Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

It's just not like it was in the olden days of yore when Halloween treats were never, ever suspect. Sadly, very sadly, the world has changed.
I would be wary of anything homemade. I say that sadly and reluctantly. I would really, really have to know you really, really well to feel comfortable with letting my kids eat your homemade treats.
With all of that negative crap being said ... If these are the children of families that your parents know well, it shouldn't be a problem.

Unfortunately I have to agree with @lindy123 and @dbcurrie. I think its a lovely idea and a great gesture, but I think that all of your work would be for naught. I remember my parents going through my halloween candy and immediately throwing out anything that was home made and that wasnt totally sealed.

But, if you're throwing a halloween party for friends (with or without children), I think it'd be a great idea!

Cheers!

@gingercookiewithlime: I certainly hope you didn't eat toothbrushes. I kid, I kid. Yeah, save the homemade treats for a party. I'm not super young, but my parents were always against homemade treats being handed out. I still remember the house that handed out snack bags of chips and cans of pop, though! Oh and the one that handed out FULL candybars.

But yay! An excuse for a party!

I wouldn't, and not just because I'd be afraid they would get thrown out.

Some towns actually have laws prohibiting giving out unwrapped treats. And not to sound paranoid, but my big fear would be that a kid might get sick for an unrelated reason (too much candy, too late a night) but the parents might blame you for giving out a 'contaminated' treat. No matter how well you know the kids, you never know who might end up eating the treat, and if anything does happen they would blame you.

Where I live there is an actual LAW that states that anything brought to school for the children must be store bought. So....I have to buy the birthday cake for my little one next week and take in a store bought cake instead of making one myself. It's depressing to me to think that I won't be able to ever make anything homemade for her classmates. : (

When I was a trick or treater in the mid 80's, our neighborhood was the trick or treating mecca. People bussed their kids in from surrounding towns. We would get in the neighborhood of 500-800 trick or treaters.

There was this old lady up the street who passed out homemade donuts. They were amazing. This was when we were scared of razorblades in apples, but I knew her, and knew she wasn't trying to poison us. Most of the kids didn't know her, and the next morning, there would inevitably be powdered sugar strewn down the street.

I felt sad to see them. The lady had to have worked really hard to make them, and I'm sure it hurt her feelings. Also, they were delicious. I wanted to eat them off the road, that's how good they were.

Also, little kids don't want pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They want butterfingers and nerds and reeses peanut butter cups.

yeah, i wouldn't waste those delicious treats on kids who won't be allowed to eat them.

i remember one neighbor who would hand out quarters, sigh. we were always forced to go there. she was a sweet old grandma type, but seriously-give me a dang dong milky way already, lady!

You better believe I'm making homemade treats. In fact, I'm hosting a Halloween potluck just so I have an excuse to make candy. The key thing is to keep all the goodies to yourself (and okay, some friends).

@arm1970 The thought that you can't even bring homemade goods into classrooms is so sad! I would much rather my kids ate something homemade than some who-knows-what's-in-it sugar-laden treat from a store. And I find it bizarre that someone would consider homemade treats less safe or healthy or whatever than something so unknown.

I had this idea of baking homemade cookies to give out to trick or treaters and including a tag with my name and address and all the ingredients in the cookies, but I suspect even that would not be enough to curb some parents' fears...

Find another venue to hand out your homemade treats. Airline employees and fellow travelers would probably be appreciative! If you want a reason to bake, take some treats into your office for everyone or just hand them out to people - your mail carrier, neighbors, etc. I agree with what the others said though: it's not stupid, just too sweet :)

I never let my nieces eat homemade treats, UNLESS i personally knew who made them. Save the time and money.

karyn. thats not true.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/needles.asp

@gastronomeg, were you walking around my neighborhood? Mostly I get a "MONEY!" reaction from the kidlets these days. We save pocket change on a regular basis just for this.

When I was a kid, some people would hand out wonderful homemade caramel popcorn balls and candy apples. Those days are long gone, I'm afraid. Now, no one is going to let their kid eat unwrapped anything. So, don't bother. Save your hard work and food love for your own family and friends.

That is so thoughtful of you and to consider the time and effort spent it is a wonderful gesture but unfortunately it is for naught.....Your treats will end up tossed away and that would be a waste....buy the bagged candy if you feel you have to do something and hey how about this-send the cookies to us, SE'ers..!!!!

I suppose you guys are right. I just LOVE Halloween so much because the autumn season is my thing and Halloween always seemed like such a celebration of everything I love about this season. I guess I'll have to stick to the pre-packaged, store-bought stuff, but I am going to take some of your suggestions and make little treat bags filled with different kinds of candy and toys I mix and match myself. At least there's that, right?

when I worked for Quaker Oats, we did a Halloween campaign once encouraging adults to give Quaker Chewy Bars as Halloween treats - they're individually wrapped, store-bought and also better for the kids than all the overly sugary stuff they'll very likely receive...

An addendum to my comment- If your kid has food allergies (and many seem to these days)- i definitely understand not wanting to let kids eat anything homemade.

I love to make homemade treats, but adults appreciate (and actually eat) them - kids, not so much. I agree with mr. guy above, kids want candy from the store, and anything homemade will just get thrown out, either onto your driveway or by the parents at home. Make something nice and take it to work or have friends over to enjoy it. Give the kids the junky stuff they love, and save yourself the work and $$$!

Here's another option: Let's all make homemade treats and have a treat exchange! It will be like Serious Eats care packages!

I wouldn't. If a child gets sick, you could be blamed. What a time we live in.

I don't think making anything from scratch is a bad idea, except if it's being handed out on Halloween. Unless the visiting kids are good friends, I wouldn't bother -- personally, I would never allow my daughter to eat anything homemade unless it was made by someone we know very, very well.

Many moons ago when I was a trick or treater myself, a woman gave out what she assured us was "homemade fudge", after saying thank you and walking down her steps we saw her lawn was littered with said "homemade fudge".

@trilby I love to do that too. I remember when I was young I loved the cool little bags with two or three items in them. Fun stuff. They where always the first thing I checked out. Sadly the days of homemade popcorn balls and carmel apples from neighbors are over. But like the above posters said, make something for coworkers I know mine love it when I just bring in a plate of brownies.

the only thing homemade that you can get away with is crafts like a toostie pop wrapped in toilet paper so it looks like a ghost. seriously thats the only way

"I don't have kids." Just read that again now.

Which explains the whole idea of "pumpkin chocolate chip cookies" or the whole idea of home-made goods to kids on Halloween in the first place.

When I was a kid there was a house in the neighborhood that gave out homemade candy apples - but they only had about 2 dozen of them. We used to come home from school, get in our costumes, go to The McHarg's house, get our candy apples, go home, do homework, eat supper and THEN go out and do the rest of our trick-or-treating. We just HAD to have those candy apples - they were the highlight of our Halloween treats. On the other hand - another family gave out popcorn balls. The only reason we went to their house is because we knew them really well and HAD to go to their house. When we got home we would throw the popcorn balls away. We HATED those things.

Liability, Liability, Liability great idea but the reality is that if a child gets sick and the lawyer came knocking at your door then it truly ends up being a situation of “no good deed goes unpunished”. I will agree also with Heartofglass there are a lot of towns that have laws prohibiting distributing food without a health permit.

Having said that I am quite older and when I was young in the late 50’s and 60’s the most popular treats were homemade. There was this woman that gave out candy apples to die for, I’ve never been able to find another candy apple that is just like the ones she made.

What I think is so very sad is that children have to be protect from adults and we as a society don’t see how disturbing that really is

Regarding KarynMC:
You can NEVER say that only a family member would try to poison a child. Get real, there are sick people out there who get off on doing their dirty deed.

Also,please let me know where those chocolate chip cookies are being handed out so that I'll miss that house. :)