*

*

I love Hallowe’en, and as a kid, it was a highlight.  My parents always dressed up, and embraced the whole shebang.  We trick-or-treated and lit fireworks, and stayed up late and everything.

 *

Candy, sweets and refined sugar aren’t part of my kids daily lives, at all.  But I do let it go on Hallowe’en, while also making sure there are health(ier) alternatives available.

 *

We overwhelmingly eat a diet made up of grass-fed pastured meats, vegetables, and some fruits.  I don’t bake, as a general rule.  Not only do I strongly believe in the benefits of removing grains from the diet, I also choose to spend my time doing things other than mixing, measuring, and cleaning up after kitchen projects.   On the rare occasion that I do add any sweetener to our day-to-day foods, my preference is usually unpasteurized honey, because it is a whole food, and does contain some micronutrients as well as live enzymes, at the very least.

 *

Another adequate sugar-alternative when I go all-out (birthday cakes, hallowe’en), is organic coconut palm sugar.  Unlike white refined sugar, coconut palm sugar is relatively low on the glycemic index, which means that it is absorbed into the bloodstream at a slower rate than other foods (table sugar) and will cause a lesser spike in blood sugar than foods higher on the index (like high fructose corn syrup and Agave syrup which is not, actually, healthy at all).

 *

Horus and Treva (and Felix, although he is still really little and won’t be partaking in any candy consumption–we’ll have bananas and dried apples on hand for him) will definitely go trick-or-treating.  On Hallowe’en I let go, and accept that they’ll be consuming some really horrendous crap.  Only for one night though.  The kids understand that the next morning, all the junk will have magically disappeared.

 *

But I do make a point of having some delicious homemade treats on hand too, to fill them up, and to help my kids differentiate between what’s real and made with love, and the junk.  I’ll be making Caramel Apples and Chocolate clusters (with coconut, walnuts and almonds made with coconut palm sugar-sweetened organic chocolate) which I’m pretty sure will draw their attention.

*

When I was little, the focus of Hallowe’en was never the candy.  My parents did a great job of showcasing the mystery, and the Pagan roots of the festival, and the magical strangeness and reversals of the night.  Hallowe’en is an opportunity for legitimate hooliganism, and we hooted and hollered and owned the streets.  Buying a pre-made costume was never even remotely an option, and every year my brother and sister and I raided Mum’s closets that were replete with clothes belonging to Grandma Stacey from the 40s and 50s, and Mum’s 60s and 70s treasures, and *plenty* of 80s garb.  Things have changed (oh well), and the synthetic superhero unitards are everywhere.  Horus got his hands on a spiderman suit and has been wearing it obsessively for weeks already.  Lee and I had to carefully peel it from his sleeping body, in order to squirrel it away somewhere, as it is stained and disgusting and pretty much ripped to shreds.  I negotiated with him though, and I’m picking up a used one from someone in town, and he has come to terms.

 *

One aspect of Hallowe’en that does genuinely worry me, is (believe it or not) makeup and the toxic industrial junk available at dollar stores and supermarkets.  It has been discovered that most of this (despite its non-toxic labelling) contains poisons like lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and antimony, chlorine and chromium.  This is a complete deal-breaker for me, there is no way my kids will be even potentially exposed to any of this.  I do have two kids who are obsessed with dressing up, and who *can’t wait* to slather their faces with maquillage.  So in my search for alternatives, I came across several recipes for white face makeup (to which can be added colorants–beet juice, berries, or food dyes–although these can be pretty toxic too, so look for dyes from natural sources) which I have played around with.  For black we will be using ash from our campfires.  Here are some of the recipes I’m working with this year, heavily modified from various internet sources, so I’m calling them my own…!

 *

Have fun!

 *

 *

 White Makeup Recipe

*

3/4 cup organic coconut palm sugar

1 cup full-fat coconut milk

pinch of sea salt

apples

sticks from outside

 *

chopped nuts, shredded coconut, etc.

*

Combine the coconut sugar, coconut milk and sea salt in a sauce pan and heat until boiling, then allow to boil for about 2 minutes or until the caramel thickens.  Let it cool a little bit, and then dunk the apples, and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  then dip in a bowl of chopped nuts or whatever you have on hand as garnish.  Cool in the refrigerator.

*

You might want to google other similar recipes for better instructions, I really can’t guarantee that these will work, I’m notorious for my stubborn refusal to follow recipes properly, etc.  xo