Healthy? Sugar free? No! I bought Butterfingers and Junior Mints. I bought four packages, and if we're lucky we'll each get one piece to eat.

Halloween is the perfect time of year to teach kids that sometimes is okay, but not all the time. You don't want to make them develop complexes and guilt when they finally get a chance to enjoy something "special". Give them the kit-kat and parents should talk to their kids about portion control, and candy greed.

I went a 'healthier' route this year and bought a huge bag of smarties. I just didn't want the temptation of mini or fun-size chocolate bars in my house. So what we lack in quality, we'll make up for in quantity. I hope we don't get egged.

Moderation in everything. Yep, that Kit Kat is just fine as long as you aren't eating it every day!

Moderation. I'm on your side. Healthier stuff most times, junk every now and then.

For years we have given out NICKLES!!! I don't have any leftover candy hanging around the house and I can always use these leftovers. We have kids walking away saying 'they'er giving away MONEY!!!' The kids are happy, the parents are happy and I am happy.

I just read somewhere that most people worry too much about what they eat between Thanksgiving and Christmas and most people should worry more about what they eat between Christmas and Thanksgiving.

I think the basic idea applies here. Eat healthy, sure, but it's okay to enjoy treats and desserts for special occasions.

Then again, don't ask me as I've been sampling my own Halloween candy for days now.

I'm on your boyfriend's side, here. This is the perfect time to show that rewarding foods do not have to be processed, sugar-packed and nutrient-free. Of course the kids are going to pick what they already have a rewarding relationship with, but if they have a tasty treat that they then find out is healthy, you can help change their perspectives on what rewarding food means. Then, the reward of a special treat does not have to be inherently linked with an unhealthy food!

I run into this situation a lot with vegan dining, which most people assume is bland and unpalatable because it lacks the things they believe make up all of the flavor of good food: butter, meat..etc. When you show people that you can have tasty treats without those things, you help them see that rewarding foods can be found from many different sources!

Most of the kids will just throw healthy treats right out. Might as well just turn off your lights and not hand out anything. Don't get me wrong. I am all for eating healthy and kids are fat and all that, but halloween is one day a year you should get a free pass for eating lots of surgar. Kids are not going to start eating healthy if you give them a sugar free sucker.

I like what leapkate said. I am giving out candy for sure--KitKats, Mounds & Almond Joys! If I could afford it I'd give out full-sized candy bars, instead of the minis.

We try very hard to model healthy eating for our children but Halloween is the one day out of the year that we let them have at it. That being said, we don't feel good about handing out highly-processed, GMO-laden candy so for the past five years, we've popped tons of organic popcorn and handed out bags of that. Our neighborhood kids LOVE it!

mamamamaqc, while a nice idea I can speak for most parents and especially any parent I knew growing up- unless the parents know you personally, I'd bet your popcorn gets tossed in the trash once mom or dad picks through the candy for anything bad. Homemade treats were always tossed by everyone I knew. Just can't trust it or people, even ones with good intentions.

I have the biggest sweet tooth in the world, but candy has never been my thing--I'm way more into baked goods. Plus so many packaged "treats" have WAY more crap in them than sugar (which I for one do NOT consider "crap"). So for us Halloween is all about having homemade chocolate chip cookies for dinner!! We don't really get trick-or-treaters so I don't have to worry about stuff for them, but for the couple of years we had two little girls living upstairs we handed out our "dinner" to them--and I didn't hear any complaints that it wasn't candy! : )

While it is true that some parents probably do toss the popcorn, we know almost all the neighborhood children who come to our home and the parents see us give the popcorn to them. We also stick a label on all the bags with a "Happy Halloween from the MB--- family at 17 ---- Street." I would sooner let my children eat a homemade snack from a neighbor than some nasty looking packaged candy made in China. That is the stuff that gets tossed from my kids' bags.

There is a happy balance between buying Kit Kats and raisins. There are candy companies that make full sugar (not HFCS) lollipops and fair trade chocolates. This is what we buy. Though I think next year, I'm going the nickel route. Even a quarter probably won't break the bank given the number of trick-or-treaters we get. I too am no sugar hater and think moderation can be taught - it's all the other garbage that's in the candy we find on at the grocery check out line.

This is obviously a very hot topic and we haven't seen last of it for a long time to come. What comes to my mind when I read all this is that I think we have to think about what is safe food/treats/candy and so on. Food has become one of the biggest issues and threats in this country and there are ways to chose differently if you want. You can for example download the first version of ipiit, the food ambassador to help guide you in the jungle of foods and candy. It's a free mobile service where you can chose your own food preferences, like HFCS Free or Lactose Free and so on. You can down load it to your Android or iphone from www.ipiit.com

I agree. There is a happy balance between treats and the gross super high sugar / nasty dyes candy of today. As long as it isn't 1970s health like carob or something kids can enjoy a broader view of "treating."

We have a big bucket with tubs of play dough, stickers, bags of preztels and yes, some organic small lollipops. And they are gone in that order too. We get a lot of low income kids bussed into our neighborhood and they are *delighted* with art supplies and school snacks. One year it was really sweet to see a large, extended family carefully pick different colors so the youngest kid could have a whole new set of playdough.

JudiAU, that's a GREAT idea there. Come to think of it, as a kid the biggest hits every year was the treats we got NOT candy. We received play-doh once and my brothers got a ton of temporary tattoos they loved. We still talk about those treats to this day. You can give kids something other than homemade or toothbrushes and pennies and have it be loved (and for longer than just a night)

We do go nut free but a treat is a treat
...this year it's pouches of hot chocolate and nut free snack-sized chocolate bars :-)

My mom is giving out little pots of bubbles this year, not because she is candy-averse (as shown by the six pound bag of Halloween candy that she still bought with some pretty questionable logic), but because the neighborhood just finished cycling through a generation of kids and is amping up baby production again. A lot of the kids are too young to eat food that is too solid, and bubbles tend not to trigger any allergies, so it is the safest choice.

I have always been a proud candy fanatic, and personally, the only non-candy item I ever found acceptable was wax lips.They're a little pricey now and I know most kids hate them/probably have no idea what they are, but if I lived in an areas that got trick-or-treaters I would absolutely hand them out. I also always loved when I got candies I wasn't familiar with, too, so I would probably just go with a bunch of oldschool candies or Japanese candies. Chick-O-Sticks and assorted Kasugai candies for everyone!

I handed out glow stick bracelets last year. No sugar, higher visibility/safety for the kids, and a fun toy for the little kids. The teenagers weren't so thrilled...but hey, what are they doing still trick or treating anyway?! I think they ended up being 10 cents each - not bad considering the price of candy. I have some leftovers from last year so I'll hand them out til they're gone this week and then turn out the light. I'm a bit bah humbug about Halloween - just doesn't do it for me.

I won't be handing out candy myself this year (helping a friend move), but I bought the candy my co-workers and the kids I work with are handing out at the group home I work at. I got a variety of fun stuff at Bulk Barn. And let me tell you, if I'd bought anything "healthy" for our trick-or-treaters, my kids would have had my head. For them it's a matter of principle.

I work hard to get my kids at work to eat healthy the rest of the year, I think they and the other trick-or-treaters deserve a proper treat on Halloween.

Nope, candy all the way. Terrible for you, sugary candy. And it's because I think kids who grow up eating super healthy all the time do develop complexes, and are in danger of falling into overindulgence in the future.

You can get Unreal Candy which is the GMO-free, "good stuff" version of Snickers and all of those. After going to a birthday party last year where the pinata was full of high-cost raisins and organic goods then watching the kids give my toddler all their loot I decided to be the house giving out fun size mainstream junk. It went over very well - I also have the organic lollis for kids with picky parents or food allergies so they are not left out.

I give out regular candy even though I won't let my kids eat any of it. They will "sell" it to the pediatrician who sends it to those serving our country. I would give out the better stuff but we get so many kids it's out of question.

Give me sugary, chemical-laden candy at Halloween!! I wanted a bag of Mary Janes this year but couldn't find them. Maybe they were discontinued? I should have checked the retro candy sites. I bought mini-Mounds and mini-Almond Joys instead. Love them too.