Vegan Halloween Guide: Fang-tacular Guide to Celebrating a Boo-tiful Hallows Eve

Park your broom and sit for a spell while we share the most ravishing vegan Halloween recipes, heart-pounding All Hallow’s Eve activities, and cackling, cruelty-free candies that are all vegan-friendly. This vegan Halloween guide has everything you need to make the most out of this most magical night of the year. Get possession of your pumpkin and let’s carve out some good times!

When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.
– Author Unknown

Fun Vegan Recipes to Enjoy at Halloween

You may be wondering which cauldron creations you can concoct this eerie October 31st evening. Kids and adults will be utterly enchanted by these haunting, Halloween-themed recipes from the dark shadows of our witchy kitchen.

• Vegan Pumpkin Muffins – These delicious chocolate chip speckled muffins are climb-out-of-your-coffin worthy! Perfect for any vegan Halloween party or potuck dessert.
• Spooky Jack-o-Lantern Smoothie – This spine-tingling smoothie will satisfy trick-or-treaters of any age! Feel free to decorate with any terrifying toppings of your choice.
• Mice Krispies – Crispier and cuter than the original, plus cruelty-free.
• Mummy Meatballs and Mummy Dogs – Use your favorite vegan hot dog and plant-based meatballs for mouthwatering results.
• Sweet & Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds – Scooped, salted, and roasted to perfection. Use seeds from your own carved pumpkin for an eco-friendly and sensational snack.
• Vegan Caramel Apples – The best part of October—also delicious and dairy-free.

Halloween Traditions That Are Already Vegan

Here are all of the holiday traditions that are super fun and free of animal products and animal cruelty:

• Trick or Treating – Buy or create your own costume and visit your favorite neighborhood or shopping area. Find time to swap non-vegan candy for vegan-friendly candy with fiendish friends, neighbors, or co-workers.
• Campfires and Ghost Stories – A crackling, cozy fire is the perfect place for ghastly ghost stories. Consider adding some campfire banana boats as a ghoulish snack!
• Decorating Pumpkins – Decorating pumpkins is one of our favorite activities. Choose to carve up your plump pumpkin or paint with paranormal perfection. Remember to reveal your orange orb before the macabre magic ends at midnight.
• Corn Mazes – If you’re lucky and live in an area with corn mazes, try to take part!
• Hayrides – Catch a ride with the grim-reaper (aka farmer) and take a rest in the sweet smelling dry grass as it takes you around the farm.
• Making Caramel Apples – Creating the chewy caramel is monstrously fun, but taking that first bursting bite of caramel apple will have you vishing you were a vampire.

Which Halloween Candy is Vegan?

We have a separate vegan Halloween Candy guide that will make your candy shopping super simple. Want a sneak peek? Here are the 100% vegan candy brands at a quick glance:

100% Vegan Candy Brands

• Black Forest Organic – Adorable gummy bear, worms, and critters, all plant-based. You can’t go wrong with their juicy, fruit flavors.
• Dandies – The best vegan-friendly marshmallows that will ever taste! The pumpkin flavor is especially perfect for this time of year.
• Eva’s Cultured Candy – Vegan, gluten-free, raw, and organic. How can you go wrong? Each candy is infused with kombucha cultures for a unique and tasty treat.
• Seitenbacher – 100% vegan fruit snacks and happy-fruits all ready in super cute bags to share on Halloween night.
• Sjaak’s – Scrumptious skulls, fantastical frogs, deep dark chocolates, and tempting trick-or-treat assortments will totally take your breath away.
• Smarties – With just 25 calories per roll, these classic pastel-colored candies are easy to find and fun to share.
• Torie & Howard – These chewy fruits (think Starbursts) and sweet n’ sour hard candies will cast a curious spell on you

Vegan Trick-or-Treat Candy Categories

If you’re feeling totally spooked and a bit frozen with fear about which candies to choose from the crypt, we made up this handy little list to help you out.

• Enchantingly Inexpensive – Airheads, Dum Dum Pops, Now and Laters, Skittles, and Twizzlers
• Ghoulishly Gourmet – Sjaak’s, Schmilk, or Compartés Vegan Chocolate Gifts
• Scarily Studious – Pencils, pens, notebooks, and rulers
• Eerie Explorers – Small flashlight, mini compass, or magnifying glass
• Hauntingly Health Conscious – Annie’s Fruit Snacks, fresh fruit or fruit leather, and granola bars (Clif, Lara, MadeGood and GoMacro bars are all great)

Alternatives to Candy for Trick-or-Treaters

We think these candy-alternative Halloween options are pretty darn fang-tacular!

• Colorful Pencils, Erasers, or Art Supplies – Inspire a burst of creativity by giving one of these kits to your ghostly guests as they knock at the door.
• Coloring Books – Coloring books are a great choice because they’re suitable for all ages and can be fun to fill in with mummy and daddy at home with a giant box of colorful vegan crayons.
• Stickers – Grab as many packs as you wish and give them out as the masked children march up to the door for a tempting trick or trick.
• Mini Toys – Sensational options for when you don’t know what to buy and you’re feeling the doom and gloom of indecision.
• Fruit Snacks or Mini Granola Bars – Healthier versions of candy or candy bars. Just sweet enough to feel like a treat, but also with a nugget of nutrition.
• Mini Flashlights – A functional favorite and can be used for imaginative play, daring discoveries, and also finding your way home in the dark on Halloween night.
• Puzzle Cubes – Activate your brain cells and keep busy with this perplexing puzzle game.
• Packets of Seeds – Encourage gardening by sending some easy-to-grow seeds into the world.
• Bookmarks – Inspire reading with some fun bookmarks for the neighborhood kids.

How To Handle Halloween for Vegan Kids

We have practical suggestions on how to handle their brimming bags of tempting treats for maximum magical merriment:

• Shift & Sift – Make a game out of going through the candy bags and let your child figure out which candies are vegan-friendly and which are not. You can print out our candy list to have on hand and quickly check if it’s a “go” or a “no”.
• Trick-or-Trade – Trade the non vegan-friendly candies for ones that your child (and you!) might be able to enjoy without fear.
• Parents’ Pumpkin Stash – Keep an assortment of vegan candies to swap with your kids for any that they are unable to eat. The other candies can be donated, taken to work, or given to non-vegan friends or family.
• Host a Home Party – Instead of the children going out for fun-tastic festivities, have a party at your own house! Play a Halloween-themed movie (suggestions for little kids and a list for slightly older children), make popcorn with vegan butter, plan a few spooky crafts, decorate pumpkins, and share a supply of vegan candies for them to take home in a cute little cloth bag that they can reuse every year.

Eco-Friendly Vegan Halloween Decorations

Here are some fun and festive suggestions for a more earth-friendly Halloween-decorated home:

• Bring the Outdoors Indoors – Go on a nature walk (or drive), bring a basket (or wagon), and bring back all the the seasonal fruits you can find. Keep an eye out for corn stalks, pumpkins, wheat sheaves, gourds, apples, fall fruits, colored leaves, or even interesting rocks. The best thing is that all of these things can be composted or put back in nature (or eaten!) when done.
• Call Up Your Creativity – Create your own art (or your children’s) using colored paper, paint, scissors, crayons, or markers. Think colors such as orange, black, gold, and green. Check out these super fun ideas for children’s Halloween craft projects or several spooky Halloween crafts for adults. Our vegan coloring pages would make awesome decorations, too!
• Tackle Those Thrift Stores – You’ll not only be saving money, but helping to reduce more landfill waste. If it’s something you’d rather not use every year and it’s still in good condition, consider donating it back instead of throwing it away.

What Should I Be for Halloween This Year?

We’ve put our hobgoblin heads together and came up with a number of chilling (and not-so chilling) choices for you or a child in your life:

• Rescued Farm Animals – cow, pig, chicken, turkey, etc.
• Favorite Fruit – apple, avocado, banana, bunch of grapes, etc.
• Favorite Vegetable – carrot, peas in a pod, corn on the cob, etc.
• Vegan Food – block of tofu, bottle of nooch, or a large kale leaf
• Your Vegan Hero – Earthling Ed, James Aspey, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, etc.
• Plant-Based Doctor – Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Neal Barnard, T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., etc.
• Vegan Celebrity – Moby, Alicia Silverstone, Joaquin Phoenix, and more!
• Plant-Based Athlete – Meagan Duhamel, Rich Roll, David Carter, and so many more!
• Silly – a bottle of sriracha, a bucket of popcorn, a slice of vegan pizza, Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts beverage, etc.

Here are a few World of Vegan favorites…

Adorable Avocado Costume

This costume is fun, and if you find a good one for babies or toddlers, they can be very comfortable and cozy too!

Be An Animal Sanctuary (Family Coordinated Costume)

Have each personal in your family choose a farmed animal, and you can collectively be an Animal Sanctuary for Halloween! This would also make a great theme for a vegan Halloween party, too.

“Not A Nugget” Costume

If the whole family doesn’t want to get in on the farm animal costume fun, you can embrace PETA’s classic “Not A Nugget” concept! Make a little sign to put on the costume that says “Not A Nugget.”

How Do I Find a Vegan-Friendly Halloween Costume?

When choosing a vegan Halloween costume, there are only a few things that you should keep in mind:

• Material – Make sure that the materials that you’re using or wearing are free of animal products like wool, leather, silk, suede, or any animal skin.
• Accessories – Try to steer clear of pearls, shells, animal bone, ivory, or animal hair (including feathers) when choosing adornments for your costume.
• Make Up – Most commercial Halloween make up is not vegan or cruelty-free. If possible, consider buying new and bold colors from your current favorite vegan-friendly make-up company instead. Or, you can browse through these bold brands for an extra ghoulish getup.
• Pre-Packaged – Made mostly made out of plastic and polyester. This makes them more vegan-friendly, but also less eco-friendly. If you can find a costume that you love so much you want to wear it every year (or share with others), then go for it.
• Thrift Store Finds – You’re bound to find plenty of secondhand halloween costumes to choose from at your local thrift store.
• Secondhand Children’s Stores – Probably have many like-new Halloween costumes for kids since they grow so fast and can only wear them for one year.
• Make Your Own – Tap into your crafty side and make your own!

Vegan Halloween Comics & Art Worth Sharing

Throughout this guide we’ve shared several pieces of vegan Halloween artwork. Feel free to download these and share them on social media and tag us!