One daughter was home today, doing work for her other two jobs. Her main income-producing job is as a substitute teacher in our local school district. In the past, she has mentioned the goodies that teachers and staff bring in regularly, some for rewards for students, some for the teachers only.
The other day I saw a memo being passed around social media encouraging people to give out non-candy treats this Halloween. Suggestions included packaged chips, pretzels, cookies and mini muffins, protein bars, pouches or boxes of juice, packages of ramen (ramen has been a popular food with teens and tweens for the last several years), microwave mac and cheese, and pudding cups. Many people on social media complained about not giving out candy to kids. But others chimed in that their kids already get a lot of candy in their everyday life and might appreciate a non-candy treat. I know my own kids regularly got candy at church/Sunday school and at youth group. (We homeschooled through 8th grade, so the only candy they got in those years of school was controlled by me.)
I asked my daughter if kids get much candy at school these days. She said yes, usually as rewards. One teacher she regularly subs for allows his students to earn points to be spent in the classroom "store" on Fridays. They earn points for good behavior, completing assignments on time, and good citizenship in the classroom. The store contains various snack foods, but also full-sized candy bars. His classroom is a SPED class for high school, and he's found success in getting student cooperation by offering those sorts of rewards. My daughter agreed that many kids these days have lots of opportunities to eat candy.
In our house, we've been at least offering a non-candy treat, some years only giving out non-candy treats, for many, many years. The first year we did this, I offered a choice between cheese and cracker hand-i-snacks and a traditional candy bar. All of the hand-i-snacks were gone in 30 minutes. We've also given out packages of pretzels, mini playdough, containers of slime, and small bags with stickers, tattoos, Halloween-themed trinkets and small amounts of candy. For the last several years we've given out individual packages of cookies. We've had kids be super-duper excited about getting these candy-alternatives. We've had parents thank us for giving out something other than candy. And we've had a couple of older kids be not quite so excited, but always said thank you.
My daughter said she couldn't remember when we just gave out candy. I then went on to tell her about my mother's recollections about trick-or-treating in the 1940s. My grandparents moved around the country a lot during the war, following my grandfather's job working for a military contractor. So the treats my mother received varied from region to region. But for the most part, she said her small bag was filled with home-grown fruit (apples, mostly), nuts in the shell, homemade cookies, small paper bags of popped corn, an occasional homemade popcorn ball, a couple of small pieces of candy (Tootsie Rolls were popular), and a penny or two. She said the pennies were one of the most exciting things to receive, as it meant she could go with her own mother to the store and choose a piece of candy, or she could put trick-or-treat pennies together with other saved pennies and buy a small plaything, like a game of Jacks. In my mother's day, receiving anything felt special this one day of the year. Aside from birthdays and Christmas, receiving gifts and prizes of any sort just didn't happen. Any rewards they received were often in the form of award ribbons, not toys, playthings, or candy. These days, kids get prizes and rewards all of the time.
My daughter was very surprised to hear of how little candy my mother actually received trick-or-treating. In my kids' childhood, they came home with bags of almost exclusively candy.
In my own childhood, we received a lot of candy, but also occasional cookies, baggies of chips or popped corn, pennies, some apples, and chewable waxed novelties. But it was mostly candy.
Perhaps because my mother had received so many non-candy treats on Halloween as a child, it seemed perfectly okay to offer kids cookies, apples, baggies of potato chips, and pennies when we would run out of Halloween candy in our own home in the 1960s. Our neighborhood had so many children, I'm sure we had around 100 trick or treaters every year, and it was practically a given we'd run out of the "real" treats. Were kids always happy to get an apple in the 1960s? I don't think so. I'm not sure I'd give an apple these days. I would fear it would be thrown through a window by some unsatisfied trick-or-treater.
But I do think there's a place for some non-candy treats as handouts for Halloween. Kids will get plenty of candy this Friday. My house will just provide some variety to their trick-or-treat bags.
We have gone the non-candy route before with little toys, but not recently. We give out candy. This year the decision of what to give out was easy. My sons bought a big bag of candy and asked if we would like to have half. Of course, we said yes.
ReplyDeleteI would loved to have gotten a homemade cookie, but I wonder if some aren't allowed to eat them because they are not in in a sealed wrapper. Some schools don't allow any homemade items. If parents want to bring in something for a birthday, it has to be from a bakery or sealed. I think this is for safety and sanitary reasons. But, if the kids and parents know you, that shouldn't be a problem.
When I was trick or treating, I got little candies, popcorn, and apples. I was thrilled if I ever got chocolate. We were only allowed to go to a few houses in the neighborhood for various reasons. We lived in town and often got 100+ kids. It was expensive for my parents as I'm sure it was for the neighbors, thus the small candy. I was lucky that I liked Tootsie rolls. Real chocolate was a rarity. My kids got a combination of candy and trinkets. There seemed to be more concern at that time of candy being laced with poison or a sharp object than I hear about today.
I'm sure that other things would be appreciated by some, but if they are out Trick-or-Treating, they expect to get candy. We don't get a lot of kids (20 or so) and we know many of them.
Hi Live and Learn,
DeleteI'm glad your decision over treats to give out was simplified for you this year,
Maybe I wasn't clear, we're giving out snack-size, commercially-packaged cookies, not homemade ones. I don't think parents would be too thrilled with not knowing what was in a homemade cookie. Back in my mother's time as a child, there were fewer issues with allergies, concerning a homemade treat. Plus our country was a high trust one, back then. Neighbors all knew each other. Now, you can have several neighbors in a neighborhood that you don't really know.
When I was growing up, there were stories about people putting razor blades in candy. We had to inspect everything to make sure it was safe (my mom only took me to homes where she knew the adults to avoid any issues). I Googled it, and it was apparently an urban legend. It certainly shaped my trick or treating experience, though.
ReplyDeleteI got frustrated with the candy rewards when my kids were in school. I was trying to keep the junk food consumption minimal, and I felt like teachers were teaching kids to equate food with rewards. It seemed to me that there were other inexpensive rewards that could be offered. We did have one teacher who would request that if our kids were done playing with little trinket toys (like the kind they would get in a happy meal or as party favors), that parents could donate them for the reward box. I happily did that.
As for typical treats when I was a kid, it was mostly pre-packaged candy. My grandma would give me a brown bag filled with treats. It always included an apple. My mom was thrilled with the apple. Me, not so much.
I dated a guy who would give out cans of soda pop for Halloween. That could get pricey, I'm sure, but he said the kids loved it.
Hi Kris,
DeleteI remember that rumor that someone was putting razor blades in apples. I'm glad to hear that that never really happened to someone.
That is so sweet that your grandmother would put together a paper bag filled with treats for you. I'm going to remember that if I ever have any grandchildren.
Wow, cans of soda pop! That could get very expensive, depending on how many trick-or-treaters he had. But I can imagine how thrilled the kids would be.
Our neighbor put together bags of treats for my kids which they loved. No apples in them, though.
Delete