With Halloween right around the corner, costume stores are packed with kids, and candy is no longer on the shelves. The week before Halloween is prime time to plan out the big night. Kids should have their costumes, parents should have their candy stash ready, and kids and parents should work together to plan out the best route.

Most people’s favorite part about Halloween are the costumes. Costumes can be expensive and it can be hard to find the perfect one for each person. For easy ideas of fun costumes for both adults and children, check out this link.

Something most parents don’t put a lot of thought into is the type of candy they buy, unless they have a child with allergies. According to foodallergy.com, around 5.9 million children in America have food allergies. This is around one in thirteen children. Out of those children, around 30 percent have more than one allergy.

“It sucks because everyone always says Reese’s are amazing and parents always give them out but I can’t have them,” junior Nicole D’Souza said.

To make things easy for these children and their parents, there are certain candies parents can buy which are allergy friendly. These include Milk Duds, Dum Dums, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, Skittles, Smarties, Milky Ways and Tootsie Rolls.

On Halloween night, children go door-to-door in neighborhoods close to them to get candy from parents, but the celebration doesn’t have to stop there. Events like Boo at the Zoo and Trick-or-Treating at the Franklin Park Conservatory keep the Halloween spirit alive.

Boo at the Zoo is held the two weekends leading up to Halloween. The celebration is open to anyone on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Children can meet different characters like Wonder Woman and Batman, storytime, and other fall themed events around the zoo.

“I enjoyed the festive atmosphere and seeing all of the different costumes,” Parent Kathy Hall said. Hall and her daughter went to Boo at the Zoo when Reagan was younger.

Trick-or-Treating at the Franklin Park Conservatory is the Saturday before Halloween. Children can arrive in their costumes and go trick-or-treating around the venue.