Fun gift and treat ideas for kids this Halloween

Welcome back. Halloween is almost here and we are thinking beyond just candy from building the ultimate boo basket to fun trick-or-treating treats. We've got some creative ways to make this Halloween extra special. So joining us with a few ideas that kids will love, we have Charlene DeLoach, Chief Play Officer at Playroom Chronicles. And Charlene, it's so good to see you again. Good morning. Good morning. Hey. All right. As Chief Play Officer, I got to tell you, you knocked it out of the park with this one. First, let's start by talking about a boo basket. For those that are like, what is that? What's a Boo Basket, Charlene? So a Boo Basket is a basket full of toys. But the trick is to pick out toys that aren't too spooky for the season, but offer kids plenty of reason to play long after the Halloween holiday. So, for example, we have the Halloween-themed Magna Tiles from Picasso Tiles. But the thing is, you can use these Magna-Tiles in any build in the playroom all year long. or for example you pick out something that kids can play with if they like games but this is a game called Horrified from Ravensburger but yes you can play with it during Halloween but you can have a fright night game night any night of the year so that's another reason why these sort of elevate the boo basket but another thing to think about is letting kids have some creative STEM play in a boo basket so i specifically like this motion sensing spider from KiwiCo kids build this and then they have a prank spider that they can you know scare people with during Halloween but who says they don't like to play tricks on their family and friends all year long so cool and if you want to you can change the spider into a snowflake if you like i love it kids would have so much fun with that so that's what we're looking at down in this box here at the very very end so you covered the game. You covered PicassoTiles, which I love what you said about the play for all of these things going beyond Halloween, because that's the goal here. You want them to get some some long term use out of these toys. Tell us about this. This toy right here looks like the National Geographic creepy creatures. It looks like kids that love doing some artsy things could have some fun painting these rocks. Exactly. It's from Blue Marble. So kids paint rocks to look like little creatures. But I like these because now these become little play people in the playroom for pretend play. And then if you get bored with it, you can always repaint the rocks for another holiday. Or what I also really like, this gorgeous doll from Maison Batat. Needless to say, she is dressed to impress for Halloween, but do a little quick costume change. Now she's ready for the next holiday. That's such a great point, but I can't get over her costume. Are you kidding me? From head to toe. She's got the little lace cape going. She's got the cute shoes, even her bag there with the green spider on it. This is something that kids would have an absolute blast with. And like you mentioned, change those clothes out and she's ready for any season. So some wonderful ideas if a boo basket is something that's on your list of things to do, some wonderful options. Let's make our way down here and talk about some non-candy items. These are maybe things you could have at the Halloween party or to pass out to trick-or-treaters, right? Exactly. So I love these as Halloween sort of goodie basket kind of stuff but I also like to hand them out at Halloween people say trick-or-treat but needless to say here at Playroom Chronicles I say trick-or-toy because I think we can hand out play when we're giving stuff away on Halloween night so for example we have these Halloween themed Play-Doh packs from Hasbro they're already themed ready to go individually wrapped and they end up being about 30 cents per trick-or-treater wow for a lot of play value. You had us a multi-pack there. That's key when it comes to hang. So that is super handy. That's a great one. What else do you have? So I also love Wiki Stix. So again, these are individually packed, ready to go. There are eight Wiki Stix inside. And if you don't know what Wiki Stix are, there are these like wax sticks that kids can manipulate. They can make whatever designs, things that they can imagine. And they end up being about 40 cents per trick or treater but again a lot of imaginative play value for that price point that's and i also yeah and i also love the fall themed bookmarks and the trick is not to hand out the halloween themed bookmarks because the next day is you know november 1st so let's get a little bit more value out of it but these are from Oriental Trading Company and kids can go home they can color their bookmark and then they actually have something they can put into their favorite book and then the final two that i really really like are these individual pack of puzzles so these are actually two-sided so you actually get double the play these end up being about 70 cents per trick-or-treater but i especially love them for those halloween goodie bags that you might be doing if you're having a halloween party and then i always say when in doubt when you don't know what to give out other than candy is coloring books or coloring pages with a box of crayons because kids can use those all year long, long after Halloween. This is great stuff. And I love the variety that you're presenting to us here because you've got things you can spend a little bit more money on, but things like a bookmark, that's not something that's very expensive at all to, you know, print out a bunch of those or to find some with a cute fall theme like what you have sent us here. So that is a fantastic, fantastic gift for trick-or-treaters that doesn't take a lot of effort or money on your part. Okay. So let me ask you, you're the toy pro here. So what is your number one pick from the boo basket that you sent us? And then what would be your number one pick from, uh, from these small goodies over here, Charlene? Oh gosh, you're putting me on the spot because I absolutely love all of them, but I have to say, I mean, needless to say this doll from Maison Bataille is just gorgeous. It can be a collector's item for the adults in our life, but I think it's offers a lot of play dolls. So I especially love that one because she is gorgeous, but it's a doll that you can use all year long. And then I would say from the trick or toy basket, I'm going to go with wiki sticks. It's a classic. There's so many different ways to play and kids can manipulate it. They can make bracelets or they can make shapes. So I think it has a big age range span too, because the little ones like her three might use it a different way than say someone who's 13 I love it I did play with that one a bit behind the scenes and I agree that is a fantastic one as well okay so you guys cover the gamut when it comes to fun toys for kids so how can we find you I mean like we mentioned before you've got the best job in the world as chief play officer so where can we go to uh to find more great ideas from Playroom Chronicles yes you can head to playroomchronicles.com I actually have all the shopping links here so if you're like where do I find these things I got you covered because not only were you worrying about Halloween but we want to make it easy for us parents too very nice some fantastic ideas fall themed Halloween themed all things that kids will love so Charlene thank you so much we appreciate you taking the time to to check in with us again here in Atlanta thank you have a fantastic Halloween you too happy Halloween and for more fun Halloween ideas you can head to playroomchronicles.com and we'll also share a link on our website fox5atlanta.com just look under the Good Day section