Too Much Halloween?

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

When I was growing up, Halloween was a simple holiday— you carved pumpkins about a week before, and wore some sort of costume (usually homemade) on Halloween night. We had one neighbor who set up a creepy haunted house in his garage for all the trick-or-treaters but that was pretty much the extent of the holiday.

This year, as my son gets older and we start to take part in more of the festivities, I have noticed that Halloween has turned into a month long celebration of all things ghoulish and pumpkin-y. Our carefully orchestrated schedule this year included parties, parades, festivals, hayrides, a visit to a kiddie amusement park for their Halloween “Spooktacular”, and of course a trip or two to the pumpkin patch.

Every store I’ve been to lately has some sort of spooky decorations and a section devoted to yards of Halloween merchandise: flashing pumpkins, creepy scarecrows, and twinkling orange and black lights. It got me to wondering, is Halloween the new Christmas? It seems like that’s true with all the decorations and activities. Just replace the colors red and green with black and orange and swap the tree for a pumpkin and there you have it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love every excuse to celebrate something just as much as the next person! I just don’t remember Halloween being this involved as a kid. Plus, Halloween comes without the added pressure of giving gifts? I’ll take it!

So while I enjoy my pumpkin spiced latte along with a pumpkin muffin, I’ll give you some ideas on how to make this Halloween that much more Halloween-y for you and your family. Most children’s favorite thing about Halloween is the loads and loads of candy and sweet treats. You can add a dose of healthy stuff and counteract all that candy by mixing in some pumpkin with your sweet treats; pumpkins are loaded with Vitamin A.

So of course a fun activity to do with your kids is to make all kinds of pumpkin treats such as muffins, cupcakes and pancakes. Halloween falls on a Sunday (pancake day in my house) this year and it’s easy to make pumpkin pancakes by mixing some pumpkin puree in with your batter. Simply add a cup of pumpkin puree to your favorite pancake recipe along with a dash of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Shape the pancakes into pumpkin shapes, decorate with chocolate chip faces, and your children will be delighted with their breakfast-o-lanterns!

We recently tried another pumpkin goody – pumpkin cream cheese spread – and couldn’t resist it. It is so good served with fall fruit such as apples and pears, spread on toast or bagels, or best yet, served with my favorite ginger spice wafer cookies for dipping. After all of this pumpkin eating we probably won’t be ready for it again until next year but we sure are enjoying it now.

As far as trick or treat night, most kids won’t accept anything other than heaps of candy. I do have to admit I bought some mini bags of pretzels to give out along with the sugary treats, thinking optimistically that maybe some of the kids will appreciate a healthier option amongst all the junk. But for this one night of the year, there is no such thing as too much Halloween!

Serves/Makes: 1.5 cups

• 1 package (8 ounce size) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract