Reverse Trick-or-Treating

My kids have grown up in Switzerland where Halloween and trick-or-treating has gained popularity, but it’s no where near the event it is in the States. Two years ago we asked our neighbor whether we could give her some candy in advance and let the kids come ring her doorbell and at least have the experience of trick-or-treating. We did it and the kids loved it. They have nothing to compare it to, so going to only one house was not a disappointment. Last year we had seen some houses in our neighborhood decorated for Halloween, so we stopped at those as well. The kids were thrilled and it was a fun experience. This year we knew trick-or-treating wouldn’t be a wise idea, but we didn’t want to skip Halloween entirely. So we ended up deciding on reverse trick-or-treating. We would go to a few friends’ houses nearby and drop off treats for them.

It started with a cool craft – making a bat out of a toilet paper roll. I got the idea for the bat on TikTok of all places (I know, I know…). As I was swiping through perplexingly addictive videos I came across one that showed how to make an adorable bat out of toilet paper (posted by @oceane_queen25). We are constantly saving up toilet paper rolls for crafts, so I knew I had a stash we could use. Here’s what we did:

1. I folded in two sides of one end of the toilet paper roll and glued it shut. Then the kids (3 & 5 years old) and I painted the outside of them black.
2. Once they had dried we glued on googly eyes, teeth and wings. I think that in the original video they cut the wings and teeth themselves. I have a Cricut cutting machine, so I cut the teeth and wings on there, but you could definitely do them yourself or let your kids draw and cut them.
3. We filled the bats with candy corn and then folded the top closed to form the bat’s ears and head. [For those reading this in Switzerland, we got the candy corn from American Food Ave.]

We were originally just going to do the bats, but as with many ideas, it grew from there…

I got the October newsletter from Stephanie at Loubiblu with so many cute Halloween activities that I decided to include some of those as well. I printed out the bingo cards, pumpkin activity and picture search and included those as well. I also got some of her adorable Halloween stickers to put in.

Then I wrote this little Halloween 2020 poem to go with it, which we printed on orange paper and the kids cut it out.

This year has been a strange one-
cancellations left and right
We all have to wear our masks
and can’t be crowded in too tight.

From graduation drive-bys
to birthday party zooms
Over all our celebrations,
Corona Virus looms.

But rather than throw up our hands
and declare defeat
We decided that for Halloween
We’d do reverse trick-or-treat.

So we’ve made a bag of goodies
and put in special treats
some coloring and stickers
and a bat that’s full of sweets.

Instead of feeling gloomy
this year on Halloween
We hope this brings a smile to you,
despite Covid-19

I had ordered small black paper bags, but they were out of stock and wouldn’t arrive in time, so we made cones out of black paper and called it a witches hat. We put the goodies in there, closed it up, and stuck the pumpkin poem to the front. Here’s the finished product, ready to be delivered to a few friends in our neighborhood. If you would like a PDF of the poem (with and without the pumpkin), you can download it here.

Happy Halloween everyone!