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Janet Starr Hull PhD, CN

Alternative Health and Holistic Nutrition

Return Halloween To What It Used To Be – Chemical-Free Fun

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A man dressed like Dracula.
Everyone loves to dress up for Halloween – at any age.

Everyone loves a costume party. Halloween is a perfect time to let the child inside of you come out and play, no matter your age.

But, Halloween has morphed into a chemical-candy frenzy. It’s time to return this Autumn celebration to the fun – and healthy –  community tradition that it used to be.

Celebrate

Halloween originated as a time to celebrate the change of seasons, with carnivals, apple-bobs, spooks, barn dances, and costume balls. Halloween was never intended to be a marketing plethora of junk food and super-sized bags of candy and sweets that overload you and your kids with needless sugars and sugar-free chemicals.

An old-fashioned Dance Hall sign.
Turn Halloween into the community celebration that it used to be.

Sadly, this is what Halloween has turned out to be today.

Marketers take advantage of Halloween to up-sell the sugar-free candies. Many of your neighbors will hand out sugar-free candy and gum when trick or treaters go door to door because they “think” sugar-free is a better choice for kids.

Avoid exposing your little ones to these toxic chemicals, especially when you do not know if aspartame or the diet sweeteners are in your kids’ treats.

A cute little boy in a pumpkin patch.
Return Halloween to the Autumn celebration that it used to be.

Halloween Options For Kids

Here are some healthy ways to restore healthy Halloween fun – chemical-free:

  1. Don’t let your kids “trick-or-treat” from door to door; have private parties on Halloween night;
  2. Close off your street and have a “street party“;
  3. Move the Halloween bash to your school, and let the kids dress-up that day with healthy snacks and treats in the cafeteria or in the classroom;
  4. Make a field trip to the pumpkin patch for your Halloween celebration;
  5. Ditch the candy for “party treats”, and offer baked goods, fresh veggies, and  creative healthy snacks for the kiddos;
  6. Take the emphasis off the “candy” and focus on the foods for Fall – nuts, berries, pumpkins (and all the great pies, muffins, and pumpkin breads), cranberries (muffins and breads), non-GMO corn on the cob, apples;
  7. Turn your Halloween celebration into a traditional “Fall festival-costume carnival.”

Wow, look how easy it is to spin this into a healthy celebration!

A picture of a father holding his head with his child screaming at him in the background.
Avoid the “sugar hangover” the morning after Halloween.

The Morning After

Just think – no more “sugar hang-overs” for the kids the morning after a night of sugar and sugar-free overload. No more hyper-active and insane children in school the next day. No more yearly excuses for you or your the kids to binge on fattening and unhealthy sweets.

You can even dress up the family pets for more fun for the kids. Have a “pet party” where the kids have a contest for the best pet costume.

A bulldog dressed like a princess with a crown and wig.
Start a new Halloween tradition – dress the family pet to divert attention from focusing on candies and sugar-free sweets.

Return Halloween to the fun-old-fashioned celebration that it used to be …