Everything is a competition these days, especially with TV competition shows pitting neighbor against neighbor with their Halloween adventures.

Halloween is an easy enough concept; kids dress up in a costume, say “Trick or Treat” and get candy, but is that teaching them anything? No. I propose new ways to handle Halloween.

New Halloween Adventures

Chores for Treats

Since we don’t want to GIVE AWAY treats for kids just showing up and saying “Trick or Treat,” we need to get something out of it, right? A week or two before Halloween, stop mowing your lawn and raking the leaves in your front yard then on Halloween night, put; your mower, edger, hedge trimmer, rakes and trash cans in your front lawn and when the kids arrive and say “Trick or Treat,” correct them with “Chores for Treats” and give out chores to be done for your treats. Once the kids have completed their chores, give them the treats. They get a sugar high, and you get a manicured lawn by kids that will never come to your house for Halloween ever again.

Think for Treats

Make your front porch resemble Jeopardy. When the children come up to the porch on Halloween, ask them to chose a category of questions about literature, math, and geography. No phone a friend, no google the answer, just little kids in Disney costumes and their brains. The winners get candy, the losers get old AOL discs.

Scavenge for Treats

Break up your shopping list and send the little trick or treaters on a “scavenger” hunt to bring them back in trade for really good candy. If they get items from neighbors homes to bring you, they get – you guessed it – and old AOL disc.

Dress for Treats

Someone in your house dresses up like Tim Gunn and rates the costumes with catch phrases like, “This is your look, then?”, “This troubles me,” “Make it work,” “Do it!”, “You don’t want it too Judy Jetson,” “You are REALLY rocking Halloween, here,” “I see – – a problem,” “It’s Golden Girls, but not very Golden,” “I’m flabbergasted,” “Make me believe in this,” etc. Bring tissues for the children (and parents) that will be crying.

What Halloween Adventures have you had at your house? Leave us a comment below and tell us all about them.