Trick or Treat!

Candy, Candy, Candy

Oh, How you go straight to my thighs!

I really shouldn’t eat you,

But Tasty are you, heaven alive!

I wish I could avoid you,

I really must say,

Release Me!

Trick or Treat evils,

Of Halloween Day!

Now that I’ve dispensed with the dramatics, let’s talk about how to help our kids get all that horribly lovely candy into our houses.  I went to the store, unsure why I do this to myself I should really know by know that I will leave empty handed with a dash of annoyance and time wasted, and I looked for a cheap trick or treat bucket for my daughter.  It is her first trick or treat year and I want it to be special.  Finding nothing of reasonable price for what it is, a bucket with some decorations on it, I left.  Adding this trip to the minutes of my life wasted that I’ll never get back, I drove home and proceeded to clean.  I was in a mood for some reason grumbling to myself over how a bucket with some paint on it can cost so much!  Then, I smacked my face!  The answer was right there in my frustration!  I’ll just make my own bucket of painted Halloween cheer!

You need:

Empty bucket (I used a Costco size empty butter tub)

Halloween colored paper

Contact Paper

Black Marker

Nail and Hammer

Ribbon

Decorations (I used some foam Halloween stickers I found at Target (cost a buck!))

Start by having the kids decorate the paper!  You can measure your bucket first against the paper and add paper to create length as needed for your bucket and then have them decorate or you can do what I did and just have them decorate the sheet to be used.  Once all the stickers were stuck, I added the white paper to write Trick or Treat on, this isn’t necessary, but I wanted it to be obvious what the bucket was for.  Next I covered the paper in Contact paper.  I did this for two reasons.  When this is all done I want to be able to use the paper as a Halloween background in a scrapbook. What better background then the one used by your child to trick or treat that was made by them?  Also, it protects your child’s creation from the rain! 

After covering the paper with contact paper, I wrapped it around the bucket taping it at the top and bottom.  I poked holes in the bucket across from each other using the hammer and nail.  I did that by eyeballing it.  Next, I threaded my ribbon through and tied it with a double knot and a bow.  Tada! A Trick or Treat Bucket that cost me about a dollar plus the scraps I already had at home.  Bonus that it will be the scrapbook page for this year’s Halloween picture!

Remember to use whatever you want to decorate, paint, glow in the dark spray, felt, glitter spray (careful it sheds!), stickers, magazine cuttings, paint, or whatever you have around your house.  If you want you can match it to your child’s costume. An example of this is if your kid is a lady bug, paint the