Banish Those Halloween Hazards with Three Quick Safety Tips

Halloween is traditionally full of treats that bring smiles to children of all ages, and tricks that are almost always in good fun. When it comes to Halloween safety, though, the only trick involved is using common sense at every opportunity. Here are three simple solutions to keep yourself, your home, and your guests out of harm's way.

Protect yourself! Intricately carved pumpkins are a staple of Halloween, including popular attractions like the annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at Rhode Island's Roger Williams Park Zoo. While trained professionals can work wonders with a sharp knife, one slip could result in a trip to the emergency room for the average Halloween fan.

A popular way to work a little magic with a lot less risk: drilled pumpkins! With an electric drill and drill bits of different sizes, it's easy to create elegant designs. There's no shortage of ideas and patterns online, especially on crafting websites and social media powerhouse Pinterest. Mix and match a few to create a unique Halloween vignette for your tabletop, sideboard or porch.

Protect your home! Once those pumpkins are designed and drilled to perfection, it's time to shed a little light on -- or, more accurately, in -- them. Unless you're planning to sit right next to your pumpkins all night, fire extinguisher in hand, a candle or other open flame source isn't the safest way to go.

Technology to the rescue! Thanks to the evolution of lighting in recent years, there are many battery-operated lighting sources available at craft stores, big box superstores and online. For the Halloween purist, there's even an LED pumpkin light that flickers like a real candle and has a remote controlled timer feature!

Protect your trick-or-treaters! When the big night arrives, neighborhoods across the country will be teeming with happy costumed children eager to go door-to-door for goodies. Sadly, not all trick-or-treaters can enjoy candy and other sweets because of food allergies, celiac disease or other medical conditions. Depending on the severity of the child's condition, even the smallest trace of an allergen can have serious consequences. For this reason, many children must pass on this cherished October ritual.

Enter the Teal Pumpkin Project! Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) brought this

initiative to national prominence in 2014, modeling it after a local awareness campaign in Tennessee. The Teal Pumpkin Project encourages families to offer non-food items like stickers or small toys instead of or alongside traditional Halloween candy. Participants in the campaign display a teal-colored pumpkin as a signal to food-allergic children that they can safely trick-or-treat there. Teal was chosen as the color symbolizing food allergy awareness about 20 years ago. Many national retail outlets and craft stores have made it easy for families to support this initiative by offering ready-made teal pumpkins for purchase. Of course, painting a pumpkin is a fun project for children of all ages! FARE encourages participants to share photos of their teal pumpkins on social media, using the hashtag #tealpumpkinproject. Don't forget to share yours, and let your neighbors know about this initiative as well!

Looking for ways to put just the right level of haunted in your house for Halloween? Blackbird Design Studio can help! Schedule a consultation today!

Until next time,