Awesome Jack-o-Lantern tip: To prevent fire and possible burn accidents, don’t use fire! Illuminate with color by using a Cyalume Snaplight Glow Light Stick. Meant to be used while camping or in emergencies, they work perfectly inside the pumpkin and can give off four different glow colors. They come in green, red, yellow and white. They last for 12 hours and cost about 1.75 each. You can buy them online at http://www.safetycentral.com/chemligstic.html and at other survival, preparedness or emergency readiness online stores.

If you know of a walk in store that carries them, I would love to know where.

Find Them in The Dark Tip: This tip involves the Cyalume Snaplight Glow Light Stick too. I came across this one when researching where to buy these powerful glow sticks. I know there are those glow necklaces that you can buy at Walmart, etc. but they don’t last very long and there lamination is faint. I have seen parents have their children put them on while trick or treating to help locate the child in a crowd and to help drivers spot the child on the street. Not very effective.

Instead give each of your kids a glow stick as a necklace to make it easy for you to track them and for cars to be able to see them as they run from house to house. They can also help you locate them in a crowd of trick or treaters. If you have more than one child, give each one a different color so you can tell who is who from a distance. Give one to yourself as well. That way they can easily find you if they feel scared and they won’t panic from not being able to see where you are in the dark among the other parents.

Ease mask claustrophibia: The night of Halloween comes and finally your child can put on his mask and costume! He puts the mask on and takes it off a minute later, refusing to wear it. He just doesn’t like the way it feels. IF you’re a little bummed that he is not in full costume then you know he has to be. If he had more time to get accustomed to it, he would wear it without the uncomfortable sensation, so to prevent mask claustrophobia, let your child wear the mask for days ahead of time. This will feed his excitement and give him practice to become accustomed to the mask.

The best way to ease mask claustrophobia though is to enlarge the holes for the eyes. I know now a days the masks are made out of stronger materials then when most of us were kids, but if possible, do it. You will be happy you did and so will he.