I think, it's once a year... Let them eat CANDY!

Agreed - it's fun to get candy. One year we did Twinkies, and we were the hit of the neighborhood.

We do give out special non-candy treats for best costumes though...and those came from Oriental Trading Co. You can find all kinds of neat things there.

I agree let them eat candy, although I love some of these suggestions. I'm also thinking of re-gifting some of our Micky D toys (with candy) that my DD didn't want, but I didn't have the heart to just throw away.

Some of these suggestions are good, although I bet most kids would still prefer a fun-size Snickers to an eraser. If you give a non-food item, it's got to be both awesome and season-appropriate (for kids in most of the US, bubbles and sidewalk chalk are not useful items to receive in late October).

I don't have any problem with handing out candy. The childhood obesity epidemic is about day-to-day lifestyle... it's not about Halloween. Kids need to be eating healthfully on a regular basis, and parents should settle down and let them enjoy special occasions like Halloween.

I'm all for handing out candy. Then I can eat all the leftover Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

For heavens sake, give candy. Don't be that house.

I don't have a problem giving out candy. But I think it's kinda fun to receive another sort of prize like a cool bouncy ball or play-do. Costco also had miniature card games available with the halloween treats: tiny go-fish, old maid and snap games with disney characters. I steer clear of homemade treats for trick-or treating.

I had a less demanding sweet tooth, and so I was the weird kid that enjoyed receiving coins and non-food stuff a little bit better than Fun Size bars.

These are pricier than candy, but I'm considering them for this year; we don't get many trick-or-treaters on our block, so I could probably get away with one bag:

Wikki Stix Trick or Treat Paks

A good alternative to being "that house" is to have two bowls and letting the kids choose from one. We grew up with a couple of those, and I actually always enjoyed choosing.

Although candy is normally a no-no around our house, Halloween is an exception. We agree with pp that it's a once-a-year treat. But the harder part is WHICH candy to select. My husband has to buy it because I like "weird" candy (or so I'm told).

I think all the ideas are great for party favors, school contests, etc when candy is often given. That more frequent candy can really add up for little ones.

For actual neighborhood door to door trick or treating: I vote candy! (And this is coming from the mother of a nut allergic child. We have to work around that issue, but it is do-able.)
It's only once a year, and I have such fond memories of it as a child.

I was just going to suggest "weird" candy! We are sensitive to sugar around here and I have a tense relationship with the ingredients in candies these days. To avoid the food coloring, modified fats, crazy weird science sugar chains, and gelatin that you get in the checkout aisle, I'm going to go for "charm 'em with uniqueness technique". There are lots of options online (honey candies, maple candies) and tons in global foods stores or local candy boutiques.

Pricier, but we have a small crowd. Hopefully everyone will be happy!

I also vote candy. Some of these suggestions will only be appreciated by very little kids. I don't think an 8 year old would be thrilled to receive bubbles, for example. Also, as you suggested, the little plastic trinkets that could be given as an alternative to candy are bad for the environment. Give the kids candy- let their parents regulate how much of it they are allowed to eat. Where I live, there are programs for kids to send their candy to soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan, as well as programs run by dentists where kids can trade candy for cash. Parents who are concerned about too much candy can encourage their kids to particpate in one of these programs. Or they can do as I do and eat the child's candy when she is not looking . . .

The best trick-or-treating house in my neighborhood growing up gave out cans of soda. I'm not sure how I feel about that now (with a child of my own)... but we always made sure to go to that house first, before they ran out!!

I unloaded a bunch of unused wedding bubbles at Halloween (attach a holiday sticker and you're good!), and everyone loved them, even the teenagers, which surprised me. I've done stickers before, too. And yes, those years I did have a bowl of candy and let kids pick one item from each. Last year we gave out coupons for ice cream at a local fast food chain. They were very cheap, our money went to charity, and kids got excited about the 'big' treat. And we always have snack packs of goldfish on hand for the little trick-or-treaters!

Usually I do candy, but one year we did hand out mini glowsticks to kids and they were a big hit. This was in a neighborhood with mostly older kids anyway.

I agree - candy is cheapest, part of the fun, and they're going to get tons anyway, so it doesn't REALLY matter what I give.

That said - I thought the glow stick idea was kind of cool. At our JoAnn's, they have tubes of 15 glow bracelets for a dollar. So if you give one per kids, it should go pretty far.

per kid, not kids. And I probably should have written fifteen. And now I'm starting sentences with and, so I'll stop now! :-)

we do two bowls one with candy and one with things like pencils and stickers..I have found that the kids get so much candy from the other houses that they always take the pencils and stickers at ours!

oh and I think this year we will do the organic lollipops at the co-op..for the "candy" option.

Last year we did dollar bills. That sounds weird, but we only get about 10-15 kids, and they seemed to enjoy it. Plus, then we don't have all that leftover candy to contend with.

Y'all, I've done a big bowl with crayons (bought at back to school time for a nickel per box) AND candy, and the kids totally took the crayons. Maaaybe 3 kids did candy, including the bigger kids.

We hand out Otter Pops. Nice change from candy, but still a HUGE hit. Super cheap too!

growing up as a fat kid the idea that its only once a year isnt flying here! there is a holiday every month almost. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, (jan was my birthda) Valentines day, St Patties, Easter, Mothers day, Fourth of July....its candy sugar high every kids dream! So yeah a toy is better in my eyes! They make wooden spin tops. If you only have a fifteen kids shelling out a couple of bucks for each isnt a big deal. We spend about thirty-fifty dollars in candy...we have huge crowds though.

I absolutely LOVED getting non-candy things. I loved getting stuff like Doritos (gross, I know, but not back then), but I also really loved getting stickers, pencils, spider rings, etc. I'm honestly surprised that people think kids don't like them. When you have a massive pillowcase of candy, isn't it more fun to have a few special other things in there?

Some of the ideas are cute... kind of. Don't do the erasers. (so lame!) I remember a house like that and I doubt it's gotten cooler since then. The mini glow sticks is a good idea but I'm with the majority here and just say give 'em candy! I have the mosts wonderful memories of my big brother and I dumping out pillowcases of candy out on the floor after each Halloween night and trading candy. 3 Almond Joys equaled one Reeses... it's was probably how we learned to negotiate and compromise. Ah, good times!

I think we're going to do a mix of interesting candies and glow sticks. I'm hoping to find some hotlix (the candy with the bugs inside) to put in our bowl of treats. My favorite Halloween candy used to be the Wonka Xploder bars (chocolate with poprocks inside), but they stopped making them :(

Mini Play-dough containers were a hit with my kids last year.

We do the mini bags of pretzels or goldfish crackers.

CANDY! Most parents are so hyper strict about sugar these days, so let the kiddos have a little fun and sugar!!! I don't let my boys have a lot of sugar at all on a daily basis, so it makes these holidays SO MUCH FUN when they can have junk!!! It won't kill them. :P

Two years ago Halloween night was nice and warm, so my parents, husband and I all dressed up as pirates and lit a fire in the fire pit in the front yard. My mom has an old trunk as a decoration in her garden, and she went through the house and gathered up old kid's meal toys and markers and stuff and put them in the trunk. Then she had a wooden ornately carved jewelry box that she put "fun-size" candy bars in. When the kids would come up, we would say "Arr! Ye have a choice! Pick from the treasure chest (trunk) or the booty box (jewelry box). " Most times the younger kids would go first and choose the treasure chest, then the older kids would get wise and pick from the booty box. It was great fun! We wanted to do it the next year, but it was too cold.

The house that I loved when we trick or treated was the house with the goldfish! I mean the real live, swimming in a bag goldfish.....
This year we are in a new town and doing our first halloween in a house..so we are doing candy and non-candy stuff to get in good with the neighbor kids...

I love the idea of glow toys! Not necessarily environment friendly, but on a night when kids are walking around in the dark = awesome. I think the bracelets/necklaces/etc. would look great tucked into a bowl of candy so you can see it glowing (and see how many kids choose the glow toys).

I also think that the crayons bought on the cheap are great - thx TexanHolly. I was an art kid AND a total sugar junkie (both terms still apply to me as an adult) and a box of brand new crayons would have probably won out.

As a kid I lived in the country, so the area moms would organize a party for all the kids, and we'd have a treasure hunt - running around to all the houses involved. The only thing that was handed out at each house was the next clue. The hunt ended at the same house it began, and since everyone involved was a trusted party, many of the treats were homemade.

What about little single-serve snack packs of Oreos or other cookies or crackers? Still sweet, but a little less sugar than candy.

We've done play-doh and candy for the last couple of years. Play-doh has been a HUGE hit!

We get so few kids on our steep hill I'm kind of loving the dollar bill idea!

I've been thinking more about this... and what about Silly Bands? They are cheap and popular.