I love the snackle box trend, and think the Valentine snackle box is super cute. We found these at Target and they come in a few different designs. The “LOVE” and the “XOXO” styles were my personal favorite. We filled ours up with some colorful candy, but the sky is the limit on what you could add in here. Other ideas would be: pony and alphabet beads to make a friendship bracelet box, a container os slime on the side and fun sensory mix ins, or for that beauty product teen/tween you could fill the letters with those sample products that come in the flat pouches.

Tie everything up with a cute little bow – we picked this conversation heart ribbon right at our local Dollar Tree – and add a fun gift tag. Cute for kids, friends, teens/tweens and even teachers (make sure to throw a little gift card in too – punch a hole in the corner and tie it on to the bow!)

What would you fill your snackle box with?

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Now that Thanksgiving is over, I am in FULL holiday mode. Tree is up, shopping has already begun, and, let’s be honest, is almost done, and we are in baking M.O.D.E!

Chex mix is a go to in this house, you can make it big batch and is super fun to package up and give to friends and neighbors. I’ve put it on here before, but here is the recipe in case you’ve missed it:

• 1c butter
• 1 1/2c brown sugar
• 1/2c light corn syrup
• 1 (14oz) box of Rice Chex
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1tsp vanilla
• 1c m&ms

In a small saucepan, heat butter, brown sugar and corn syrup to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.

In a brown paper bag, add caramel mixture over cereal and shake. Place in microwave for 2 minutes and shake again. Repeat. Pour mix onto wax paper to cool and add in m&ms.

If you wan to get those cute Utz pretzels in holiday shapes, you should probably have bought them already, or they are gone….but there are so many other cute choices and variations that you can make here.

Cookie swaps and edible gifts are my go to as well. I usually make sprinkle cookies, a chocolate chip of some sort, and a few cut and bake varieties or no bake choices, just to keep things simple. What are your favorite cookies?

My least favorite to make are cutout cookies, they are time consuming – but they are so cute! And chocolate covered Oreos are also a fun treat to make, and oh so easy when you have a silicone mold.

One of my favorite things to do is decorate my outdoor planters. Red berries add just the right pop of color, and I love the different textures the greens give. I chose these with the help of my friends over at Trombetta’s in Marlborough. They have something for everyone, at all price points, whether you want to design something yourself, or if you want to get a predesigned pop to drop into your planters.

While you’re there don’t forget about wreaths and trees!

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This was a Halloween for the books! We must have boo’d every kid in town. The kids were so excited. Just seeing their faces and hearing them laugh made it all worth it. We were so busy that we managed to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween! EEK!

One of our favorite spots to get Halloween treats is Heirloom in Weston. How cute is their dirt cake?

With all the boo baskets we did, I almost forgot to boo my own kids I like to reuse the baskets from year to year, so I kept the same pumpkin jelly baskets I bought from Target. For my oldest, I added Bonaparte Falls Apart, some spooky shost cookies from Rustic Bakery, assorted fancy treats from Sugarfina, some cute pumpkin and skeleton notepads, a “boo” straw, Meri Meri party crackers and a Tops Malibu sparkler wand.

For #3, we did Gustavo the Shy Ghost, a new trick or treat reusable bag from Target, fancy milk chocolate skeleton chocolates from Harbor Sweets, the only candy corn I like – in notepad form, a “boo straw”, some football cards, Meri Meri crackers, and some skeleton sticky notes. Not shown was the glow in the dark ghost NeeDoh.

I love all things mummy and anything that involves candy eyes. Do you prefer the cupcakes plain?….

…or frosted?

The Dollar Store coffins are such a cute way to dress up a little Halloween candy for a “boo”. We added a few fun treats like a “poison” bottle from the Bullseye playground and a Halloween bracelet to round out the fun!

Getting a boo is almost as fun as delivering one! Our neighbors dropped off this cutie pumpkin…while our animals of children raced out and “caught” them mid front lawn!

Another fun boo that we put together were these skeleton hand glasses we found at the Dollar Store, that we filled with some candy, vinyl ghost stickers for those water bottles, and a Meri Meri spider surprise ball!

I always like to try out one new recipe a season, and this holiday I did the Halloween M&M cookies from Cooking with Karli. Super easy to make, these dark chocolate cookies with Halloween colored M&M’s were a crowd favorite!

Another boo that we did were home made Rice Krispie treats, dressed up with Halloween colored sprinkles. Something a little special and different than those bags of candy!

I came across these super cute witch cauldron brownie bites on Instagram, and thought they would be so cute to make. Popped a few in a fun box and surprised a few friends with them one night!

Cupcakes are kind of my thing, so I was busy working on making different iterations – How fun are these orange frosted ones with skeleton and fang rings?

I’m not usually a cupcake topper kind of gal, but these Meri Meri ones and Day of the Dead ones are pretty fun!

Chocolate covered pretzels are so fun to make, and I love the Utz pretzel rods. There are so many combinations you can make, and I even made some that said “boo”.

Finding new uses for old things, I reused these old McDonald’s Happy Meal Boo Buckets to give cookies to friends and neighbors this year.

Cider Donuts are only my thing if they are hot and just out of the oven. These pumpkin donuts from Tougas Farm, however, weren’t too shabby! And how cute is this mini bottle brush Halloween tree from Migration Goods?

Rice Krispie Treats are even more fun when you get the orange Rice Krispies….

And last, but not least, how cute are these sugar cookies from Wilson Farm?

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We have been busy boo-ing since October 1st over at our house! Halloween 2024 has kicked off with a bang! Boo baskets, Halloween baked goods, you name it, we are ALL IN! I love these cute “oh snap” cupcake wrappers from Home Goods and Meri Meri witch cupcake toppers.

Chocolate covered Oreos can either be hand dipped or made in a silicone mold. Add some candy eyes and pipe with chocolate to make them look like mummies.

I picked up these cute cat cups at the Bullseye playground a while back thinking I was going to use them as birthday party favors, but they ended up being even better for Halloween. I used my Cricut to personalize each cup with friends’ names and filled them with fun things like Meri Meri surprise balls, flashing rings, vampire teeth, vinyl ghost stickers and of course, a little bit of candy! Big hit with the third grade girl gang!

Orang Rice Krispie treats were a big hit for boo-ing this year and so easy to make in big batches. We covered with fun colored spinkles and put in Halloween themed cellophane bags.

Using those same sprinkles, we also made chocolate covered pretzels. They travel really well and make for excellent boo-ing. They usually fit about 5 to a bag.

Some of our friends with littles got boo baskets this year from us filled paint your own pumpkin supplies: mini pumpkins, mondo llama paint from Target, pumpkin surprise balls, and a small bag of candy. A fun idea to keep the kids busy for five minutes and when you don’t want to go overboard on the sweets.

For some of the bigger families, we did larger baskets with skeleton coffins from the Dollar Store, filled with candy, light up rings and popper toys, Meri Meri spider surprise balls, glow bracelets from the Dollar Store, a fun honeycomb spider card from Papyrus, Halloween stickers from the Paper Source and the wooden tokens got friends one free Italian ice from Ye Olde Farmstand in Sudbury. They serve Richie’s Italian Ice and have over 20 flavors. You can mix and match, and in my opinion, the best part is that they ask you which flavor you want on top!! New flavors for next season are black cherry and key lime – we can’t wait!! Hurry in, the close November 1st for the season, but will open back up again in the spring.

What’s in your “Boo Basket?”

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