Treat Them Right

For parents, the scariest part of Halloween can be the amount of cavity-inducing sweets their kids consume after returning home. since home-baked goods are frowned on these days and kids don't get too excited about pretzels, what treats can you substitute for candy? these might do the trick:

--COLD CASH Roll up all those unwanted pennies in papers, or put a dozen or two in drawstring bags. With any luck, the kids will use them for something other than candy shopping maybe even give them to unicef. (Avoid this one for kids 3 and younger.)

--PETRIFYING PENCILS Halloween-theme pencils, erasers, sharpeners or key rings make for scary-but-good fun. You can get them at party stores that sell costumes and decorations.

--TERRIFYING TRADING CARDS Give them their favorite sports stars. Or put them a Monster ahead of the pack with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, current playground favorites. They're at most toy stores and discount chains.

--(SHHH!) SUGARLESS CANDY Jolly Rancher, Bubble Yum and Bazooka all make sugarless batches of their delicacies, some sweetened with fruit juice. They're hard to find at supermarkets; try your local candy store.