Thread: Candy Alternatives for Trick or Treaters?

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I happened to meet a fellow haunter who told me he gives out pencils instead of candy and its a huge hit with the kids. He gets the popular character pencils from those kids Valentines sets after the holiday is over and they are super cheap. I wanted to try it, but I couldn't go for those, so I picked up some cool pencils I saw in clearance bins at different stores. It turns out that they are popular with kids. I gave out one pencil and one piece of candy (I didn't think it would work). The kids liked the pencils better than the candy.
I think this is great because its a non-food item (read no sugar or food allergies), and they can use it in school (just be sure to get number 2s for those scan-trons).
Of course you should keep some candy on hand for the 'older kids'.

Anyone else give out something other than candy?

I made treat bags last year with little toys like glow in the dark skeletons, bugs and for those really special tots I gave out glow sticks. some of them looked like little wands for girls and the others looks like little axes for the boys. it was fun. they liked them.

My sister thinks "school supplies" are the absolute worst thing we could give out (we make treat bags with candy and little things) but I remember I used to love getting a cool pencil or eraser, especially metallic ones! The eyeball erasers Target had last year were cool enough that we wound up keeping most of them. More "fun" handouts would be things like glowsticks, silly bandz, etc. This can add up if you get hundreds of kids a year though.

Yeah I used to love getting pencils and stuff like that when I was a kid. It does add up. I had over 300 kids come to my house last year. I got the glow sticks for a buck a piece at the dollar tree but it does add up. That's why I only got a few for those special kids with awesome costumes.

I get so few trick or treaters, I'm scared that trick-or-treating is going to be a thing of the past here soon. I've only been in my current apartment for two years though. My first year sucked and I played it off as 'due to the weather', but when I was young, rain didn't stop us from collecting as much candy as possible. This past year was better though, so I hold out hope.
I'm thinking between the fact that parents are afraid of everyone and the whole thing with kids being overweight, a lot fewer kids are trick-or-treating these days.

For that many glowsticks you should order online. In my searches to find the best deal on glowsticks, I found this website about a year and a half ago. I haven't done any price searching since then, so I don't know if another company might have cheaper prices now, but I like them enough that I'll keep ordering for now. The shipping rates have always been good which is a deal breaker for me:

www.nicaboyne.com

I've always had good service, but if you order assortments, specify exactly what colors in what quantities you want. Otherwise they'll unload the colors that sell the worst on you, which is why I wound up with 12 pink 12" glowsticks in an order of 25. Place your order during business hours, and if your "customer notes" are not on the final invoice, they did not make it through the system (I think their website doesn't like Firefox) and you should call immediately afterward to make sure you get what you wanted.

Last year I did Silly Bandz (or whatever they were called, not sure if they were name brand or not), Halloween rubber duckies from Oriental Trading, stickers, jelly bracelets & some candy in my treat bags.

We had so few ToTers last year I've got tons of everything but the candy left over so the same things will be in this years bags.

We do both a treat and something glow/toyish.

We have a variety of treats, however, including candy, soda, and chips.

I'm continually surprised how popular the chips are...

Chips? never thought of that. Like Doritos? I guess walking from house to house you get a little hungry! I haven't decided what Im going to do yet, but candy has really gotten expensive for the number of TOTs our house gets. I need to find something. Thankfully I still have a few Sillybands and glow necklaces. I was recently thinking about doing slap wrap bracelets. i wonder if there are any that light up or glow in the dark?

I bought a huge box off of ebay that consisted of:

plastic flexable monsters
mini flash lights of ghosts, pumpkins, and frankenstein
side walk chalk of ghosts
finger monsters
stickers
package for girls that have hair clips of halloween stuff, stick on jewels and jewelry.
window cling on's of halloween stuff