Halloween Treat Bags 2016

Halloween is only a few weeks away and all the treats are out in stores, so now is the time to start planning and assembling your Halloween treat bags! Starting early means you get the pick of all the best treats, especially the non-food treats which tend to get really picked over the closer we get to the big day. I love non-food treats; they're guaranteed nut free, they work for most age groups, and the kids get tons of candy anyway so why not set your house apart! I also love that they don't expire, so when I have leftover treat bags I can hold on to them until the next year! Which is exactly what I did last year. I had over 20 bags left that I tucked away in a bin, so this year I only had to buy half of the goodies I usually do! Hello money saver!

It will come as no shock to anyone that my favorite place to pick up my treats are Dollarama and Dollar Tree. I had a few packages of stickers and treat bags from Dollar Tree, and a bag of rocket candy from Bulk Barn. Don't worry, the candy isn't stale. Roman made sure to taste test several of them to make sure!

This year Dollarama really had their pencil and eraser game together! 8 pencils and erasers for $2, yes please! I also picked up some plastic Halloween rings, mostly because I needed a few spiders for a Preschool activity I have planned for Roman in October, but they were also a good addition to the treat bags.

If you've seen my post from a few years back, then you're familiar with my system for filling treat bags. I started out by filling the bags with: 1 pencil, 1 eraser, 1 ring, 1 box of stickers, and 1 rocket candy. When I ran out of pencils and erasers I put 2 rocket candies in instead. I try to keep the value of the bags fairly equal so every trick-or-treater gets their fair share! These bags ended up costing about $1 including the bag itself, which is super affordable. Some people, including John, might think that giving pencils and erasers is a little lame, but I assure you it is not. Last year I had a couple kids come to the door, and as they rounded the corner to leave I hear one say "See, I told you she had the pencils!!". That's right, I'm the cool lady on the crescent!

Normally treat bags are my thing. I sequester myself in my craft room, turn on some tunes, and assemble all the treat bags. Well that just wasn't going to happen this year, so I decided to ask Roman to help me! I expected Roman to want to keep some of the treats, but he was genuinely excited to be making bags for the trick-or-treaters. I'm sure being the official rocket candy taste tester helped to keep his sticky fingers off everything else. Assembling treat bags was definitely a fun way to spend our quiet time while Bianca had her morning nap!