Halloween was and is always special to this Grandma.
It enabled me, as a long distance grandma, to help select and buy Halloween costumes for the grandchildren since they were babies. See, for example, “It’s Time to Find the Best Halloween Costume for Grandchildren Again,” and “Halloween Costumes are a Great Grandma Gift,” and other Halloween tips in one compilation post, “Making the Most of Halloween 2017 and Best Tips of Halloweens Past.”
That was before I discovered the beauty of Etsy and individualization of hand-made Halloween costume beauties. Etsy has the best Halloween costumes for children, and even the appropriate t-shirt “No Costume This Year. . . .2021 is Scary Enough.”
The above were all before I realized I could send sweets instead of a card at a cheaper cost, for Halloween and other holidays. See post, “When Candy and Gifts May Cost Less Than Greeting Cards, Getting the Best Bargains for Grandchildren For Valentine’s Day and Such Holidays Means Signing Up On Line.
And because 2021 has been scary enough even for upcoming Halloween, this Grandma went looking for distractions to the COVID-19 era we still live in. The best distraction is that October is also National Cookie month. National Cookie Month is marked in October to celebrate the existence of cookies, as if we need any excuse to celebrate the existence of cookies. Cookies first appeared in about the year 700, when sugar became first cultivated in Persia. If you want to know more, check out the history of cookies at this link.
Sweetness and Halloween go together, and in 2021, let’s think the sweetness of a cookie. The best cookies in the world can be ordered on line and delivered to your grandchildren where ever they may be.
18 BEST ON LINE ORDER BAKERY COOKIES
There is the website at this link which directs you to “18 Best Mail Order Bakery Cookies To Buy Online in 2021.”
Now that I have become a local grandma with three of our younger grandchildren moving to Florida, I am also seeking out cookie kits I can bake with them in person. Such joy!
The first listing from Levain Bakery can be done mail order as well as local.
GOURMET COOKIES AVAILABLE IN THE FREEZER SECTION AT WHOLE FOODS
This Grandma had never heard about Levain Bakery and then everyone at once seemed to be talking about this New York gourmet bakery with the best cookies. You can even save money because, in addition to home delivery fresh, they are now carried in the frozen food department at Whole Foods and baked fresh in five minutes! Great for grandmas whose favorite thing is to make reservations. Of course, I am going to search these out.
KRISPY KREME HALLOWEEN DONUTS
From the time our grandchildren were little, we had a secret that was not shared with their parents—Krispy Kreme Donuts. We taught them to look for the lit up red sign that said the donuts were newly baked. We would take them for this sugar high as a special treat and still do. For Halloween, there are special Halloween donuts 2decorated like cats called Abra Cat Dabra (original glazed donut dipped in chocolate icing and black sanding sugar decorated like a cat with icing and sugar fondant eyes), cauldrons called Enchanted Cauldron (glazed chocolate cake donut topped with Kreme and decorated like a cauldron with sprinkles and a pretzel “broomstick”), and witches’ brooms called Bewitched Broomstick (a Kreme filled donut dipped in purple icing, decorated with an icing swirl and gold stars, and finished with a green butter crème and pretzel “broomstick”), also sold as a LIMITED EDITION HALLOWEEN DOZEN (which includes also Spooky Sprinkle Donuts (glazed with orange frosting and colored sprinkles), or stick to the favorite original sugar glazed, hot of course. SATURDAYS IN OCTOBER THROUGH HALLOWEEN, get a $1 Scary Sharies Halloween dozen (11 original glazed with one Spooky Sprinkle with any dozen purchase with code SCARY.
TRADER JOES HALLOWEEN COOKIE TREATS AND COOKIE KIT
For those of you into Trader Joes instead of Whole Foods, there are several Halloween cookie treats to choose from to delight the grandchildren: Halloween Joe Joe’s Cookies, Pumpkin Blondie Brownies, Chocolate Mousse Pumpkins, Pumpkin Flavored Joe-Joe’s, Petite Pumpkin Spice Cookies, and for an activity to create with grandchildren, Haunted House Chocolate Cookie Kit.
WALMART HALLOWEEN BAKING KITS
3Walmart has five new Halloween baking kits based on Disney’s 1993 children’s film, Hocus Pocus. At $4.97 to $5.47 each, the mixes offer cookies to brownies to cupcakes. Try Graveyard Brownie Kit or Witches Caldron Brownie Kit, Hocus Pocus Binx Cookie Kit or Monster Eyes Sugar Cookie Kit or Spooky Vortex Cookie Kit, or Hocus Pocus Amuck Cupcake Kit. Buy on line or in the stores.
See, we are easily able to forget about 2021 COVID with Halloween . . . .as long as we keep the sweet celebrations at home with
Joy,
Mema