Halloween Museum page two

A great selection of duplicates from my collection are for sale on Page 10

I am always on the lookout for different trick or treat bags, in case you have an interesting bag that you don't see here.

The cloth bags, usually from the 1950s, are the earliest. Popeye and Casper are rare, being famous cartoon characters.

Below is a selection of hard-to-find bags from the 1960s. The first three in the top row below are made of the same material that Halloween costume masks are made from, vacu-formed, thin plastic. The Casper is an unusual paper bag from the 1960s, put out by the Swell Gum Company.

Halloween mask-like, 3 dimensional vacu-formed plastic, early 1960s

Halloween mask-like, vacu-formed plastic, 1960s
Halloween mask-like, 3 dimensional vacu-formed plastic, early 1960s Super Casper bag with decorated side panels, about 14" tall w/handles Halloween mask-like, 3 dimensional vacu-formed plastic, early 1960s

Looks like a Rocky & Bulwinkle illustration, plastic, 1960s
Plastic, late 1950s to 1960s
Looks like a Rocky & Bulwinkle illustration, plastic, 1960s 1950s to 1960s Ring 'n Treat Pirate bag Interesting 60s bag made of sewn, decorated, cardboard.

Trick or Treat Bags are one of my favorite things. I guess it is the imagery and the memories of trick or treating that appeal to me. My favorite images are those showing kids in costume and stylized images that reflect the time they were made. One of the great bags shows kids in costume and was made by Ben Cooper Co. - the costume company. It shows a few of their costumes on kids trick or treating. In collecting ToT bags, you can collect by age of the bag, theme (ghosts, scarecrows, witches, kids in costume, comic characters, product or store names, etc.), or just go all that you can find. Generally, the earliest bags were made of cloth, so I would date those as late 1940s to early 1950s with a few being made as late as the early 1960s. Cloth Popeye, was actually made in the 1960s and is an especially desirable bag sought by comic character collectors as well as Halloween collectors. After the cloth bags, the smaller bags with a strap handle appears and were made in the 1950s to 1960s. You can recognize them in that they seem to have a single strap going up from the middle of the bag. It is actually going from front to back.

Trick or Treat Bags from the 1950s and after. The strap going up the middle was the earliest handle, usually found on bags from the 1950s to about 1960.

In the mid-1960s, you begin to see a large shopping bag style trick or treat bag and a few heavy plastic bags appear. The 1970s was a strange time for bags. The stores began to emphasize their advertising rather than the trick or treat theme and although bags were made, there are very few memorable ones. The 1980s saw the death of nice Trick or Treat bags, but a few were made and sold in party shops and stationary stores that have some charactor (see my book, Halloween In America for examples). The 1990s-early 2000s was almost all thin plastic bags with a few interesting bags coming from McDonald's restaurants, Bloomingdales, Movies, and party or stationary stores.


Scary tree bag, 1960s	Clown bag, 1960s. Clowns are always pretty scary.		1960s-1970s General Mills Bag	1960s Two-faced witch bag


13 inch w/o handle,1960s Moon ship bag. With great graphics it is among my favorite bags. Isn't this every mother's dream - "Mom, we're going to the moon with a witch, in her spaceship."	In the 1950s TV spaceman shows became popular. This early 1960s Martian bag reflects that time. 13 inches tall w/o handle. It is among my favorite bags.	A group of kids Trick or Treating while a witch flys above, 12.5" tall, from the late 1950s	A rare Dunkin Donuts bag from about 1960. It is 16 3/4 inches wide and 21 inches tall (with handle)


A nice pair of ghosts on a 1960s bag. 13" tall w/o handle	A squiggly pair of ghosts on a 1960s bag. 13" tall w/o handle	A superb, early 1970s TOT bag with a hippie, psychodelic design.	A witch's house on a hill on a 1960s bag. 13" tall w/o handle. Add 4" for handle.	1960s clown shopping bag-sized bag. Clowns creep me out!


A JOL headed scarecrow 13.5" tall, from the 1960s	A JOL headed scarecrow 14.25" tall, from the late 1960s.	A great Scarecrow design on an early 1960s bag.	A group of kids Trick or Treating, 17.5" tall, from Holiday Service Stations, from the late 1960s


1993 Nightmare Before Christmas TOT bag	Bloomingdales' Little Brown Bag. Only made for one year in the mid-1990s.	Harry Potter Trick or Treat bag from 2001.	A Haunted Mansion movie TOT bag from 2003.


2009 Hannah Montana TOT bag	Pirates of the Carribean TOT bag	2009 Spongebob TOT bag


A 1960s-70s Bell's Burgers bag	1990 White Castle TOT bag came with a Pez dispenser. Looks like '50s	1964 McDonalds arches TOT bag	1964 Archie McDonald for McDonalds	1960s silvered pumpkin man


	McDonald's 1990 Vinyl Trick or Treat Bags


Ben Franklin' store	Ben Cooper bag showing their line of costumes	Lots of great imagery	Kahn's hot dogs	Frisch's Big Boy Hamburgers
			halloweencostumes
Simple black cat w/ToT	Variation one	Variation two	For Goblin's Loot - great slogan	Kids trick or treating


1950s Ken-L-Ration bag, 13 1/2 inches tall w/handle	1950s orange on black bag with great imagery.	A tough 50s bag to find	1960s bag with Frankenstein, 10 x 17 inches tall


Ghosts & Spider webs	Lots of Ghosts	JOL head witch & owl	Jujy Fruits	Rare bag from Walgreens

Great image of Trick or treaters	Available in a shorter version	Great "Shell Out" slogan	Orange Crush soft drink	Early 1960s


Simple goodie bag style, but large - 8.5 " tall	Early 1960s	Late 1960s	Early 1960s	Late 1960s

Late 1960s	Great costumes - Late 1960s. This is a great bag, since the kids carry a bag with this bag's design and that bag ...	A rare bag - Late 1960s - very sweet	Late 1960s - non-scarey cat	Late 1960s - non-scarey cat


Late 1960s	Late 1960s - color the owl	1973 rare Dairy Queen	Late '60s or early 70s

Late '60s or early 70s	Late '60s or early 70s	Late '60s or early 70s	Late '60s or early 70s


Halloween mask-like, 3 dimensional vacu-formed plastic, early 1960s	Halloween mask-like, vacu-formed plastic, 1960s	Halloween mask-like, 3 dimensional vacu-formed plastic, early 1960s	Super Casper bag with decorated side panels, about 14" tall w/handles	Halloween mask-like, 3 dimensional vacu-formed plastic, early 1960s

Looks like a Rocky & Bulwinkle illustration, plastic, 1960s	Plastic, late 1950s to 1960s	Looks like a Rocky & Bulwinkle illustration, plastic, 1960s	1950s to 1960s Ring 'n Treat Pirate bag	Interesting 60s bag made of sewn, decorated, cardboard.


Late '60s or early 70s	Late '60s or early 70s	Late '60s or early 70s - 2 sides of the same bag

Late '60s or early 70s	Late '60s or early 70s	Late '60s or early 70s - 2 sides of the same bag