Latest revision as of 23:34, 20 October 2021

Trick or Treating during Halloween season is one of the most popular traditions today, and can be a lot of fun for children and adults (who hand out the candy) alike. The relevance to veganism is typically the treats, many of which are not vegan due to animal products such as milk and gelatin, and sometimes even egg or beef (beef jerky handed out by some homes).

For Adults

It's culturally inappropriate for those out of primary school or over the age of 18 to trick or treat except for chaperoning their children/younger siblings/nieces or nephews (even in these cases, adults do not carry their own bags or receive candy).

The role of adults in trick or treating is to distribute candy from their homes (or sometimes apartments for participating complexes with many children).

Giving out candy

While vegans do not consume animal products, some may believe vegans would have no problem giving out non-vegan candy for others; however, the issue for ethical veganism is in purchasing those candies and fueling the animal agriculture industry, not so much in the consumption itself (see freeganism).

Sourpatch Kids are one of the most popular candies with kids, and among the most widely available

Fortunately, there are quite a few common options for vegan candies to choose from (such as sourpatch kids) and a large number of options that can be purchased online when it comes to filling your bowls with vegan candy for trick or treaters.
For vegan candies, check the vegan candies page.

Don't be the unpopular house that gives out apples (or worse yet toothbrushes); while healthier and more tooth friendly, that's not what trick or treaters want and you can be seen as a wet blanket, and if others in the neighborhood know you're vegan it could give them a bad impression of veganism as ruining Halloween.

If you do not feel comfortable giving out candy of any kind, there are two options:

1. Keep your porch lights off, which is a signal that there is no candy at this house, and and opting out of Halloween<be>

2. Offering "trinkets" instead, which are age appropriate toys for kids who visit your house. This can be challenging to do exclusively (see below).

3. Offer some snack-related alternatives to Candy, such as Clif or Nugo bars (which, in the case of the latter, are quite similar to KitKat bars (and healthier!)). Just don't get anything that's in a bag like chips or pretzels, as they'll likely get crushed under other candies. Also make sure to tell the parents/chaperone that these bars may contain peanuts and other allergens.

4. If you have access, consider giving semi-rare coins (if you have enough). Don't give out nickles and dimes, rather if you have, give out coins that aren't often found, such as U.S. Presidential Dollar Coins.

Giving out Trinkets

The Teal pumpkin is a sign that a house offers non-food treats & often allergen friendly candy (which usually means milk-free options)

The teal pumpkin advertises that your house has non-food options. This movement has its roots in helping children with allergies enjoy the holidays, but it's also great for vegans who may not know what candy to give out as well as vegan kids, and very health conscious people who may feel hypocritical for giving out candy (some dentists feel uncomfortable with this).

Most grocery/superstore chains in North America have Halloween party favor style toys which may be suitable for handouts, but depending on the age range of children who visit your home these may not be appealing. Young children are usually the easiest to shop for here because they'll get excited about cheap plastic pumpkin rings and sticky plastic gel zombies that can be thrown on a wall.

Sticker sheets: these depend on the stickers, most are only suitable for younger children while pre-teens and teenagers will be disinterested. Less cute stickers, glowing stickers, etc. may appeal more to pre-teens, but teens are less likely to put stickers on their things (though not unheard of).

Glow bracelets: An outlier that appeals to all ages of trick or treaters up to preteen, and some teen girls. Teen boys are usually unimpressed.

Jewelry: Halloween themed earrings and bracelets may be available locally, although in order to appeal to teens and preteens plastic options may not be suitable. Halloween styled pendants can be purchased online and assembled with strings and beads or chains to make relatively cheap ($2-$3 each) bracelets and necklaces that will appeal more to the teen and preteen girl demographic. The male teen and preteen demographic is rarely interested in jewelry, with the exception of some male teens which may view them as gifts for girls.

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Trick-or-treating for vegan kids

In an ideal world your vegan kids wouldn't eat any candy other than fully vegan candies, however to put it into perspective, trace animal products in candies do not make much of a difference both because they're smaller ingredients and usually byproducts and because they're only consumed a few times a year.

Forbidding children from going trick-or-treating to not risk them eat non-vegan candy may cause more harm than good.

First of all, the health difference between vegan and non-vegan candies is pretty much null--both of them are really bad, and especially in terms of cavities they should be avoided.
However, it'll probably be fine to go all out eating sweets a few days a year, especially during such a wide-spread tradition like Halloween, where a child would probably be very unhappy to not be able to participate with friends and/or community to go trick-or-treating, when simply making sure for them to brush their teeth after eating the candies would wipe away the concerns.

Secondly, some vegan parents may prevent their kids to go trick-or-treating for ethical reasons, trying to prevent the consumption of animal products.
Non-vegan candies that are already bought and set aside for Halloween are unlikely to prompt more buying by taking a part of them, as the leftovers remaining after trick-or-treating season would be given away, thrown away, or be eaten occasionally for the purpose of not wasting them, regardless. So, in a sense, these candies are pretty much Freegan.

Thirdly, it might give a bad impression to people that know your family is vegan, easily falling in the stereotype of 'extremist vegans', reinforcing the idea that vegans have cult-like behavior, and possibly pushing the other kids to be more distant from yours.
When taking into consideration the fact that trace animal products do almost no harm, and that taking candies during trick-or-treating season likely doesn't affect the already-high candy demand significantly, it's apparent that this would likely be counterproductive.
A similar situation can be seen with Jehova's Witnesses, that consider Halloween a pagan festivity and forbid their kids from trick-or-treating. And while veganism isn't a religion, it's very easy for people to see unreasonable restrictions for ethical reasons to be the same as unreasonable restrictions for religious reasons.

Instead, here is what you can do.

A practice that is called 'Switch Witch' consists of being a 'witch' that, similarly to Santa Claus, visits your child at night, and changes the candies for something else, but better. This could include toys, or vegan candies--but it's important to make sure that the exchange is in favor of your child, giving them a higher value/quantities of candies, to not create unnecessary resentment. It would be important to consider your child's favorite candies when doing this--for example, chocolate is usually coveted, and for him/her chocolate bars might only be worth having them switched for an equal or higher amount of vegan good-tasting chocolate bars.
The non-vegan candies could be re-distributed to others asking for candies, or be given for free at your work to colleagues--thus filling in the offer in the non-vegan candy market that was previously taken, effectively making up for the little harm that could have been done.

Similarly to this idea, another option would be to offer your child his favorite candy replacement for every candy he would bring home.
For example, the child could be offered to have his or her favorite vegan, tasty, and yummy chocolate bar for every X amount of candies he brings home (making sure that it's not unfair). This would incentivize your child to participate in the activity without holding back/feeling bad, and to then be able to re-distribute the non-vegan candies in the same night, without having to wait for a good enough moment to be the Switch Witch--at which point the candies might not be able to be given away to other kids as easily. On top of that, your child wouldn't possibly hold any resentment against you, not having to trick him to change the candies without his knowing.

Candies with Palm Oil

Aside from the obvious concerns, Palm Oil is a common ingredient in many candies. Our general advice on this is similar to the advice of typical non-vegan candies, and being concerned about Palm Oil would probably give an even worse impression of Vegans, which will do much more harm than good for the environment (and of course, the animals).