For those of you with vegan children, what do you do on Halloween? Is trick or treating just out of the question?

TP'ing isn't against veganism :D

I think she means:

Do you allow your children to accept (or eat) non-vegan candy.

I don't have kids, but would not allow them to eat non-vegan candy (I think)

Ha ha Max Power! Good one.

vegan 1...it's just that trick or treating is so fun. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I wouldn't want my kids to feel left out and at the same time I have no idea what would be a good way to solve the problem of non-vegan candy. ????

Don't have kids, either, but I like to think about this stuff.
I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. If it were something like whole hunks of cheese or beef jerky, and the kids were over a certain age, I'd leave it up to them. If they were too young to understand the idea of veg*nism, and where this stuff comes from, I would take away only stuff like I mentioned above. But I would make sure the candy I bought and gave out was vegan.

Uh... When is Halloween over there? Cause here it's like 7 months away. :confused:

I don't trust anybody in the city...I take "G" to the local mall so he can see other tricksters and pick up a few pieces of candy from store associates. Devious, tricky little being that I am, I lure my wife into Victoria's Secret, cast a spell on her, and get to watch my own little strip show.

I pass out gift certificates, that way the parent/child can feel safe I'm not handing out tainted goods, and it allows them to purchase a good on their own discretion.

I went trick'or'beering a few times in college. Good times, good times. :tame:

We still do the neighbor thing for trick or treat. I figure that we are mostly likely the crazy-ass people that the other neighbors avoid. :D

Ditto what Thalia said.

Why not let your kids T&T and then ask them to donate their non-vegan candy to a shelter for women and children or a retirement home forthe elderly This would teach many good values and lessons about being vegan and giving to their community.

Eh, just let the kids T&T and tell them not to eat the candies while doing T&T. When they come home from T&T, separate the veg candies from the non-veg candies and give the veg candies to the kids.

If that is too much work for you, tell them you'll take them to their favorite place in exchange for all the candies and their promise not to eat the candies. After T&T, dump the candies and take them to their favorite place, wherever it is.

Hey, there are plenty of ways to do it.

yes. i have two kids, one five (so he's been a trick or treater for a few years now) and the other one will be two in august.

the five year old has plenty of non-vegan friends, so what we do is take him out trick-or-treating, and then trade all the non-vegan candies (which mostly consist of chocolates) for vegan ones from his friends' bags.

sure, he ends up with a lot of potato chips and suckers, but he doesn't seem to mind.

if there's ever a year where there's no one to trade with, i'll buy some extra candy and trade 'em with the kids myself. then i'll just foist the non-vegan stuff on my friends. :)

there's actually been a movement to ditch the candy in a lot of places and they give out cheesy dollar-store type toys now....halloween-themed pencils, erasers, stickers, that kind of thing. my kid really likes those treats too!

I personally loved all the stuff we got at Halloween as kids. I hated getting stuff like apples and toys.

Because the kids generally look forward to Halloween as a really fun time, it makes me feel good to be someone who hands them out stuff they want, to see them smile and say thanks when we dump stuff in their bags.

Worst Halloween candy I can remember ever were those rectangular type chewy candy (kinda like taffee) with the yellow and orange halloween wrapper. I used to hate that stuff. My favorite were always bags of chips and "rockets".... oh yeah... I remember this one place used to hand out Pez all the time... those guys rocked :)

is Pez vegan? i've never checked, and i bet my kid would like it!

I have no idea if Pez is vegan. Sorry.

Robert - I agree, those were the worst! :spew:

I think my favorite at the time was probably little Nestle Crunch bars.

We took our daughter (3) trick or treating. We let her keep the vegan candy and took away the non-vegan ones and gave them to my parents who were with me.

We have a list of vegan candy at http://www.vegfamily.com/lists/vegan-candy.htm

What I would do is gather up some of those vegan candies and slip them into your kids' bag when they get home, or swap them out.

The fun of trick or treating is going door to door dressed in costume.

Nowadays, people around here don't go trick-or-treating to stranger's houses anyway. So, I guess you can plan to only go to friends' houses and arm your friends with vegan candy for your little trick-or-treater.

Erin, that is so cool. WOW. I'm definately doing that (when I have kids). LOL. Thanks for the link; I've added it to my favorites. :)

thanks for the list Erin, very helpful, I can now use vending mashines again :)

As someone who never went Trick or Treating as a kid, I don't think it's harmful to kids to expect them not to T&T. My family always had some alternate activity--a harvest party at church, preparing a basket of food to take to someone less fortunate, etc. The neighbors knew we didn't T&T ourselves, but we would give out semi-healthy goodies to the kids who came to our door. The moms of those kids would usually send some candy with their kids to give to us.

Sure, it may be fun for kids to T&T, but I think there are ways to pull out the fun parts and use those in ways that aren't potentially objectionable.

I haven't read all of the responses, but what we do is throw a party. We have several "couples" friends that have kids around the same ages as our own.

We have games and I make bags with little toys and candy in them and hand them out. We usually show some sort of movie (last year it was "Snow White" ... hey, it's scary to a kid! - - this year it was "Monster's, Inc.") and while the kids go through their bags, they also kind of watch the movie. This gives the adults more time to visit, too.

Here are pictures and a menu: http://www.moondansyr.com/Halloween02.htm
not everything was vegan, but everything was at least vegetarian.

Our son is 3 and we usually bring him to friend's house's we've supplied ahead of time with vegan candies. As he's getting older we'll probably have parties ( our parties are the best! ).

hi i dont mean to be the devils advocate but dont you think it should be your childs choice to go veg*n i mean i would like my children to be vegan but i will not force it upon them one of my children already shows a dislike for meat he wont touch it he is only 1 1/2 he is my little tofu muncher but he loves cheese. My other 2 children love meat they are 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 although i have tried vegitarian thing on them they dont seem to like it i figure when they get older they will make the decision on their own.

The reason that my kids will be raised vegan is because I want them to be healthy. As soon as they are old enough to understand where meat and dairy comes from, then it will be free for them to make that choice. I don't want them to feel forced into eating a certain way...I want them to WANT to be that way. I truly feel that children will not want to eat meat once they know what it really is. Especially since we will be living with animals...they would be able to understand the connection between a dog and a cow for example. Actually, I think it would be kind of neat to take them to a farm sanctuary so they can see the cows, pigs, chickens..etc. for themselves. Basically, the way I stand is that if my kids DO end up wanting to eat meat or dairy...I won't make it for them and I won't give them the money to buy it because it would make me feel really uncomfortable.