BlogOWeen Day 3: The Teal Pumpkin Project

I heard about the Teal Pumpkin Project during quarantine, and I think it’s fantastic! If you’re not in the loop on the Teal Pumpkin Project, you can check out the details here, but simply, it creates an inclusive trick-or-treat experience for kids with food allergies or on special diets. As someone who now has food allergies, I know how difficult they can be to navigate, and I can only imagine how disappointing it would be for a child to miss out on trick-or-treat.

So, how can you participate? You can let your trick-or-treaters and their guardians know that you have non-food treats by displaying a teal pumpkin. Teal pumpkin, you say? Yes! There are a couple of different ways to go about this: you can paint a real pumpkin teal, purchase a reusable teal pumpkin to the tune of this guy, or this very affordable teal pumpkin treat bucket, both from Target. And, the easiest option of them all, a free sign printout from the Teal Pumpkin Project site!

There are so many different treat options for teal pumpkins, but my personal opinion is quality over quantity. Yes, you could pass out vampire teeth, spider rings, and ghost keychains, but those things will be tossed aside or worse, in the trash can, before Thanksgiving rolls around. Last year we did Play-Doh (a big hit), Slinkies (fun for cats too!), and fidget spinners. After re-assessing the average age of our trick-or-treaters, this year we’ve opted for Play-Doh, bubbles, and Halloween themed fidget poppers. Five Below, Target, and Menards are great places to grab fun teal pumpkin treats!

Some other fun options?

Coloring books and crayons
Craft kits
Mini puzzles
Peg games
Sidewalk chalk
Little Golden Books
Mini Squishmallows

I could go on and on! We’ve had so much fun choosing our teal pumpkin items, and for our number of trick-or-treaters, 6-8 non-food goodie bags does the trick! Have you heard about the Teal Pumpkin Project? And if not, would you be willing to give it a try?

xoxo Happy Treating!