Keeping it TEAL on Halloween

For some one who isn’t a big fan of Halloween, do you know what my favorite part about Halloween is? A TEAL Pumpkin! Let me explain…

Charlene and I have a lot of things in common.….except when it comes to Halloween. She LOVES it. I could totally live without it. I’ve never understood it; we spend our whole life being told “not to take things from strangers” but one day out of the year, you want me to go knock on their door and take candy from them?!?!? Um, no thanks.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love everything having to do with Fall/Autumn: cooler weather, apple picking, donuts and apple cider, leaves changing color, carving pumpkins, warm soup, and most of all, decorating my front porch. Bring on the straw bales, corn stalks, mums, and pumpkins of every shape and color!

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Dressing the part

Growing up, I don’t have many memories about Halloween. I’m sure I didn’t really care for it as a child either. I only have one picture of me in a costume, I was a witch (go figure), and that picture was taken while at a kindergarten class party at school.

When my children were babies, it was fun to dress them up in cute costumes and take them to “trick or treat” the Grandparents. Which looking back on it, to the Grandparents, Halloween was just a warmup for Christmas. 😉

Both of my daughters love deciding what to be, and lucky for them, I love to sew! I’m not a expert seamstress by any means, but I can do just fine with a simple pattern. In the past few years, they have been Ariel and Flounder (and our dog was Sebastian), Jessie from Toy Story 2, Doc McStuffins, Anna and Elsa, Rapunzel, and Cinderella. I did grow up in the 90’s, so there is a heavy Disney influence. Do you blame me?!

LR was never into trick or treating. Still to this day, she just likes to dress up and hand out candy so she can see the costumes. EG LOVES Halloween because she LOVES candy. She would go to every house within a 10 mile radius, with a light on, if I let her. And EE, he’s just excited that he can be some of his favorite day to day people. For example, the postal carrier, UPS guy, police officer, and of course, the highlight to every Thursday, the garbage man.

Am I nuts?

The main reason I’m not a fan of Halloween, besides the whole “taking things from strangers” thing, is due to having a list of allergies a mile long. Nuts being one of the most severe. I remember sorting my trick or treat stash and basically giving most of it away because I couldn’t eat it.

Today it is much easier because they put the “Contains…..”, or “May Contain….”, whatever allergen in bold print right under the ingredient list. But that’s not the same for many smaller versions of candy items because they may contain different ingredients than their full-size counterparts. Some miniature candy items don’t have ingredient labels at all, which makes it difficult for parents to determine whether these items are safe for their child with food allergies.

Allergen Free Goodies

Now that I have children with life threatening nut allergies too, we always try to offer nut free candy options along with some non candy choices. Some of our favorite ‘allergy friendly’ companies are YumEarth, Enjoy Life, and MadeGood.

YumEarth has organic suckers, hard candies, and fruit snacks that are a great option due to the fact that they are free of some of the top allergies.

Enjoy Life products are free from 14 common allergens and are also non-GMO. They offer individual wrapped chocolates that are perfect size for trick or treaters.

During a recent trip to Target, we came across these MadeGood Mini Chocolate Chip Granola Bars that are the perfect size for Halloween. MadeGood products are also made in a dedicated allergen free facility.

We need a Teal pumpkin for Halloween

A couple of years ago, we were excited to learn about the Teal Pumpkin Project. The mission of their program is to encourages people to “raise awareness of food allergies and promotes the inclusion of all trick-or-treaters throughout the Halloween season.” The program offers an alternative for kids with food allergies, as well as other children for whom candy is not an option.

The Teal Pumpkin Project and the Teal Pumpkin Image are trademarks of Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE).

Why teal?  

Teal is the color of food allergy awareness. In the U.S., 1 in 13 children has a food allergy which translates into roughly two students in every classroom. A lot of popular Halloween candy contain nuts, milk, egg, soy or wheat, which are some of the most common allergens in children and adults.

How can you help?

• Purchase or decorate a teal pumpkin. If you don’t have time to buy a pumpkin, they do offer a printable sign that you could also tape to your door.
• Add your address to the Teal Pumpkin Project Map.
• Post on neighborhood Facebook page to spread the word.
• Reach out to your local library, dentist/doctor offices, schools, or community buildings to see if they would be willing to help you post signs or get the word out.
  

Since this is going to be a reoccurring thing at our house every Halloween, we decided to buy one of those artificial pumpkins you can find at any craft store, and paint it teal. EG thought it was a good idea to add glitter, which translates into: I will be finding glitter for DAYS after Halloween!

FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education), the organization that created the Teal Pumpkin Project, currently offers an artificial teal pumpkin that you can purchase on Amazon. Unbox that baby, put it by your front door, and you’re ready!

They also have plastic teal pumpkin buckets for all your non candy goodies so the kids can pick what they want.

What’s in our shopping cart?

I try to stay away from the cheap plastic stuff that I know will end up getting lost or thrown away. As a family, we are always trying to find ways to reduce our use of single-use plastics (and plastic in general), however, in situations like this, we are left with few options available.

Some non-food options we have purchased in the past are:

• Slap bracelets
• Glow sticks
• Halloween Stickers (or Cats, Dogs, Farm Animals, Zoo Animals, etc.)
• Small pack of crayons and a small notebook
• Homemade slime
• Playdoh (This does contain wheat but it is always a favorite, especially with toddlers, for those who can play with it.)
• Watercolors
• Mini juice boxes
• DIY stress balls
• Bubbles
• Pencils
• Erasers
• Rubber bracelets
• Hair ties
• Sidewalk chalk (I’ve been able to find the 4 packs of chalk on clearance after Summer, for really cheap.)

As much as I don’t like Halloween, I don’t like children feeling left out even more. As a kid who grew up with allergies, I know what that feel like. Even if you don’t know someone with allergies, non candy options are great to have on hand. You will be amazed at how many kids will actually pick the non candy item OVER a piece of candy.

You never know, PERHAPS you will make a child with allergies feel included on Halloween.

Don’t forget to check out how we pay it forward at Christmas time:

• Thankful For Shoeboxes: Operation Christmas Child