My Tips for Dealing with Halloween Candy
Halloween is hands down my kid’s favorite holiday. They get super into it! They both pick their costumes as soon as summer is over, decorate their rooms with spooky skeletons, bats and spiders, and look forward to Halloween parties and of course trick-or-treating!
For a vegan family like ours or really anyone who tries to keep their kids healthy and away from processed sugar Halloween can be tricky to handle. With almost six Halloweens as a mom under my belt I have found some ways to deal with all that candy without inciting meltdowns!
Set Ground Rules
Hermione is very proud to be a vegan. It is truly a defining characteristic for her. She never gets jealous of other kids food or snacks. She is comfortable with who she is and knows why she eats and doesn’t eat certain things. Portia is little and still learning but is always eager to ask if something is vegan or not. To make Halloween easier for them I always remind them before trick or treating what candies are vegan and what are not. You would be surprised at how many conventional candies are vegan friendly! Some of the most common vegan candies are: Airheads, Twizzlers, Smarties, Swedish Fish, Skittles, Sweet Tarts, Sour Patch Kids, Dots, Dum Dums Lollipops. If it is not on this list they know it is off limits for them and can be sorted into their “no” pile when trick or treating is over.
Have Better Options Waiting at Home
I always stock our home with Surf Sweets gummies and candies before Halloween for the trick or treaters who visit us. When we get home with the girls at the end of the night they have the option to trade in the candy they got while trick or treating for the slightly better options by Surf Sweets we have at home.
Three is the Magic Number
I allow the girls to eat one piece of candy each while trick or treating and two more once we get home for the night. Three feels like a fair number because it is much more than they would get on a normal day yet not so much that I worry about them getting sick, rotting their teeth etc. The candy that is left after their three pieces goes to…
The Switch Witch!!!!
Have you heard of the Switch With? She is the Tooth Fairy’s cousin. If you leave all your Halloween candy somewhere in your bedroom she will come and take it in the middle of the night and leave you a present in exchange! Last year she left the girls Vampirina dolls! We shall see what she leaves this year!
Surf Sweets
