Teal Pumpkin Project – Allergy Friendly Halloween Gifts

Hi friends! So last year, I began researching ideas for alternative Halloween gifts.  Why?  Let me be clear when I say I am 100% all for the tradition of giving kids candy on Halloween.  What I don’t like is trying to figure out how much to buy so that there isn’t a never-ending supply in my house after this fun little tradition is done with.

I’m all for having treats, but when it comes to the holidays, I try to “save up” for the treats that matter.  Snickers are available year around, so I don’t want a never-ending stash at my house at the start of the holidays when once a year treats are plentiful like cranberry bliss bars.

So, last year I started researching some alternatives, and that’s when I found out about the teal pumpkin project. That’s when my decision to provide candy alternatives at our house became set in stone.  I realized that Halloween must be a literal living nightmare for so many parents out there whose children have food allergies.

We bought a sign similar to this one which notifies parents that we have allergy friendly (nonfood) options at our house.

Look, we still buy candy HOWEVER we don’t overbuy because we know we always have the allergy-friendly toys as well.  So we don’t end up with a ton leftover, win for us, and I feel like it’s a good thing to provide alternatives to kids with food allergies.

Also, if you happen to see a child carrying a teal pumpkin pale or wearing teal bracelets, you can safely assume that child has significant food allergies.   

So, what to get them? Last year I got kind of a lame set off Amazon.  Trouble is the toys are a bit more expensive than candy, but the benefit is if you don’t’ use them all you just stash them away next to the fall decoration/Christmas stuff next year.  So this year, I’ve done a bit more research on better Halloween door gifts.  Here are my top picks:

Glow In the Dark Sets

Personally, as a kid, I loved anything glow in the dark.  I’m thinking about getting this set of 285 pieces of glow in the dark wearable pieces. 

Bouncy Balls

Mr. Hungry and I bowl agree that we LOVED bouncy balls as kids.  So this set of 72 bouncy balls looks pretty affordable and legit.

Or, even 72 bouncy balls

Toy Cars

Mr. Hungry wasn’t entirely on board with the idea of alternative gifts until this year.  His exact words were “Fine, then give out good toys then, like bulk hot wheels or something.”  Great idea!  I found this set of 100 cars for the same prices as 100 pieces of candy!  I honestly think my nephew would choose a toy car over a piece of candy any day!

Play-Doh Minis

I loved play-doh as a kid, apparently, I still love it because I begged my friend’s kids I watched a few weeks back to play with their play-doh so I could play.  Mr. Hungry was not team play-doh so who knows.  But, I think I would have been excited to get play-doh on Halloween! a teal pumpkin pale

Invisible Ink Pens

Saw these invisible ink pens on a TV show this weekend and thought it would be fun too!  It’s kind of on the higher price side for a bulk gift, so it depends on how many kids you have coming to your door!

I don’t anticipate handing out candy or anything else this year, but I don’t know. I’ll probably put an allergy-friendly sign with a free for all bowl of candy and toys.

Maybe I’ll hand it out, but do I want the doorbell to ring 1 billion times while we wrangle the dog and risk waking a newborn? I hear they sleep like rocks when they do sleep, so I don’t know! If you’ve had a baby around Halloween, I’d love to hear what you did!  

Questions of the day:

Do you have a child with food allergies? 

Do you hand out candy?