Tickle My Sweet Tooth

3 Easy Steps to Getting Halloween Right

Halloween Candy Cartoon

1. Get the best costume Halloween whimsy permits.

If you’re in it to get the biggest BOO! for your buck, the easy approach can be the most fun. Nothing says “shock the shinola out of your friends and family!” better than popping in some customizable fangs. You can saunter into work in your every-day grey business suit and still scare the crab apples out of your co-workers with nothing more than intense eye contact and a slow revealing grin. In fact, the more otherwise “normal” you look, the more interesting the effect.

Whimsy and visual puns are my personal favorite. I love costumes that make me guess. One Halloween in particular, our son had me wondering all night when he left the house for a party with a knife and fork in the front pocket of his shirt. He told me the next day he had gone as a cutlery drawer.

What’s the best punny costume idea you’ve come across? (Full disclosure: I WILL steal your idea for some year down the road.)

2. Get the best loot to give away, and by “best,” I mean the stuff that you yourself will enjoy eating for the next week or two.


Hershey’s Candy Assortment 100 Pieces

You may be more altruistic in this department than I am, so if you really want what seems to be most popular with the masses over at Amazon, the collection above is their #1 best seller.

At our house, we go for the quintessential Canadian snack food carbs:


Hawkins Cheezies

Oh. My.

I’ve missed you, my little crunchy real cheddar cheese nuggets of salty heaven!

We can get these at our local grocery store in the Halloween mini-pack format of 20 to a box. Since we live in a neighborhood populated mostly with empty nesters, we don’t expect a swarm on the 31st, but we’re going to pick up five or six boxes anyway, just to be safe.

They’re for the children.

3. Get the best entertainment lined up for a night of non-stop interruptions.

Free Halloween coloring pages to print out… (Don’t laugh. Rick likes to color.)

…or an inexpensive coloring book.

Entertainment doesn’t stop with coloring books.

Maybe a thematically appropriate sweet tooth puzzle is just the thing for older kids. (Inner kids count: Rick likes puzzles too.)

Here’s a candy wrapper-themed 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle from White Mountain Puzzles (did this one last Christmas, good one):


Candy Wrappers Puzzle

…or if you want to go straight to the Junior Mints, Dots, and Tootsie Rolls:


Tootsie Roll Puzzle

And when you’ve had enough candy and are ready to move on to beer, you can cheers the parents accompanying the midgi-goblins with this:


”Cheers” 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

… and of course, queue up a suite, throw-back Disney flick where you won’t miss any plot twists while you pause to answer the doorbell, and you’re all set!


The Sweet Life on Deck (full episode)

Have a punny Halloween (and don’t forget to floss)!

10 thoughts on “Tickle My Sweet Tooth

  1. Dad Stu

    Happy Halloween! Looks like you will have a nice evening. While you say that the Hawkins Cheezies and “for the children”, if any nuggets may be left over from tonight you may want to bring some to the states in case there are any trick-or-treaters who may come knocking at your bedroom door next time you’re here.

  2. Carole Murchison

    I have nothing of value to add. I just wanted to ‘like’ Nancy’s post. :0) Well, now that I think about it, I did meet ‘gum stuff under a chair’ at a party many years ago. It was a guy with a pink sheet over his head wearing a children’s chair as a hat. I thought it was pretty clever. I was 19 at the time, but still…

  3. Nancy R

    Watch “Cannabis Kid”: the lead actor dressed up as a theater floor (think gum, popcorn, bottle caps, etc. glues to t-shirt. The support actor dangled a maple leaf from string from the brim of a baseball cap and went as a leaf blower.

  4. Sue

    Did you really say Hawkins cheezies?
    I would move to Canada just to have access to these critters.
    Please if I die bury me in them!!!

    1. kathy

      If the Egyptian Kings had had access to Hawkins Cheezies, you can bet they would’ve found an entirely different kind of treasure when they opened the tombs.

  5. Sandi Fentiman

    I dressed up once in North Bay as…..well you take a guess.
    Slicked back hair
    Half of the face black/the other red
    Black turtle neck, black pants
    Dad’s black and red dracula cape

    That had a scare four year old, who more than likely shied away from Halloween and a 7/8 year old boy saying “Cool!”. Try getting the gunk off after wards!

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