Corey Colwell-Lipson, a Sammamish resident, was trick-or-treating last year with her 6-year-old princess and two-year-old fairy collecting the usual Smarties and Kit Kats when one house gave out stickers. Colwell-Lipson, who mostly chooses healthy and organic treats for her children, was thrilled. A few other houses gave out non-candy toys, but with the twisty roads and darkness of Halloween night, she forgot which houses they were. She thought it would be great to have a directory of houses which gave out non-candy treats. Then she started thinking of all the ways to make Halloween healthier.From this, Green Halloween was born. She joined forces with Whole Foods and other businesses to promote alternative Halloween fun. Green Halloween is a community movement to help make Halloween safer and healthier for our children and our environment.
The Green Halloween website offers a map where you can find houses offering non-candy treats or enter your own Green Halloween house.
I love this idea and had even bought an 80 count package of mini playdoughs at Costco (under $10) to give out for Halloween before I saw the website. I had planned to just give out the playdough to the young kids and get chocolate for the older kids, but I was inspired! I picked up Halloween pencils at the Target dollar store section(10 for $1) and some Halloween erasers.
My very informal poll of my daughter (7) and my son (2 1/2) found that the 7 year old would choose a sticker, pencil or fun trinket over candy 9 out of 10 times. However the little one consistently chose candy until I said, "Well what about if it was a Diego toy?" Diego is his favorite character.On the website, in response to children getting upset giving up candy, she writes:
"Other children may be upset, disappointed or angry at the idea of giving up what they have known and what they expect. This is completely understandable and is one reason Green Halloween is placing a great deal of emphasis on children in the 1- 5 age ranges. Young children have less concretized expectations of holiday traditions and will generally be open to creating new ones."
In our house we've always had a rule. One piece of candy per year of age (and when I throw in one or two more, I'm a super star Mom). We put the rest in the candy bowl and give it out to the other kids. The next day, we send it to work with Dad and let everyone at Microsoft get fat and sugar buzzed.
This is not just to save my kids from the colorings, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup. It saves me, too! There have been many a Halloween where I have sat among a pile of candy wrappers with a piece of chocolate in the corner of my mouth and a tummy ache wondering what on earth I had just done?
Candy is easy because it's cheap--but we need to find other ways to give the kids something fun on Halloween without buying those huge bags of candy. We can get lots of cheap trinkets/stickers from the dollar store or the Oriental Trading Company. But, they are likely all made in China and not all that earth friendly.
Green Halloween has lots of great suggestions and good partners that are helping to make this Halloween Greener and affordable! Check out the site at for more information.
