Come on guys, it's Halloween. You can be health-conscious for the rest of the holidays, but Oct. 31 is a day that you should try as hard as you can to get diabetes. I know that the ingredients and where the come from are incredibly damaging, but can't you cheat one night of the year? How about this--just buy from a local candymaker?

Also, giving out the healthy fare may make the neighborhood kids play the "trick" card.

I guess there's always organic fair-trade dark chocolate.

Give out fresh fruit! (apples at this time of year, of course).

Well, organic apples are out of the question--I get 100 kids every year. That's way too expensive. I was thinking chocolate/yogurt covered raisins, but I need them pre-packaged (I know, sinful). Any tips?

check out http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc.mhtml?i=92&s=candy

they have a great list of "good" candies for halloween

I'd probably take a look at the "lunch box" aisle and look for little bags of nuts or pretzels.

As for giving out things like apples, please keep in mind that many parents won't let their kids eat them. Unless they know you, it's a pretty common rule that kids can only eat wrapped items that haven't been tanpered with. So it'd be great for a halloween party, but probably not for handing out at the door.

Kids knocking at yr door? Waht a great educational opportunity. Only give nice treats to the kids with costumes they made themselves from recycled materials. I think they'd be disappointed with heatlh food 'treats' though - they'd think that's a trick!

What if instead of handing out candy, for every child that shows up at your door you make a twenty five or fifty cent contribution to the child victims of Katrina and soon to be victims of Rita. 100 kids at fifty cents each is $50 to a good cause instead of to cavities. I know most kids won't appreciate this....hm...how could we make that fun for them?

Everyone deserves chocolate once in a while -- Fair trade chocolate. Global Exchange is finally offering some specially wrapped for halloween. Not terribly cheap, but it's slave-labor free --

How about any treehuggerish art supplies like crayons, markers, or stickers?

We're letting kids have a handful of the spare change we've collected over the year. I have a bowl with at least $50. It'll probably be spent on candy but at least it'll feed their piggy bank first.

newman's own organics does have candy machine-ready packages. Their newman-os, fignewmans and peanut butter cups come in threes. However, they may be too spendy for Halloween treats. They are the perfect size to share though and are a great thing for taking to the movies.

Another idea to give to kids that is not sugary is your own directions to make something crafty, complete with the items needed to pull it off.

how about fruit leathers? there are organic versions which you can even buy in bulk!

There's a large novelty shop near my house, so I was thinking of handing out something fun like silly putty or mood rings.