This year, alongside the traditional orange Halloween buckets, children with autism are encouraged to carry blue buckets. This will help to make trick-or-treating more fun and inclusive for trick-or-treaters who have autism and are nonverbal. The blue Halloween bucket has become an unofficial symbol of awareness for autism so if you see a trick-or-treater holding a blue pumpkin candy bucket at your doorstep, it could mean the person is autistic. The phenomenon launched last year after Alicia Plumer shared an image of a blue Halloween bucket on social media announcing her autistic son would be carrying the item while trick-or-treating. The mom shared that although her son looks 21, "he enjoys Halloween."
If an autistic child does not have a blue bucket, Autism Speaks suggests that those with autism wear a badge or carrying a bag with a sign that indicates you are autistic. Be Check out their Halloween Guide for tips.
This is a great idea but the blue bucket, however, isn’t the first blue trend to hit the holiday season. Another campaign calls for blue pumpkins on your doorstep. The Teal Pumpkin Project was launched by Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) in 2014 to raise awareness of food allergies on Halloween. A teal pumpkin on your doorstep means that you are offering alternative and non-food treats available, such as glow sticks or small toys. You can find signs here to indicate what you're handing out.
A Guide to Non-Food Halloween Treats
All of these projects help to ensure a safer and more inclusive Halloween for all trick-or-treaters. Be mindful of who comes to your door, and if you are the parent of a child who requires these courtesies, make sure to review the material so that your child is prepared and has a Happy Halloween like everyone else.
LIKE THIS ARTICLE?
Macaroni Kid College Park East Point Morrow is a free hyper-local weekly newsletter and website focused on fun family events and activities for kids in College Park, East Point, City of South Fulton, Morrow, Union City, City of South Fulton, Forest Park, Hapeville, Jonesboro, Riverdale, Rex, Lake City, and the surrounding areas. We gather together all kinds of local family events and activities each week and add useful information about classes, family-focused businesses, product reviews, recipes, crafts, school and camp guides, and more. We are your go-to-guide for kids' activities in South Fulton County and North Clayton County. For more articles like this delivered to your inbox once per week, please subscribe here. If you have an extraordinary event that you would like to share in our community, you can submit it for free here.
