46 comments

What are you giving out this Halloween?

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halloweencc

I know, I know..  The obvi­ous answer to this is “candy,” but don’t you want to be the one house on the block that does some­thing dif­fer­ent this year?  Some­thing hip and cool?

There’s always the one house that gives out cans of pop and full size choco­late bars — and it’s pretty easy to become the most pop­u­lar house on the block doing that — but what about doing some­thing that’ll really stand out?

No, I’m not talk­ing fast food gift cer­tifi­cates (though those are always nice) or some­thing wacky (like a live squir­rel) — I’m talk­ing comic books.

Start­ing in 2009, cer­tain comics pub­lish­ers have been band­ing together each fall to offer Hal­loween mini-comics.  They’re small enough to fit in a child’s candy bag, big enough to read com­fort­ably, and cost about the same as a qual­ity candy prod­uct.  One of my local comic shops (fea­tured pre­vi­ously on Smart­Canucks) is sell­ing them in bun­dles of 20 for $5.  We get 80–100 kids every year, so I dropped $30 and squared away my Hal­loween hand-out shop­ping early.  The best part?  Rather than giv­ing kids more junk food (they’ll have every other house on the block for that) I’m giv­ing them some­thing that can stim­u­late their minds a lit­tle.  Plus, I’m not going to be tempted to eat the comics while wait­ing for 10/31 to roll around.

Think­ing of doing the same?  Call your local comic shop to see if they’re car­ry­ing Hal­loween mini-comics.  Not think­ing of doing the same?  Tell us what you’re giv­ing out this Halloween!

46 Responses to “What are you giving out this Halloween?”

  1. boyzmom33

    That sounds like a cool idea.…..I’ll have to call and see if any stores around here offer that since I only get maybe 20 kids a year now. Any­one else notice the amount of kids going out on hallowe’en seems to drop every year??

  2. couponfreak

    I have to call I always send bags for the kids in my chil­drens classes comics would be great

  3. saraL

    i usu­ally give out lit­tle erasers and stick­ers with some candy. this year i found some awe­some mini hal­loween yo-yos so i think i’ll pick up some pack­ages of those to hand out as well.

    i love the mini play­doh peo­ple hand out but they’re expen­sive so that’s not hap­pen­ing at my house this year.

  4. CarlyinCanada

    Well, we don’t get many kids that trick or treat..but I do up lit­tle bag­gies from the Bulk Barn with some good­ies & give them to the neigh­bour kids that I know! :)
    Usu­ally buy a cou­ple bags of candy just in case..& any left­overs BF munches on, lol
    Also we make pop­corn balls at mom’s for friends & fam­ily! :)

  5. lisa ferrier

    haha I hand out glow in the dark tooth brushes and bob­blin tooth paste

  6. Heather

    Ill be hand­ing out full size chooclate bars, maybe some­thing to go with it too, but we only get about 10 kids (buy for 20 just in case lol) and weve watched all these kids grow up, so our entire street hands out enough to make it worth while for them. I love the comic book idea too, because we only have a few kids we hand out candy from both doors of the house!

  7. busy.mommy

    We are giv­ing out mini-playdohs. I got them at Costco for cheap and I think it’s bet­ter than candy. Last year the kids loved them!

  9. Insane

    We usu­ally do the full size choco­late bars. I ALWAYS by the nut free ones. Noth­ing sucks more than to be a kid with an allergy and to get a full size choco­late bar and not be able to eat it. I buy them at Costco and costs less than what I’d pay for a vari­ety of lit­tle bars up here.

  10. Margaret

    I give out the min-playdohs from Costco too. It’s a pack of 80 for $9 or $10. Last year I also handed out mini play­ing cards from Costco. They were a lit­tle more expensive.

  11. meliisafle

    I have a sytem for hand­ing out candy. I buy dif­fer­ent kinds for dif­fer­ent cos­tumes (I don’t know if this makes me a jerk, or awe­some haha). Last year my hus­band was actu­ally home to hand out candy and I had to teach him the sys­tem since I was 3 days post-partum and not into get­ting up down/sitting outside.

    Any­way! I was think­ing of upping my game this year and buy­ing some full size choco­late bars for super awe­some cos­tumes. I love see­ing peo­ple get cre­ative. Every­one else still gets a treat, but if you show up at my door in a polo with a popped col­lar and tell me you’re a “jock” expect rockets!

  12. Stephanie

    This year we got the mini play doh (80 count) and the dis­ney play­ing cards (60 count) from Costco. For both packs it was about $20.00. Much cooler than stale old candy!

  13. Natalka

    The comics are a great idea!
    I always have a mix — cheapo can­dies to grab a hand­ful of; small choco­late bars, gra­nola bars, lit­tle craisins packs, cheezies, chips, etc.
    Last year, along with an edi­ble treat, I gave out pen­cils (aliens, sports, etc. NOT Hal­loween ones) and wow did kids love those — even the tweens and teens!
    Haven’t decided yet what it will be this year…
    The lit­tle ones always come out first around 4:30 — 5 before it gets dark, so I make sure treats/stuff for them are appro­pri­ate.
    Along sim­i­lar lines to meli­isafle, kinds/amounts of treats really do depend upon the chil­dren. If they are cos­tumed and into the spirit, they sure get more and bet­ter. If they are the kids that are dumped off by the van­load (from across the city) at the end of our cres­cent, they sure don’t get much. I’m a firm believer in pretty much stay­ing in your own neigh­bour­hood (depends upon age how far that is.…).
    Last year we prob­a­bly had 75, the year before much lower because it was so much colder and rainy. Aver­age over the years is about 100.

  14. Marta

    We give out Ring-Pops, they are not too expen­sive at Costco. The first year we did this, an 11 year old boy said, awe­some Ring-Pops, I’m eat­ing mine now!

  16. Cmoody8107

    We bought Play-Doh at Zellers last week­end — but Im keep­ing it!!! They had the 20 packs on clear­ance for $1.50!!!!

  17. saraL

    okay, wow, i’m jeal­ous of all the peo­ple find­ing the cheap mini-play doh. i’ve only been able to find 10packs for $6.99!

  18. luvadeal

    I couldn’t help but be extremely annoyed by the per­son who said they were a firm believer for stay­ing in your own area. We live in an extremely low income area — some­where I do not want my chil­dren walk­ing around at night, even when accom­pa­nied by an adult. I’m putting myself through school in hopes of get­ting a bet­ter pay­ing job just so that we can one day get out of the poor neigh­bor­hood we’re in. I also send my chil­dren to a dif­fer­ent school dis­trict as well, the crime is that bad where we are. Don’t you think that if peo­ple could afford to live in bet­ter neigh­bor­hoods, they would?

    Have some com­pas­sion for those less for­tu­nate that you! Hal­loween is for kids, and kids don’t have any con­trol over the finan­cial cir­cum­stances of their par­ents OR over which neigh­bor­hood they live.

  19. mlongboat

    I agree with meli­isafle. Expect crap candy if your not in the spirit. I like to give out juice boxes. You get thirsty walk­ing around in cos­tume. I’m in a new apt so I don’t know what the rules are here or if we get any­one at all.

  20. Catherine L

    We were in a new apart­ment last year and didn’t know how many kids we’d get. Many neigh­bour­hoods in the city get sev­eral hun­dred kids, so we picked up enough for 140. How many did we get? Two. So this year I have enough for 10 kids (loot bags includ­ing pen­cil erasers, juice boxes with Hal­loween cups, gum­mie candy, ring pops, chips and some chew­ing gum).

  21. melissafle

    (yes, I spelled my own han­dle wrong the first time lol!)

    Lovead­eal, I wouldn’t take it per­son­ally. I 110% under­stand the com­ment about peo­ple stay­ing in their own neigh­bor­hood because when I was younger and grow­ing up in a middle-class sub­di­vi­sion we would get over 300 kids; just because it was a quick in-and-out and then the van of kids would be off to the next neigh­bor­hood. If you’re never expe­ri­enced that, then you wouldn’t know the anger and frus­tra­tion that comes with hav­ing noth­ing to give a child you RECOGNIZE FROM YOUR STREET because 250 kids you don’t know already came a knockin’.

    There are always excep­tions, and if you are one of the peo­ple who trick’r’treat hon­estly with­out dri­ving all around town, you shouldn’t feel offended. My niece lives at my parent’s house on a busy main road with no side-walks — she has been com­ing to my sub­di­vi­sion for the past 4 years. We go up and down my street, and that’s it. So even though she is out of her “area” I know we’re not the peo­ple Natalka is talk­ing about.

    On another note, my tiny one will be com­ing out this year and I have hired my mom to hand out candy at my place so both her Dad and I can take her and my niece around :D So excited!

  23. Felicia Taylor

    To the orig­i­nal per­son who started this I tried to call the sil­ver snail and the harry tran­tula and they had not heard of them. The gen­tle­men at the harry tran­tula stated that he had comic books in full size and they were 3 for a buck and also had ones for 50 cents. Where was your local comic book store? Great Idea!

  24. brandy

    We usu­ally give out Toys to the lit­tle ones and full sized choco­late bars to the teens(unless they want toys). This year is hal­loween themed rub­ber duck­ies and mon­ster face nerf style foot­balls. We were the most pop­u­lar house in our old area.. hop­ing our new area brings us tonnes of kids this year!(fingers crossed)

  25. Shannon

    Secret deoder­ant?! lol
    I’m doing the Costco mini-play-doh too. I can’t believe I’ve never thought of rank­ing cos­tume effort and reward­ing it! I’m going to get on board with that. Hmmm, maybe I’ll take my $3 off Bulk Barn coupon and get some rockets.

  26. Diane456

    I usu­ally make up bags, I loved them as a kid. This year they will have mini play-doh, a hal­loween pen­cil (dol­lar stores), and a bag of chips. Try­ing to get away from the chocolate.

    One thing I do is have two bags for my son. One for peo­ple we know, the other for peo­ple we don’t know. We check every­thing but it’s nice to know some things you don’t have to worry about.

  27. Hilda

    Comic books are a great idea. Espe­cially with my boys birth­day soon after and would be great to hand out to the birth­day kids. I will call around

  28. SpiritMama

    We treat Hal­loween like it’s a national hol­i­day. We dec­o­rate our house every year — 2010 will be the year of spi­ders includ­ing a full 33″ ft glow-in-the dark web span­ning the front of the house. Par­ents have to often push the kids up our stairs past the strobe lights, fog machine, Black Sab­bath music, fly­ing ghosts, cack­ling skele­ton and half-dozen jack-o-laterns to get to col­lect treats from our front door. Our own kids have to be coaxed to go past our decor.

    In the past, we have given out glow bracelets, full-size choco­late bars and sugar-free gum, McDonald’s cer­tifi­cates for fries, ice cream or pop, full packs of tat­toos which I found on sale in the sum­mer, and Happy Meals toys that I col­lected through­out the year. We want to make it worth­while for the kids to go door-to-door in the Octo­ber evening chill. This year we will be giv­ing out Kool Aid.

    The par­ents and kids in our neigh­bour­hood really appre­ci­ate what we do. We can bearly wait until Octo­ber 31!

  29. Lucid

    Just curi­ous, but what age do you guys think is too old to be going trick or treat­ing? I know some of you said teens are okay, but does that still apply for older teens (17–19)?

  30. hogama

    LOVE, LOVE the comic book idea!

    I’ve done the mini play doh, and I saw some today. 20 for $6… i like to do the pen­cils, too. Kool Aid Jam­mers, cheezies, (good) choco­late, smar­ties, gum… I don’t get many kids here (maybe 6 or 7!), so I make up awe­some treat bags!! :) I love, Love, LOVE Hal­loween!!! :)

  31. 7mountains

    This year we are giv­ing out Del Monte drink­ing pouches (recently on sale at Zeller’s for $2/case, we bought 10 cases (10 in each case)) and we are giv­ing away bags of chips and cheezies. No sugar this year!!

  32. Kathleen

    I have been giv­ing out Hal­loween pen­cils for years. A few years ago I started hand­ing out Hal­loween col­or­ing sheets. The lit­tle ones really seems to enjoy these and even the oth­ers kids ask for them as well. It is nice to hand out a full size bar instead of three of the tiny bit sized ones. The kids are aways excited to see what cos­tume I’m in as it gives them ideas for the next year. If the par­ents are dressed up too, they get a choco­late bar as well. Haunt­ingly yours, Boo

  33. Minou

    I don’t much like the van-bound trick or treat­ing, either. What I don’t like is when the par­ent follows/drives their van load of kids around to trick or treat and are in dan­ger of run­ning other kids down in the process. It eems self­ish, not to men­tion dan­ger­ous. It looks as though the intent is to gather up as much candy as pos­si­ble in the short­est amount of time with mom or dad’s help. Vehi­cles should be parked dur­ing trick or treat­ing. The kids can walk! I’m not inclined to be overly gen­er­ous in those sit­u­a­tions, either.

    I think peo­ple enjoy hand­ing candy out to kids they know from the neigh­bour­hood, and why shouldn’t those kids get a lit­tle extra?

    The first year we lived in this house, we had 180 trick or treaters come to the door, and a lot seemed like they had been dri­ven to the area (lots of van traf­fic on the street) I’d love to be very gen­er­ous and cre­ative when giv­ing out treats, but when a per­son is buy­ing for num­bers like that, they can’t be! I always try to do some­thing spe­cial for the neigh­bour kids.

  34. Ferdo

    This year i am hand­ing out any­thing I have bought with a coupon I dont use. So kids get ready for Olay rib­bons body wash, Lax a day for the older teens,old Spice for the boys.

  36. pooh

    I give out boxes of crayons to the lit­tle ones. I pur­chased them in the states @20 cents a box of 24. The older ones are get­ting pens, note­books etc. all pur­chased for 10 cents each. We don’t get many kids…maybe 40

  37. Emily

    I’m not sure if I agree with the rank­ing cos­tumes idea. Lit­tle kids can’t help it if their par­ents can’t afford great cos­tumes nor can they help it if they or their par­ents aren’t cre­ative enough. It’s about being in the spirit of hallowe’en, that’s what mat­ters.
    Yes I agree show­ing up with a popped col­lar and say­ing you’re a jock is a bit lame, but I feel like only teens would be the ones doing that and per­haps the ‘rank­ing’ sug­ges­tion could apply there. But c’mon, don’t do that to a young child.

  38. worldgirl

    Silly Bandz! Along with a bag of a few other things like glow sticks (picked up for .25 last year after hal­loween), chips, and mini Almond Joys.

  39. Felicia Taylor

    Thanks Jim as I called the Sil­ver Snail and the Harry Tran­tula and they had never even heard of them, thanks again for the link. Thanks again for the great idea as well!

  40. Shannon

    Oh for sure, giv­ing out the crappy candy would only be a pas­sive aggres­sive hit at the lame teenagers with a back­pack full of candy who claim to be going as “a stu­dent”. I don’t have the guts to turn them down, but they may get a con­so­la­tion prize ;)
    I myself am very likely to be send­ing my kids out in half-assed cos­tumes, and it’s sure not their fault!

  41. Liz

    Where do you guys buy your glow sticks? I would love to give them out to the older kids this Halloween.

    Thank you!

  42. Tina

    TBS usu­ally have great prices on glow sticks and/or Dol­lar store. I usu­ally pick up glow sticks in the sum­mer when­ever I see them reduced.

    We give out spooky rings (spiders,skeletons,pumpkins) for the young­sters. Pen­cils with spooky erasers for older ones and Yes candy/chocolate bars for all. Last year after Hal­loween, Zellers had huge bags of rings,pencils,erasers for .25cents. The young ones love the rings.

    Love the idea of comic books, Thanks

  43. Zay

    We will give out candy and toys and the lit­tle ones always get extra since they are so cute! I usu­ally give out more than I should to every­one as I don’t want my hus­band eat­ing all the left­over :)

    Happy Hal­loween to all!

  44. twinmommy

    We have been in the same house for the past seven years and we have had 100+ kids each year. We give out an assort­ment of choco­late bars and can­dies that we stuff into lit­tle treat bags. Each year we get one kid who says, “Wow! They’re giv­ing out a WHOLE bag of candy!” It’s always cute to hear. This year we’re tak­ing our kids out for the first time, so it will be extra spe­cial. Fin­gers crossed for good weather!

  45. Linda

    @ Jim…the comic store here in Saska­toon, SK is also sell­ing comic bun­dles
    25 for $6.00 I love love love this idea
    Archie, Bones, Toys­tory, Smurfs, Hot­stuff and Toys in the base­ment
    so cool. I m pick­ing up some today!

  46. Hedy Dunshee

    You can make but­ter­milk in a jif! Just add 1 1/2 Tsp of Lemon Juice to your 1/2 Cup milk and let it sit for 10 min­utes and you have buttermilk!

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