What does a permie give trick or treaters?

We did a little trick or treat in the downtown area of a nearby city and the kids came back with 42 and 36 pieces of candy, respectively.

What I ended up doing was going through and looking up each candy to see which was the worst (high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, partially hydrogenated oils) and separated those out for the kids.

Then, we opened up a "store." They could use their candy to buy Annie's organic fruit snacks, a hot wheels from my husband's collection, or a dollar bill. They 2 pieces of candy bought one item. This worked really well! They sold off their inedible candies first, and then kept going! My three year old daughter sold all of her candy for fruit snacks and hot wheels, and $2. My son kept some of his favorite not-so-bad candies, and spread out his purchases pretty equally between the hot wheels, fruit snacks and dollars. It was a good learning lesson, and the kids have a whole lot less candy to mess with their bodies and minds.

The "cash register" of candy is going to work with my husband. He works at the hospital, and they candies will be gobbled up quite quickly by the stressed and overworked employees...

So many learning and teachable moments with your "store" Nicole! How cool!

I thought this was a cute example of mandarin oranges with pumpkin faces drawn on them to hand out.

bruce Fine wrote:I keep it simple its either apple without razor blades or a dark cocoa Hershey bar

Hershey's chocolate uses cocoa from farms in Ghana that use slave labor.

So...um... Ryan, can I come trick or treat in your neighborhood next year?

"Trick or Treeee--eeat!"

The wizard grips his staff and glowers at the intruders before him for a long, long moment before intoning: "I chose: TRICK!"

With great speed, the eldritch elder plucks several coins from the monsters' hair, clothing, and protuberances. He holds one out to a startled goblin, who reaches for it, only to see it vanish and appear in the conjuror's other hand. The coins cascade in a silvery stream over the candleflame, then one by one flash into the various bags and buckets.

"BEGONE FIENDS!"

The door slams shut with a flutter of artificial cobwebs.

In the 1980s Saturday Night Live skits, the "we just want to pump you up" bodybuilders Hans and Franz would dump large scoops of bee pollen and protein powder into the kids' bags.

When I was a kid, we received a Halloween sign in the October issue of Mad Magazine. We hung the sign above the milkbox next to the front door. After noticing that kids would come up onto the porch but not knock, we finally took the sign down. The sign read "Welcome kiddies! Leave your candy in the box below, go quietly and no one will get hurt." There was, however, no candy in the milkbox.

I don't expect many trick or treaters this year, and don't plan to turn on the porch light.
I'll just give the following to the neighborhood kids I know --
 dried apples from my tree in little ziplock bags and
 a little clementine mandarin orange decorated to look like a little jack o lantern.

Since the little clementines look like little pumpkins, a sharpy marker can turn them into a jack-o-lantern.
I usually give each kid 2 -- one decorated and one not, so they can turn one into a jack-o-lantern .

Pruning shears and a map of the garden?

Rob Lineberger wrote:Pruning shears and a map of the garden?

Trick it is!  :-P

We don't do Halloween, but even in our sorta-rural/semi-suburban area we get the occasional kid.  What kind of parent lets their kid walk up a 50' driveway to a completely dark house to knock on a stranger's door?  These are not the dozen or so kids in the neighborhood (they do know better, but the other adults in the household have given dollars because they felt awkward.)  These are little kids walking in the dark.

I grew up in a semi-rural area (everyone on 1-acre plots, 15 minutes from town), and my brother and I went trick-or-treating with flashlights on our driveaway all by ourselves since he was probably in 5th grade (and I in 3rd grade). True, my brother and I never left our little road, and we knew most of our neighbors, but we walked a lot of long dark driveaways by ourselves. We also got some random kids we'd never seen before come to our house for treats--they always scored because my parents always bought big Costco-sized bags of candy, and so we'd give out two handfuls to each kid just to get rid of half of it.

Dan Boone wrote:
And that's what Halloween is -- a community ritual.  Happy children dressed in costume, knocking at your door begging for candy.

They're not begging for fruit leather, worms, pumpkin seeds, wool socks, toothbrushes, religious tracts, or no-bake cookies made with sorghum molasses and organic oats and carob chips.  (Something that I was actually given as a trick-or-treater in my childhood.)

Your community may forgive you if you decline to participate in the ritual by turning off illumination at your house and not answering the door.  People of good will, will assume you are not home.  The rest will figure you are grumpy-grinches, but will probably give you a pass.

But if you illuminate your door and put up decorations and answer the doorbell with a bowl in your hand, the ritual expectation is that the bowl will contain what the little ghoulies want (candy) or something better.  

I greatly agree with most of what Dan said, and much of what others here have said. Growing up, when my siblings and I were very young we had a very similar opinion. My parents were young when they had us and afraid to break out of the norm. They were scared of the habits we were learning though, and of the lack of community as a whole. As we got older though, they got braver and braver in asserting their beliefs that opposed the now accepted commercialised norm. And by the time I was 8 (I am the oldest) we started setting new holiday traditions ourselves. The candy was kicked to the curb, as was the excess in most cases. I'd love to go into detail about our various holiday traditions but I also do not wish to bore people.

For Hall-o-Ween (One of our favourites since our last name is Hall) we would run month long specials at our small town health food store as well as dress up in costumes, usually home made for the customers and decorate. My mother would make home made treats that while still not healthy, were super tasty and healthier than the packaged candy we were used to. Being a small town, and everyone knowing us we were fortunate that home made was of no concern. At home, we made a massive haunted house for trick-or-treaters to explore, with volunteers to play parts in the haunted house. We took polaroid pictures of the trick-or-treaters as they came in, and we had a caramel apple making table where they could make their own caramel apple and it would be ready to go by the time they were done with the haunted house. And my mother was very vigilant in helping kids make their caramel apples, ensuring hands were properly washed before hand and that fingers didn't make it into the topping trays, etc. Our home became a huge destination on Hall-o-ween and it built more community than anyone ever imagined.

After a few years, most kids skipped the regular trick or treating in the main part of town and talked their parents into coming out to our place instead. Sure, they were still eating an often candy laden caramel apple but I feel that is much better than a big bag of packaged candies. And many would go through the haunted house over and over again. People started helping more and more in the haunted house and it got better every year, and of course we made sure to change it up. And us kids, we didn't even miss the big bags of candy, we were too focused on helping plan the next haunted house and making sure everyone had a great time.

I still miss that, and look forward to doing it again when I can. Thank you so much for bringing up these good memories. I just spent a few weeks in the hospital and I am still recovering and I haven't felt this good in a while, just remembering all the fun we had as kids and in a way that wasn't eating gobs of candy. I personally still struggle with cutting sugar out of my diet but most of the time I can go without processed sugar for years at a time. It is insidious the way it can sneak into our diets and addict us. And the worst part is it is perfect for downward spirals. Typically I make everything myself from scratch because sugar and preservatives get put into everything. But when I get sick and cannot, you wind up with take out, or packaged foods and next thing you know you are craving more and more of the sugar. It makes you feel good short term before making you feel much much worse. Rinse, repeat. =(

Good luck all on establishing your new Hall-O-Ween traditions. And if I thought I could dress up and come for a seed/scion swap I would be all over that!!! I too love to dress up fun. Heck, I wear a cat eared headband at nearly all times because people cannot help but smile. And that is something we need a lot more of in the world is smiling. =) So anything I can do to promote it, I will. Even if that makes me a weirdo.

Of course Halloween was a favorite holiday back in the early fifties, the home made goodies were great but I loved nothing better than a real candy bar. My mother would occasionally give me a nickel for the candy machine at school. (And the candy bars were a lot bigger.) But as a rule such treats were few and far between. My mother usually said, "Have an apple."

I didn't grow up addicted to sugar, nor did my kids, who got and ate a lot of Halloween candy. My sister, however, will not eat apples.

roberta mccanse wrote:Of course Halloween was a favorite holiday back in the early fifties, the home made goodies were great but I loved nothing better than a real candy bar. My mother would occasionally give me a nickel for the candy machine at school. (And the candy bars were a lot bigger.) .

Roberta, back in the old days Halloween was a lot more popular and even into the 60s and 70s.  

When my kids were trick or treating, the churches started having "Harvest Festivals", instead.

I remember when it was thrilling to get money and an unopened soft drink, though that was a long time ago.

We have lived out in the country for so long I can't remember when I last time I saw kids coming to our house in their cute costumes.

I still feel it is fun to celebrate a time when kids get to have some good fun.

Today, I would say that as mentioned in this thread, package products are best to give out such as fruit leathers, granola bars, and then maybe even cute trinkets.

I saw in another thread about someone treasuring a little dinosaur they received.

I also live "away", in the woods about five miles out of town. No trick or treaters here. Because many families here are out of town some businesses do "trunk or treat" by parking a car at the curb with an open truck full of evil goodies. Some churches also have fun events. I wonder if any of them invite the kids to decorate their own cookie or make their own popcorn ball.

I'm unsure of the goals of a "Permie Halloween"... no packaging or healthy or organic or...?

Sadly, "homemade" for kids who are not known to you is most likely going straight into the garbage or compost.

Prepackaged CAN be healthy, such as friut leathers/snacks, granola bars, popcorn, TONS of prepackaged single serving size options out there, but then there is the packaging...

How about a "grow a giant pumpkin " kit with instructions and seeds?

How about hit the thrift store for toys, leggo's etc.; they may be made of plastic BUT at least they are second hand and NOT in landfill.

How about recycled jars with homemade bubble solution, and either get clever and MAKE wands from wood, wire or by recycling plastic or buy them.

If your are craft clever, carve or create toys, like a kalaedescope (sp???) or little animals/figures - heck it could become a tradition where they add to their collection annually!

Beverages like bottled juice is also great - they get thirsty parading about!

IF you are not comfortable "turning out the lights", and placing a rope or some sort of barracade (for LONG driveways) across the access you will have to offer SOMETHING and somehow handing out stuff that gets tossed does not seem very "Permie". So get creative with alternatives to edibles, or give in for ONE day a year and go with prepackaged, store bought options - my trick or treaters will get Lolly Pops, granola bars and Sun Rype fruit bars...

I hate the packaging, but a feel it is a great way to refresh the stuff in the "emergency stash" bug out bags, annually (haul out the stuff stashed last year, yes it is still NOT expired, hand it out at Halloween, and replace).

Hi, I used to wrap 5 nickles in foil, and give out about 150 packs. Today I have one family to give out treats to. Guess how much more the kids get. I'm contemplating giving out the Dave Ramsey books for kids with the treats.  

I live out in the boondocks so I have never had any trick or treaters so if one came buy they would get something chocolate, for sure...

We're in a fairly hidden spot, so any kids coming here would be brought (definitely not walk, as we've had far too many annual & monthly cougar, bear, wildcat, and coyote sightings on and within 100 yards of our property) by adults who know us - and know that any offerings we'd have would be homemade &/or home grown. That could include anything from soaps, lip balms, baked goods, dried fruits, craft supplies/tools (I have an abundance!), and other foods, to home brews, of various kinds, for the adults. One year, I made tiny little fairy-making kits, with clothes pins(the straight, one-piece wooden kind), pipe cleaners, bits of scrap fabric, and directions for making them. My youngest was about 4, and going through a serious fairy-making phase, and insisted!

I also used to give coins, when I lived in the cities.

I moved to Everett (a city north of Seattle that used to be home to Boeing) a little over a year ago.

Last Halloween (2023), I bought dried fruit (the store-bought kind in individual little packages) to give out, my son came over with full-sized candy bars, and the upstairs neighbors provided a box of individual bags of Doritos.

We had not one knock at the door. Not one!

This year (2024), I didn't buy anything to give out. Then yesterday, the day of, something made me think I might get some Trick-or-Treaters. My work was crazy, with no breaks, no ability to run to the store for anything.

A good friend had given me a bag of apples he had picked. Kid-sized, super fresh and delicious. Even better is that they came from an amazing, neglected tree, that had split down the middle of the trunk but was still producing loads of absolutely beautiful, scab and blemish free, bug free apples!

So I set the apples by the door just in case.

There were knocks at the door! I had Trick-or-Treaters!

They got apples! Hahaha! There were two groups of girls and the looks on their faces were....well, later it dawned on me it might have seemed like the evil queen giving a red apple to Snow White! Bwahahaha! Scary!!

Fairly early in the evening, I locked up and went to my neighbors four blocks down the road who *do* get loads of Trick-or-Treaters. It was fun to see them, hang out, and actually see costumes and loads of people. They were giving out loads of candy.

While I was gone, I left 10 apples on my porch, and came back to 6 left. Ha!

I was a bit surprised. And happy! Ha!

For most people, if they do eat the apple, I think they will be blown away by how good these apples are compared to typical grocery store fare.