Easy Ways to Veganize Halloween, Pt. 3

Oct 12, 2020

"I went vegan because I saw the terror in their eyes and I realized the monster was me."
-Unknown

1. Treats to Avoid

In Part 1 and Part 2, I shared some vegan snacks to try for Halloween, but this time I want to make you aware of certain brands that should be avoided or approached with caution. As always, before buying anything, make sure to check the ingredients, and be aware of what ingredients could secretly be nonvegan.

Altoids: Most Altoids mints contain gelatin.
Candy corn: In Part 2, I mentioned that candy corn isn't vegan, and that doesn't seem to have changed in the past year. Brach's candy corn contains gelatin, and Jelly Belly's is coated in beeswax. If you really want candy corn, you'll have to try making it yourself, at least for now.
Dark chocolate: It seems logical that dark chocolate, as opposed to milk or white chocolate, would be dairy-free, but most popular brands contain milk. If you really want some dark chocolate (or plant-based milk chocolate), it would behoove you to search in advance in case you need to order it online.
Famous Amos: Like most conventional cookies, Famous Amos and other popular cookie brands contain milk and eggs.
Haribo: Nearly all Haribo gummies are glazed with beeswax, and most also contain gelatin.
Junior Mints: It may surprise you that it isn't the chocolate that's the problem with Junior Mints. These candies are actually coated with confectioner's glaze, which is made with shellac, a secretion of female lac bugs. That doesn't sound quite as appealing as confectioner's glaze, does it?
Mentos: While certain Mentos products are vegan, some contain beeswax.
Rice Krispie Treats: Though these treats contain dairy, they also contain gelatin, from the marshmallows used to give them that iconic stickiness. However, these are quite easy to make at home with plant-based marshmallows, and you can find thousands of recipes with a quick Google search.
Starburst: In the States, Starburst products contain gelatin, but in the UK, their candies are gelatin-free and vegan. Why do they do this? No one knows.
Welch's: It's sad that brands like Welch's, who make exclusively fruit-based products, could be on this list, but their gummy fruit snacks also contain gelatin. However, there are many other brands that you can find at most grocery stores that make gelatin-free gummy candies.
Werther's: Generic butterscotch and caramel products like Werther's candies are not vegan, as they contain dairy.

2. Animal Rights Costumes

Veganizing your Halloween costume is one of the more creative forms of activism, and it gives you the opportunity to show carnists their victims without forcing them in front of a screen. My initial idea for a costume would be a dairy cow, complete with branding, ear tags, and bloodied horns and udders, wearing a "This is dairy" sign. For something more timely, your costume theme could be "animal agriculture causes pandemics" or "vote with your dollar." Of course, if you're less into the theatrics of dressing up, wearing a shirt with a straightforward message is also effective.

*Check out facepaint.com and Jest Paint for vegan-friendly face paints, as some generic paints are pigmented with animal-derived ingredients and may not be cruelty-free.

3. Games & Crafts

3.1 Bobbing for apples

What could be more vegan than bobbing for apples? This classic Halloween game is already vegan-friendly, so there's no need to even veganize it!

3.2 Free the hens from the barn

Pin the tail on the donkey always seemed like a particularly barbaric game to me, though no donkeys are actually injured while playing. Where did his tail come from? Did humans remove the tail purposefully just to pin it back on? (Wouldn't surprise me.) Why are we sticking his butt with a pin instead of surgically replacing the tail at a hospital?

Veganize this classic children's game by rescuing animals instead of hurting them. With a large picture of a barn full of chickens, have the blindfolded player attempt to place a key on the lock of the barn door to free the thousands of birds inside.

3.3 Guess the number

Instead of guessing how many jelly beans or M&M's are in a jar, veganize it by guessing how many UnReal chocolate peanut gems are in a jar. And whoever wins gets to eat them all!

3.4 Bag of Tricks

Bag of Tricks is a little game I thought of as a play on generic charades. Fill a bag with common excuses people use to not be vegan (you can check out my series on that for ideas!) or to justify ex-veganism, divide into teams, and act out the excuses. You can also provide a bag of treats for snacking while playing!

3.5 Corn husk crafts

Corn husk dolls are beautiful, autumnal decorations perfect for this time of year, especially when you take the time to make them yourself. And if you're thinking that you wouldn't know where to find corn husks to get started, you can find them online. With a little ingenuity, you can make a whole animal sanctuary's worth of dolls!

3.6 Homemade witch's broom

Though you can find tutorials on how to make your own broom online, I think of witches' brooms as intentionally imperfect with a gnarled sort of feel. As this would be used for decorative purposes only and doesn't need to actually work (we all know that witches don't really use their brooms for sweeping), take time to gather twigs from outside, and when you have enough, tie them around a larger stick with some twine.

4. Vegan Activism

4.1 Share scary footage

What happens to animals on this planet is far scarier than anything that could be depicted in any horror movie, and if people are going to participate in the violence, then they are obligated to at least see whose lives they're destroying. Take some time this season to share farm/slaughterhouse videos on your social media platform, particularly as so many animal products are consumed on Halloween and other end-of-year holidays.

4.2 Create a haunted house experience

There were a few houses in my trick-or-treating days that went all-out on Halloween and converted their garages into haunted houses, which the bravest trick-or-treaters entered to earn their candies. (I was never one of those fearless children.) Take this opportunity -- but perhaps not in the year of COVID-19 -- to turn your garage, or even just the exterior of your home, into a slaughterhouse or factory farm.

4.3 Project Dominion

With a projector, play Dominion, or your animal rights documentary of choice, on your garage door or some other flat, exterior surface of your home. For an added bonus, you can sit outside with your candy for trick-or-treaters and teach the little kiddies how food is made. Though no sound is necessary, your neighbors still may not be too thrilled about it.

4.4 Amplify the meat section

This is certainly not a form of activism for the faint of heart, and it would definitely be better done with a group instead of alone. In the meat section of your local grocery store, bring a speaker and play the sounds of animals screaming in a slaughterhouse. You could also do it more Cube of Truth-style and bring in a screen playing footage. This will certainly elicit reactions from other shoppers.

4.5 Exchange treats for outreach opportunities

A less "extreme" form of activism would be to meet people in public, or set up a booth, and offer them free plant-based treats in exchange for having a conversation about animal rights or watching a quick video. Most people are more willing to approach someone if there's free food involved, even though we're supposed to learn in childhood not to approach strangers with candy. . .

4.6 Spooky stickering

While there's never a wrong time to put up stickers in your area or on nonvegan products at the grocery store, you can also find holiday-themed stickers online, perfect for this time of year.

5. Vegan Potion Ingredients

The ingredients in witches' potions are notoriously not animal-friendly, but there are definitely creative ways to veganize it if you, like me, love the decorative aesthetic of labeled vials and jars. Here are a few ideas for vegan ingredients with which you can fill your cauldron:

Instead of toads, use toadstools (and dried mushrooms would look particularly witchy)
Instead of eye of newt, use black-eyed peas or vegan fig newtons (make sure to check the ingredients first)
Instead of animal hearts, use hearts of palm or artichoke hearts (especially if they're floating eerily in liquid)
Instead of pickled animals, use pickled vegetables (the pickling process must amplify the magical potency of the ingredients)
Instead of rat tails, use cattails
Instead of worms, use vegan gummy worms
Desiccated coconut (really, anything desiccated) definitely has a creepy vibe
Raisins, dates, and other dried fruits have the perfect shriveled look of something that, when in an unlabeled jar, would look natural in a witch's brew

6. Movie Night

Especially with the little pandemic occurring, this might be the best year to stay inside and watch movies on Halloween. Though you could take this opportunity to share important documentaries with carnist friends and family, you could also watch and discuss horror movies with animal rights themes. Some that I'd recommend would be: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Birds, Mother!, The Thing, The Platform, and The House That Jack Built.

And if you're having a movie night, then you definitely need snacks. . .

7. Favorite Homemade Fall Treats

7.1 Roasted squash

Squash always seemed like a weird food to me. That is, until I actually tried it. All you need to do is take a squash (butternut, spaghetti, or whatever you prefer), cut it in half, sprinkle some cinnamon or other seasoning of choice on it, and roast it -- insides faced down -- in the oven until it's soft. Not only is it hearty and filling, but it's also sweet like candy!

7.2 Pigs in a blanket

Honestly, it's a complete disgrace that this snack is called what it is because there's nothing cute or heartwarming about what goes into them. To truly be kind to pigs, wrap some vegan hot dogs up instead.

7.3 Vegan caramel corn

As mentioned above, caramel isn't traditionally vegan, but you can make your own caramel sauce at home by mixing your nut/seed butter of choice (my preference is peanut butter) with maple syrup. Atop some oil-free, home-popped popcorn, this is a much healthier alternative than store-bought caramel corn.

7.4 Pumpkin cookies

These cookies by Loving It Vegan are my new obsession, though I can't make them often because I'd just be eating them all the time. They are the perfect pumpkin-y treat for all your Halloween needs (or just for snacking).

7.5 Chai snickerdoodles

If you love the traditional flavors of both chai and snickerdoodles, then you're in luck! These cookies from Mindful Avocado are your answer, and you don't even need to have chai seasoning on hand -- you can make it with ingredients already in your kitchen.

7.6 Vegan butterbeer

Though a vegan butterbeer has (finally) been released for sale this year, it'd be much less expensive to simply make it on your own. If you'd like to try, the Protego Foundation, which continues to lead the campaign for plant-based butterbeer in Universal parks, has a recipe here.

be conscious, be kind, be vegan, be spooky