Healthy Alternatives to Halloween Candy Your Kids Will Love

Introduction

Your kids will love healthy alternatives to Halloween candy if you make them frightfully good. These are some ideas for healthy holiday food and celebrations that are low in sugar and still much fun.

Healthy Foods to Substitute for Traditional Halloween Candy

Make your sinister snacks.

• Kids love gross things. Use cookie cutters to design homemade cookies in shapes like ghosts and bats. Bake gingerbread zombies with missing limbs. You can adjust the conventional recipes to lower the sugar and substitute whole grain flour for half the white flour.

• Kids will also love eating fruit and vegetables if you arrange them correctly. Peel grapes so that they look like eyeballs. Make a skeleton shape out of carrot sticks and sliced vegetables.

• Try sugar-free or organic candy and gum. If you want to serve candy, try sugar-free or organic brands. Read the labels to check on any chemicals you want to avoid and determine how much sugar they contain. Sugar-free gum is especially good to help keep dental plaque from forming if your kids eat any sugary candy. It stimulates saliva and can help fight tooth decay.
• Hand out healthier foods. There are many nutritious foods you can hand out for trick or treating or at parties. Focus on sturdy fruits and vegetables like baby carrots, raisins, apples, oranges, or bananas. Try pre-packaged cheese sticks or make your packets of nuts.

• Beware of cereal bars that may have as much sugar and fat as candy.
• Create your trail mix with granola, nuts, and dried fruit.
• The sophisticated older child may even like seaweed or unsalted soy nuts.

Serve hot chocolate or juice.

• Water is the best way to quench your kid’s thirst, but controlled portions of other liquids can also be reasonable choices. Small servings of hot chocolate will provide warmth if the weather has already turned cold.

• Individual juice boxes with straws will provide hydration and vitamins while keeping sugary drinks from sticking to your kid’s teeth.

Other Healthy Halloween Festivities and Ideas

Consider alternatives to trick or treating

• More and more parents are choosing healthy and safe alternatives to deceive or treating. These are some party ideas that switch the focus away from the candy.
  

• Have a costume parade. Dressing up is a huge part of the holiday. Let the kids show off their costumes. Dream up creative categories so that everyone gets a prize. You could honor the best princess costume based on a movie and the princess with the prettiest shoes.
• Tell scary stories in a haunted house. Halloween is supposed to be creepy. Turn your basement into a dungeon, or make your backyard look like a cemetery. Practice some ghost stories or encourage the group to make up their own as they go along—plant appropriate sound effects and props to enhance the scary parts.
• Indulge your creative side. There are all kinds of holiday crafts you can enjoy with your kids. Get free ideas at the library or online. You can decorate pumpkins, make scarecrows or do some face painting.

• Hand out non-food treats. Whether you trick or treat or throw a party, you can hand out treats and favors other than candy. Give children stickers, temporary tattoos, coins, pencil toppers, or small novelty toys. Black toothbrushes will come in especially handy this time of year. Just make sure there are no choking hazards for very young kids.

Conclusion

Healthy alternatives to Halloween candy will keep your kids happy and your dental bills down. Make this Halloween good and scary for you and your family.