Let me start with something that might offend: not every kid loves Halloween

Some kids are naturally afraid of being scared; you fill a room with skeletons and fake spiders and they hide behind you, too scared to come in; you dress them in scary costumes and they cry so much they refuse to go trick-or-treating; Halloween should be a kids' holiday, but it turns into their day of suffering

Actually the solution is simple — replace horror with cute; Halloween kids' meals follow this idea: skip jack-o'-lanterns and skeletons, use everyday fruits and ingredients to make round, smiling little shapes; when kids see the plate, they first go wow, then ask what it is and if they can eat it

The shapes below use only everyday ingredients, are not scary, and taste great; kids can even put them together themselves

First, the three principles of cute

It's not about making the shapes complicated; it's about replacing the horror elements

First, rounder is better; round things are naturally calming; square, sharp shapes look fierce, while round is the foundation of cute

Second, give them eyes, and smiling ones; eyes are the key to whether an animal or a shape has a soul; place two dots with blueberries, chocolate chips, or candy eyes, tilt them slightly, and you get an innocent little face

Third, no fangs or blood; the most common scary Halloween symbols — fangs, blood, sharp claws — are all skipped; smiles replace fangs and jam replaces blood; on a kid's plate, you can have a slightly scary name, but not a truly scary look

Ghost banana: the simplest cute shape

Take a ripe banana, peel it, and cut it in half through the middle; each half is a plump little ghost body

Take two blueberries or two chocolate chips and press them where the ghost's face would be as eyes; to make the expression livelier, use black sesame seeds to dot a small mouth — a single dot or a curved line works

Serve it and you get a little ghost smiling at you; it's not scary, just a bit pale; put two or three on a plate and kids smile at once

Mummy hot dog: use cheese as bandages

Steam or pan-fry a hot dog (or mini hot dogs), then set aside to cool slightly

Use a slice of soft cheese or a cut cheese strip and wrap it diagonally around the hot dog like a bandage, leaving a small area for the face; wrap two or three strips and cross them to look like mummy bandages

Then use ketchup or mustard to dot two small points on the exposed face as eyes; for a cuter look, add two round dots so it resembles a goofy mummy rather than a fierce one

Kids already love hot dogs, and after wrapping cheese and adding eyes, it becomes a mummy I made myself, boosting both the sense of participation and the appetite

Pumpkin orange: just peel and you're done

Pick an orange with easy-to-peel skin; peel it into segments or keep it whole, then gently pinch a few pumpkin ridges into the peel — pinch once to make the skin bulge into a ridge

Then take a small cucumber strip or a piece of celery and stick it on top of the orange as the pumpkin stem A mini pumpkin is done

The beauty of this design is that no prep is needed Just peel, pinch the ridges, and pop on the stem, and you are done The orange is naturally sweet, so kids can peel and eat it while playing

Spider Oreo a no-bake dessert spider

Take two Oreos and carefully twist them apart so the cream filling is exposed

Take four pretzel sticks and push two into the filling on each side for a total of four legs, or add four more to make eight legs Then place the other Oreo half back on top and press gently so the legs are sandwiched in between

Add two candy eyes or chocolate chips, using a bit of melted chocolate or peanut butter as glue to stick them on top of the Oreo A round, goofy little spider is complete

This spider is not scary at all, it is just an Oreo holding cookie sticks, at most a cookie with legs Kids can even give their spider a name while making it

Bat toast two wings are all you need

Spread a layer of peanut butter or any spread you like on a slice of whole wheat bread

Take two chocolate pieces or two cookie wings and place them diagonally on top of the bread like spread bat wings Then add two eyes in the middle using blueberries or chocolate chips

Your bat toast is ready It has no fangs or sharp teeth, just a pair of chocolate wings and two little eyes, the kind of cute bat that flies onto your breakfast plate, not the scary kind

Cute rice balls let little animals move onto the plate

Shape the rice into balls or little animal shapes like a mouse, cat, or rabbit Cut out eyes and a mouth from nori, and use carrot or corn kernels for ears and a nose

Or even simpler, shape the rice into a round ball, stick on two nori eyes, and wrap a cheese slice around it like a scarf A round, smiling rice ball sprite will make kids not want to leave any rice uneaten

The great thing about rice balls is that they are familiar and kids will eat them, and with a smiling face they go from today's meal to my little buddy For kids who get scared easily, this familiar plus a little magic is exactly what they need

A few general tips

Eyes are everything Blueberries, chocolate chips, candy eyes, and black sesame seeds all work great as eyes Two slightly crooked eyes look much cuter than two perfectly straight ones

Turn scary elements into cute ones Instead of a skull face, draw a smile Give the bat wings instead of fangs Skip the furry black spider body and use an Oreo You can still call them ghost, mummy, or bat, but they have to look adorable

Let the kids assemble everything None of these designs are complicated, they are all just put together Have kids place the eyes, wrap the bandages, and stick in the legs themselves They are more likely to eat something they made than something an adult made

One last thing

Halloween doesn't have to be a holiday where every kid needs to pluck up the courage to play. It can also be a relaxed, happy holiday like I have a plate of cute ghost bananas

The point of this kids meal is not to teach kids not to be afraid, but to tell them that this holiday has a way to play that they'll love. Kids who get scared easily can also hold their own plate of smiling little shapes and say with all their heart — Halloween, I really like it too