The Big Halloween Post with Alternatives to Candy Ideas, Window Decor and a Lot of Free Halloween Designs

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

My apologies for coming in a little late with this one. I have got to plan better. The title pretty much says it all. I'm sharing alternatives to candy for the trick or treaters, linking you up with a previous blog on window decor as well as links for past and current Halloween freebies.

This year, I'm doing nothing for Halloween. For one, it is not very popular in Belgium. Two, I went through a lot of work last year and hardly anyone came by our place in Germany. I had opened the garage and set up a table full of healthy alternatives as well as small toys and books from my kids that they don't play with any more. Of course, I cleaned them all up, first. I can tell ya, the toys went fast! Not only did it help clean out the attic, save me some money, but it also made a kid's day without injuring their health.

I only brought a couple of things with me from Belgium and used stuff from around the house for the rest. The little light up ghosts are new. The heat lamp did it's job keeping us toasty and it made the effect a little creepier, too. Not planned! Hehehe...We had scary music playing in the background.

It's difficult to see. I should have made a close up shot of the table. I filled a very large basket with a small fresh variety fruit. Other years, the kids cleared me out of the fruit I had for them and left me with the candy. Go figure? Last year was the opposite. I was left with a lot of fruit, but the toys and candy were cleaned out.

I found this blog for Non Candy Halloween ideas and will add a few of my own, too.

- old, cleaned up, small toys

- small books

- pens, pencils, markers

- mini notebooks

- bookmarks

- fresh fruit

- capri sun or other not too junky, little drinks

- boxed raisins (my mom always gave those)

- fruit roll ups (home made? it's not that difficult)

- little pretzels

- bake muffins (if possible)

Hit up a local dollar store or something similar or look for dirt cheap stuff appropriate for kids. Think about:

- fun socks

- fingerless gloves or gloves

- whoopee cushions

- small, inexpensive toys

- I remember getting .50 cent pieces once.

- bubbles

- temporary tattoos

- stickers

- folders with fun designs and colors

- cheap jewelry you don't want any more

Let's move on to decor. Click on the image below and get swept away to a blog full of window decor ideas. I tried taking pics of this year's window, but the glare was ridiculous and then I forgot to go back and try to get some good ones.

Below, are free printables that are still available. For sure! Hehehe...I really must apologize for all of the dead links on the blog. I started going back and making changes, but it's just one of those things where you're like, I got better, more important things to do.

This blog is really full of Halloween editions. My goodness! I must be at this for quite some time? Hehehe...I told my friend that my views have gone through the roof and I have no idea why. She replied that I'm a retro blogger. Ha! I live a retro life. That's for another blog, I guess. If you never grabbed the FREE Halloween scrapbooking kit, ya still can, but now you have to register at Design Bundles to get it. You don't have to subscribe though. I think it's worth the effort.

I'm giving away this template for free on last week's blog. Grab it while ya can.

The blog from the link above is full of Halloween inspiration as is our Pinterest Boards. I literally have thousands of digital scrapbooking pages from myself and my team alone. The Cherry is definitely an excellent source for crafty and scrapbooking inspiration digital and traditional. Cherry fan Lou, designed this lovely page with our new templates found in The Cherry's Kreative Design Studio.

This is an oldie, but a goody, blog for Thanksgiving ideas. I should totally do another updated one.

Let me know in the comments what you're handing out for the trick or treaters and thanks for stopping by.

Happy haunting!