by Lorie Kistler

Created on: October 02, 2009   Last Updated: October 03, 2009

It's so much fun to see pretty princesses, ghoulish goblins, mighty superheroes, and magical creatures come to your door and sweetly sing out "Trick or Treat". Their expectant faces look at the bowl of goodies you have for them; they can't wait to add to their buckets and bags teeming with candy and sweets. Halloween is a fun yearly tradition that kids and adults look forward to each year. With the news that today's youth is growing more and more obese, however, it's getting harder and harder to justify giving kids tons of candy for them to gorge on and hoard for weeks to come. Giving out candy is a deeply-rooted tradition, and the stores all back up that tradition by offering a wide variety of sugar-laden sweets. How, then, can we give those sweet faces treats that they will be excited about without giving out cloyingly-sweet treats? By thinking outside the box, you can discover some really neat ways to treat those kids without giving them a major sugar rush.

Non-food treats are a great idea for giveaways. Most discount stores have an entire section of the store dedicated to Halloween decorations and prizes. You can find plenty of cute giveaways such as jelly bracelets, Halloween pencils and erasers, sticker sheets, spider rings, mini puzzles, and bouncy balls. What's even more fun is that your trick-or-treaters can search through your stash to choose their favorite prize to put in their buckets. They will walk away happy because they got to choose their prize, and you can be happy knowing that you aren't contributing to a sugar overload.

Thankfully, food companies are starting to offer healthier Halloween-themed goodies. Pretzels, animal crackers, popcorn, yogurt-covered raisins, and mini granola bars count for just a few of the healthier choices, and each of these can be found in mini-snack sizes that are perfect for little pumpkins and treat bags.

Some fast food restaurants get into the Halloween spirit by offering coupon books. You can pass out these small-denomination gift certificates as prizes. Although fast food restaurants have traditionally been unhealthy, they are now offering healthier choices. Parents whose children get these small gift certificates will also appreciate the treat, as it offers their children a treat on another day besides Halloween.

You can even mix it up and offer some of each of these options. For just about the same cost as buying gobs of chocolate and candy, you can offer great treats for trick-or-treaters that won't send them on a sugar frenzy.

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