Halloween - part 2 - Trick or Treat
Halloween is definitely not the best part of the year if, like me, you do not like to dress up, you do not like the scary spiders, skeletons and other wide range of decorations, you find that this is just another commercial thing to make you spend money and you will end up eating extra non useful calories from poor quality candies. Well, ok, I do not like it much BUT I love the trick or treat...Yes this is a candy based commercial activity. But honestly this is a really fun for the kids and I even found a way to have fun with it. Review.
Let's dig a bit
The costume
First, you need to find the costume. Not such a complicated thing, just go to the pop up Halloween stores or regular stores and you can find whatever you want. Alright, you have to spend $30 but it is quick easy and they look really great. Your kid might have some his friend the exact same way but he will get over it. Little trick I am not that proud of but still. The first year, I bought the costume at Toys’r’us that have a 30 day return policy… so I returned the costume after the kiddo’s parade… Not sure if this is ethical but this was the rule and so it ended up costing nothing. Now I have to live with the feeling of being responsible for Toys’r’us stores closing…
The Neighborhood
Once you have the costume, figure out the neighborhood you are going to go for trick or treat. It is important to select one where people are prepared to welcome kiddo’s ! You do not want to go from doors to doors without getting any candies... Also, even though I do not like to spend money to decorate my house with Halloween things, this is really fun for the kids to go to decorated house as it scares the kids a little… Some people go really wild on the decoration installing blowing monsters, fake fire, giant jumping spiders, skeletons, spider webs, scary music…
It is also important to select a walkable neighboorhood : somewhere with walkable distances… You do not want to have to carry your kid after 2 houses. To find out about the great neighboorhood for trick or treat, you can check the school bus stop itinerary… they usually go through areas with kids;). Do not hesitate to go a neighboorhood that is not yours, nobody would see it.
Important : if you are not at your house for trick or treat, do not let your house without candies ! Make sure that either someone stays home to give candies or leave a basket with a note on the porch ! Make it fun.
Alternative : there are a few organization who organizes 'trunk or treat' : they line up decorated cars with the trunk full of candies. Kids would go from trunk to trunk. It is a safer / shorter distance alternative to the regular trick or treat.
The after math : dealing with candies
Your kid has now a town of candies. Yes a ton, at least. All types of candies : the regular peanut butter based candies to pretzel or chocolate bars through gluten free candies. You have a few options there : keep them or figure out an exit strategy. My strategy : first keep the few you like for you because you deserve it then separate the candies your kids love from the ones he is just ok with. Bring the second batch to work, it will disappear in second (weird but tested and definitely true). Then for his favorite candies, take a few out everyday… He eats 1, you take 2 out.. It will disappear way faster and he will not notice. Sneaky, I know. Other ideas to get rid of them : bring the expiration date argument, explain the unhealthy part of it (good luck with that), try to keep and just eat it little by little (dangerous, really dangerous…).
So based on that
Trick or Treat is an awesome activity for kids and somehow for parents too. Yes this is a consumist non-healthy activity but if you look at the social part of it, this is an awesome opportunity for the kids to go out of their comfort zone with the costume, the talking to strangers and going through scary decorations to get their treat. For the adults, this is an opportunity to build a social event with the kids and your friends and to eat candies without guilt.