Creative costumes, haunted houses, and trick-or-treating make Halloween one of the year's most interesting and fun holidays. Halloween is almost here and kids are getting ready to head out and get lots of candy. Children disguised as witches, clowns, ghosts and action heroes will race door-to-door asking neighbors to fill their bags with all sorts of treats.  The American Heart Association says keep the fun in Halloween, but don't be "scared" to offer your neighborhood trick-or-treaters healthy snacks ... so kids don't get "tricked" into treats high in cholesterol, fat or sugar. Let's all do our part to help reverse the "frightening" and dramatic increase in the prevalence of overweight and obese children and youth in our country.

This Halloween, the American Heart Association is urging parents to make sure their little ones are getting a healthier Halloween by not filling up on lots of junk food. You should have kids eat a good meal before they go trick-or-treating. And you don't always have to give out candy.

There are treats that you can give that are non-sugar treats, pretzels, dried fruit, that sort of thing, and also especially for younger kids, little treasures, things like pencils and crayons that will fill their bag so they'll be happy but they won't have to eat it.

Feed them first - Make sure your kids are fueled up for trick-or-treating with a healthy snack or meal before they go trick-or-treating so they don't dip into their treats.

Pillow cases are for pillows - Give the kids smaller treat bags like recycled grocery bags so they won't bring home too many sweets, and keep the pillow cases and trash bags at home!

Surprise them with health, not horror - Be the healthy house on the block by offering treats like pre-packaged snack-sized dried fruit, pretzels, or baby carrots.

Give them treasures for treats - Hand out boxes of crayons, stickers, colored pencils, erasers, Halloween tattoos, or rubber spiders!

Patrol those treats - After inspecting all treats to make sure they're safe, remind the kids to eat their treats in moderation, so they last longer!

- American Heart Association