This is a bit of a journey so hang onto your hats!
Author: Esther Sarlo, BA, Founder | CEO | Myndful Spark of Mynd Myself
The dilemma:
Have you ever had a dilemma that continued to nag at you…and you just didn’t know what to do about it? That’s how Halloween has been for me over the last 10 years or so.
The anxiety-ridden issue about how to participate in this largely children’s-driven event without causing harm has plagued me! Although I wanted to engage with neighbourhood children and share in the delight of costumes, wonder, mystery, creativity, and community…I didn’t want to contribute to the furthering of our societal addiction to “white death” (a slang term for highly processed sugar.)
In North America, we live in a culture where processed sugar is considered to be a normal part of our everyday existence—it is in almost everything we consume. However, it wasn’t always so.
No, this is not a history lesson, but there are a few key points that must be shared in this discussion for both context AND for it to have the gravitas it deserves.
Some tidbits about the history of sugar
An enlightening article titled, “A History of sugar – the food nobody needs, but everyone craves” by a group called, The Conversation, states:
“The first chemically refined sugar appeared on the scene in India about 2,500 years ago[…]Throughout the Middle Ages, [chemically refined sugar] was considered a rare and expensive spice, rather than an everyday condiment.”
Refined sugar production actually “drove the formation of the modern world” and was inextricably linked with the unconscionable transatlantic slave trade! From the mid-17th century and onward, the mass consumption of refined sugar has been negatively associated with human health.
Refined sugar has been linked to the staggering rise in obesity, cancer, dementia, heart disease, and diabetes across “nations where sugar-based carbohydrates have come to dominate the food economy.”
The article goes on to say that,
“Sugar can also drive behavioral responses that are indistinguishable from addiction.
But in the 21st century, the grip of sugar is stronger than comparable scourges like tobacco, or even alcohol. Sugar is not only ubiquitous – it is potentially responsible for approximately 20% of the caloric content of modern diets – but is also central to the world’s economy and cultural heritage.”
If you want to know more, I highly recommend that you read the whole article here.
What to do?!?!?
In the meantime, back to my Halloween dilemma.
You can see why I’m conflicted. The facts are clear: giving out candy contributes to addictions and illnesses. I can’t share healthy homemade goods (or even fresh fruit) in today’s distrustful and suspicious social climate because they would just be thrown into the garbage. I can turn off my lights and hide in a back room so no one comes to my door (which I have done for several years.) None of these options work for me.
This year, a mentor of mine shared an article about other options! I was so happy to hear her suggestions and began setting the experiment in motion. Her ideas included some fun temporary tattoos and stickers. YAY!!! I could do that!
I could go to a party store to pick up some cool stuff for the kids. How much fun was that going to be?
The search
My partner, Bill, and I googled the nearest party store and set off on the exploration. As we entered the door of this ginormous space, we were overwhelmed by the toxic chemical smell of cheap off-gassing products. Yikes! We both looked at each other in dismay…but went into “the breach” anyway.
The left side of the store was clearly the space allotted for seasonal items…in this case Halloween costumes and other assorted related accoutrements. At first…and second…and third glance(s) the shelves were filled with complete CRAP! Arranged by colour and theme but yup, all crap. So, not only were we breathing toxic air, but we were seeing a selection of the cheapest and ugliest throwaway goods imaginable.
Oh nooooo!!!!!! I’m in another dilemma! To avoid the sugar conversation, I now find myself having to think about the moral issue of adding more junk to our overflowing landfills! Do I stay or do I go?
I chose to stay, with the intention to keep my purchases as minimally wasteful as possible, while still trying to find things that kids might like. Could there be anything here that might be appropriate?
Choices…
The Halloween options seemed sparse, until I spied a couple packages of adjustable orange and black plastic spider rings. I reluctantly put them in my basket. Then I found a package of small “googley-eyes” in blue, pink, red, and orange. No tattoos, yet. No stickers.
After the dreadful Halloween section, we wandered down another garish aisle. Ah hah! I spotted some small packages of tattoos! But, it turns out every aisle was themed: Avengers, Frozen, Sumo Wrestlers, Spiderman, The Hulk, Harry Potter, Iron Man…you get the picture. There was no convenient section marked: “Tattoos.” We were forced to go up and down each overflowing and mind-numbingly ‘shouty’ aisle to find different tattoos from different themes. Which I did. Heavy sigh! I can’t imagine taking a child who was “on the spectrum” into that place—they’d have a melt-down.
Along the trek (at least walking is good exercise…even though my brain was about to explode), in addition to the tattoos, spider rings, and ‘googley-eyes’ I spotted a few other items I thought (hoped) kids would like:
- Some star and happy face self-inking stamps
- A number of random stickers
- Folded cardboard tiaras
- Large black-and-white butterfly stickers that could be applied to windows and then reused
- Brightly coloured 8-inch alphabet rulers that kids could stencil letters with
- Two-inch diameter colourful spinners.
All told, I spent about $45—maybe a bit more than I might have on candy. AND, even if everything went immediately into the landfill, I hoped the waste would be either less than, or at least not more than the packaging on the individually wrapped candy that was the alternative.
So many dilemmas, so little time!
The big day arrived…It’s all about the kids!!!
Bill organized all our assorted goods onto 3 silver baking trays and put them by the front door. Everything was laid out in batches so the kids would be able to see what was available and make their choices easily. Fingers crossed, we ate an early dinner, turned our porch light on to say, “Yes, we’re here, we want to see you, and—most importantly to the kids I’m guessing—we’ve got stuff for you!”
The first tentative knocks on the door had us springing to our feet and getting the trays. There were 5 kids milling about, expecting candy. When they saw the trays, they looked up at us in confusion. What’s all this? (Like when a dog cocks its head to the side and just stares at you for a bit.)
We jumped into the fray and said, “This is what we’re giving you today instead of candy. You can take your pick from anything you see here that you like. One per person.” (Which quickly morphed into 2 items per person).
As kids are so incredibly adaptable, their confusion evaporated quickly, and they politely stuck their hands out and pointed to their particular choices. Some reached in and took what they wanted. Others needed help because their fully-gloved hands were part of their costumes. All were well-mannered and seemed to like the choices. We saw witches, spidermen, blow-up sumo wrestlers, Supergirl, rabbits, dinosaurs, princesses, fairies, and angels. Strangely, I don’t think we had any pirate or vampire visitations this year!
All the kids were accompanied by adults. One 2-year-old boy with his 4-year-old sister were accompanied by no less than 8 adults!!! A few times, we engaged with parents waiting on the sidewalk and said, “No sugar here,” to an unexpected thumbs up response! There was one boy dressed in a cow costume who was clearly “on the spectrum” who ignored the trays entirely and stared up enraptured by Bill’s art on the walls that he could see through the open doorway. His mother had to pick something for him 😊.
I have to say, I had the best time ever! The experiment was a smashing success. And here’s a surprise: we ran out of the coloured ruler stencils before almost anything else!!! We had no idea they’d be so popular—with both girls and boys!
To wrap it up, as the evening’s visitors dwindled to the last stragglers, the doorbell rang again. We opened the door to see a father carrying his daughter (both now out of costume.) They looked familiar so I said, “Weren’t you here earlier?”
“Yes,” the dad said. “We were. And my daughter lost her tiara and was most upset about it. Since you were the only house not giving out candy, you were the talk of the neighbourhood. We thought we’d risk coming back to see if you might have another tiara that you could spare for her.”
“Absolutely!!!” And we gave her a sticker and a tattoo for good measure!
All in all, we had 68 kids visit us in about 2 hours! Not one of them complained that we didn’t have candy. In fact, the joy, delight, and curiosity that infused the evening is a memory I will hold dear for a good long time to come.
If you’re feeling brave, try it sometime!
