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This post is full of ideas for putting on a healthy version of a Halloween Trunk or Treat with super fun carnival style activities that your kids will love!

Each year, my sweet friend, Mary, puts together a healthy trunk or treat with fun and simple carnival-style activities.

She got a little tired of all the sugar-laden junk food that her kids get offered every year at Halloween and decided to do something about it.

And, a lot of people obviously feel the same way because we have a large group come together for a fun healthy trunk or treat every year, and the people who attend have thought of such fun and simple ideas to do for their carnival activity.

The cool thing is, all Mary has to do is send out an email with the information including the date, the time, and what to do, and what to bring. She asks people to respond with how many children will be coming, then she totals the number and lets everyone know how many treats/prizes to bring.

All the people who participate do the work of creating their own simple carnival activity to do at the back of their car and bring their own healthy treats or fun prizes.

Here’s how to do it-

A few weeks before Halloween, she sends out an email to friends that looks like this: (she also posts in local social media groups)

It’s that time of year again! Halloween is coming upon us soon. If you want a different choice please come and join us at the Healthy Trunk or Treat! Guidelines are below. Kids from 1-18 are invited. This is our 10th year doing this and it has been a great success! We usually have over 100 kids join us.

• October 31st at 4:15-5:15. Please come and set up at 4:00 and be ready to start right at 4:15. Don’t be late or some people may run out of goodies before you make it.
• The park we will be meeting at is (address). Please park at the end of the parking lot so we can fit more cars as they arrive.
• Each family will give out healthier treats, fruit, and toys.
• This will be like a fair. Each car should plan a carnival type game for the kids to play and then give them the treat/toy afterward.

Some ideas:
– little raisin boxes, honey caramel popcorn balls , honey caramels, apples, regular popcorn with real butter, homemade cookies (made with honey, rapadura or sucanut (whole unprocessed sugar), real maple syrup, whole grains, etc), toys, fruit, dried fruit, coconut balls, granola, homemade date bars, 100% fruit leather, panda bear licorice, fruit, etc. A few years ago someone handed out warm apple cider drinks (100% juice). The kids really have a lot of fun!!

Also, some of the kids have milk, egg, nut, and gluten allergies so if you make a treat please bring a recipe (so people know what’s in it and so we can have the recipe if we like the treat) and bring some toys or fruit to give out to them as another option. SO everyone should have a toy or fruit option along with your other stuff you are giving out.

DO’s:

• whole foods only
• whole grains
• honey, rapadura, or sucanut
• real maple syrup
• non-hydrogenated coconut oil
• olive oil
• real butter

DONT’S:

• No refined sugars or any other processed sweeteners or man made sweeteners (like high fructose corn syrup, aspartame etc)
• No margarine or other hydrogenated oils
• No white flours
• No processed stuff

Please RSVP if you plan on coming and tell me how many kids you’re bringing. I’ll email everyone back to tell them how many treat/prizes they should come up with a few days before the event. Thanks! Can’t wait to see you there!

Related Post: How Many Rubber Bands Does it Take to Explode a Pumpkin?

Super fun and simple carnival-style activities

Every year it’s so fun to walk around and see what fun and simple carnival-style activities people come up with.

Here’s a photo sampling of some of the activities that we’ve had:

Each year my kids and I run a super fun fishing booth. For years I wanted to have a fishing booth, so finally one year I decided to bite the bullet and actually make one. I’m so glad I did!

I figured out the size I wanted and how to construct it, and once I got it figured out it was a breeze to make.

AND, kids LOVE it! We’ve used it for years now and we always have a long line of kids waiting to go fishing.

I wish I had instructions of how to make a fishing booth back when I made mine, so I figured someone else might appreciate that, too.

So I made up a free printable with instructions and pictures to show you how to make your own PVC pipe fishing booth.

This is one of my favorite Hobbits being the fish inside the fishing booth. 🙂

We just get inexpensive little toys at Walmart and make sure that they can be hooked onto the clothespin on the fishing rod which is a 4′ long dowel. Toys like fun pencils, plastic bracelets, plastic spiders or snakes, sheets of stickers, spinning tops, etc.

Another activity was simply a hopscotch drawn on the parking lot.

This one was a fun little coin toss.

This lady cut up some fun felt shapes for kids to make a jack-o-lantern face.

This was pretty clever – bowling for goblins. She simply drew some ghoulish faces on rolls of toilet paper, and used a very round, small pumpkin for the bowling ball.

Such fun drawings!

Got a nerf gun around the house? Shoot down some targets and earn a treat!

Something similar here, just shoot down some stacked Solo cups.

Kids got to practice their aim with tossing bean bags into Halloween buckets. Each bucket had a different number taped to the inside of it, and they corresponded to a numbered basket with prizes in it.

Ok, talk about simple. Kids had to put a balloon between their knees and walk to the curb and back to win a prize.

Pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern anyone?

Here’s a cute close up of the poster drawing of the jack-o-lantern.

The gal who organizes this each year does a fun Halloween Bingo that the kids love.

Kids LOVE our healthy trunk or treat! One little girl said, “This is so fun! I love the games! I wish I could do each one three times!”

And the parents LOVE it as well! It’s simple to do, the kids have a ton of fun, they get some cool treats and prizes, and they don’t bounce off the walls when they get home!

Do you participate in any type of fun trunk or treat for Halloween?

Or do you do some kind of healthier version of Halloween? 

I’d love to hear about it!

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