Halloween Mason Jar Treats

While looking online for some fun Halloween gifts to make with mason jars (since they're all the rage), I came across this fun and easy post (which originally came from Alicia at A Beautiful Mess).

Note "Trick Or" is crossed out on purpose. Only treats here!

Seemed simple enough - buy the ingredients, eat some ingredients, put in jars, wrap with ribbon, eat more ingredients, write witty label and give to friends before jar is empty. Here are a few tips to make it easier on yourself that they don't mention:

#1. Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl - that way you don't have to worry about the treats not being thoroughly mixed.

#2. Pour the ingredients from the bowl to the jars with a slotted spoon. Why slotted? Because inevitably when you poured out the bag of pretzels into your bowl, a lot of crumbs and salt probably fell out as well. The slotted spoon can ensure those crumbs aren't included in the jars.

#3. Put the labels on the ribbons before wrapping around the jars. And use a hole punch. Otherwise, you're just making things harder on yourself. I had to use a sewing needle and poke 8 times until I got a hole big enough for the ribbon!

#4. Leave some breathing room at the top of the jar. That way your goodies aren't smooshed and it makes a fun noise when you shake it! Yes, I'm as easily amused as a 3 year old.

#5. The labels (originally found posted by Elizabeth at Oh!Nuts) probably took the most time, as they are an intricate design to cut out. However, if you pop in a podcast, you'll have 8 cut out in 30 minutes or less without realizing it.

SUPPLIES:
Scissors
Hole punch
Ribbons
Mason jars
Goodies (I included Cheeze-Its, pretzel squares, salted peanuts, Honey Nut Cheerios, Reece's Pieces, candy corn, and candy pumpkins). If you wanted to make it a little more healthy, you could add in raisins or craisins, granola, and dried fruit but c'mon, it's Halloween time! Make your dentist work for their money!

TOTAL COSTS: About $30
Ingredients = $20.75 at Vons in Los Angeles ($2.99 Cheese-Its, $3.49 pretzel squares, $2.99 salted peanuts, $2.99 generic Honey Nut Cheerios, $4.29 Reese's Pieces, 2 for $4 candy corn and pumpkins)

Ribbons = $2.58 at Vons (they didn't have orange so I bought one spool of red and one of white)

Mason jars = $8.49 at Target (though their website says $16.99) and I only used 8 jars

Labels = Free (so long that you have printer paper, color ink, and scissors)

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 1 hour
From ripping open the bags to tying the final label, it took me 1 hour. As I said, cutting out the labels took the most time and if I had put the labels on the ribbons first, rather than after they were already on the jars, I could have saved some time as well.

EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5
No harder than going grocery shopping. Grab the kiddos and make some fun gifts (maybe for their favorite teachers, coaches, friends, etc.). Enjoy!