes that they are a delight for children to receive. Packages of ten or more Halloween or other such themed pencils can be picked up at your local dollar store for around a dollar per package.
Sheets or single Halloween stickers, or Tattoos, are other items available at local department or dollar stores for very reasonable prices. Most kids of all ages love to receive these, and will happily trade with their siblings or friends, to acquire a more suitable one for their interest range.
Spooky Gifts for Ghoulish Halloween Guests
Packages of rubber or plastic rats, snakes, spiders, bats, bugs or skeletons can be purchased for a very reasonable price at most dollar or department store. Throw one or two of these Halloween creatures into each Trick or Treaters bag and you have the makings of a very different Halloween treat.
These ghastly gifts are a real joy and sometimes a bit of a scary surprise to find sitting at the bottom of a Halloween loot bag. I remember a black plastic spider in my daughter's bag one year that almost caused me to have a full blown heart attack.
I'm not sure if it was the spider or me that she was laughing at but she thought the treat was hilarious. We giggled like crazy.
Most Kids Will Enjoy Finding a Unique Gift in Their Loot Bag
A brightly colored comb, bouncing ball, or magnifying glass, there are hundreds of useful trinkets, gizmos and gadgets that can be purchased for mere pennies.
So many of these simple items will delight and amuse the children who find them at the bottom of their goodie bag simply because they are not standard Halloween fare. It only takes a few minutes to cruise your local dollar store to check out a few non-edible treats for your ghostly visitors.
You might also consider handing out healthy food treats this year rather than candy ones. Packages of raisins, dried fruit, small lunch sized containers of fruit, or juice boxes, can be a very healthy treat for the monsters who wind their way up your street.
The best news is that these healthier Halloween hand outs don’t have to cost anymore than your standard sweet candy treat. Bought in bulk cases at your local grocery store they can be a very economical alternative to candy.
Most parents look through their children's Halloween stash and throw away any treats that may be unsafe for their wee little Halloween ghouls so keep those Trick and Treat items fun, safe, and perhaps not quite so sweet.
I'm Lorelei I hope you enjoy your visit to my blog