Well, this year I went with natural sugars, tiny ‘apple’ bananas, satsumas and small apples … but I did have some funsize snickers and smarties too ( for those NOT impressed with the fruit)

Sarah, just a little bewildered as to New Zealanders celebrating Guy Fawkes – I thought that was an english thing?

I’m giving out all kinds of fun stickers, glittery press-on tattoos, Mardi Gras type necklaces and mini Halloween Memory games. If I were still young enough to trick or treat I’d be psyched to get this stuff. If anyone hasn’t bought their Halloween goodies yet (or even if you have) I encourage you to check out this site: http://www.greenhalloween.org/
I’m in no way affiliated with them, I just think it’s an idea whose time has come. Happy Halloween everybody!

we dont do halloween in New Zealand. mum never let us trick or treat because personally it strikes her as weird that for the whole year we tell our kids never to talk to or take candy from strangers and then on halloween they are encouraged to do just that. we have guy fawkes night a few days later and so mum always said if we did halloween – no fireworks for guy fawkes. we never ever chose halloween. i have been known to take advantage of the hallowen specials on horror films at my local dvd hire store

Reese’s and candy corn are always an easy choice. Body parts can also be fun. We usually just by what we are craving at the supermarket and go from there!

We go to our church to take my nephew, and niece. It isn’t called ‘halloween’, it’s our ‘fall festival’.

Our church is pretty large (6,000 members) — so we have train rides, hay rides, and bounce houses, games, and face painting, plus fair food — all the members bring candy.

Anyone can come, the only thing you need to get in is a can of food, which goes to our food program, which helps people in the community.

We are bringing reese’s, hershey bars, kit kats, snickers, mary janes, pixie sticks, milk duds, almond joys, suckers, butterfingers, and little packs of candy corn.

I’m 17, and still incredibly excited!!

Pixie Stix
Laffy Taffy
Nerds
Sweettarts

The family next door to me includes two autistic children. Since their children have been school-aged, they have run a hay ride through the neighborhood with all of their son’s friends from school. The first year they did this we switched to play-doh to avoid any conflicts with candy/sugar/red dye and it was a huge hit with all of our trick or treaters so we have kept it up. The kids love it. As for my own son, he chooses ten pieces and then the “halloween ghost” visits in the night and replaces the rest of the treats with some sort of toy/stuffed animal/book. Happy Halloween to those who celebrate! (On a side note, my school no longer allows for the celebration because so many people don’t celebrate for religious reasons. I agree with this but am curious how those who don’t celebrate feel about schools who do?)

I make sure to buy what I like, (in case of leftovers) so this year it’s KitKat and Smarties. My son usually goes out for an hour and then comes back. We take out all the things he doesn’t like, and then give those things out. That way nothing goes to waste (or should I say waist?).

I live in Australia and Halloween seems to have invaded here – which is incredibly silly – given we’re at the end of spring, the weather is warm, pumpkins are largely out of season and everything is green and bright rather than orangey red.

Some kids (who probably watch too much TV IMHO) make half-hearted attempts at dressing up and then go and ring doorbells for junk food. And no-one ever has anything for them because it’s not an Australian holiday. They must get so disappointed.

This isn’t a rant against the US or Halloween, for that matter… I just think it’s odd when this cultural appropriation happens and it’s completely inappropriate. At Christmas, for example, we’re bombarded with images of snowmen and winterwonderlands and big Turkey dinners and snuggling up to a fire and roasting chestnuts. In reality, it’s roasting outside, most people are having BBQs or carving cold legs of ham, playing cricket in the backyard or heading to the beach.

A lot of people have actually adopted a Christmas in July party theme, so they can do the traditional Christmas thing when it’s actually cold here.

So in answer to this post, I won’t have anything for trick or treaters but it’ll be interesting to see if anyone actually knocks on the door.

We’re giving out snack-size Kit Kat Bars, Reese’s Cups, Laffy Taffy, Snickers, Nerds, Runts, Nestlé Crunch Bars and Spider Rings.