Not Halloween
Many people compare Halloween and Purim. Besides the masquerading in costume, they are as different as can be! What happens on Halloween? Children go from door to door, saying, "Trick or treat!" Where did that expression come from? The origin is a threat: "If you don't give us a treat, we'll give you a trick!" On Purim, instead of going around demanding presents, the children go around delivering presents! What a difference!

Sending Mishloach Manot is not only fun and easy, but a great opportunity to be creative. The minimum requirements are simple: You have to give two different types of ready-to-eat food to one person.

Anything Goes
After that, let your creative juices flow! In Israel and Jewish neighborhoods in the Diaspora, pre-packaged Purim baskets are sold, usually containing an assortment of candy, cookies, wine, nuts and fruit. A pretty basket wrapped in cellophane holds in the goodies.

You can always create homemade treats to put in instead: homemade jams, rolls, cakes, kugels - even salad dressing. Go crazy! One year I delivered to my neighbors a breakfast shalach mana: a cup of hot coffee, bagel, butter, hard-boiled egg, and orange juice. Another year, it was a head of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado and small jar of homemade herbed salad dressing - all delivered in an inexpensive plastic salad bowl. In Israel, where people tend to receive a lot of junk food on Purim, that was a big hit!

My neighbor received mishloach manot wrapped in a new dish towel to look like a piece of candy. Other memorable mishloach manot: One with an almond theme - chocolate with almonds, marzipan, roasted almonds, almond liqueur, and almond brownies. Another with a fish theme: a small can of tuna, gummy fish, chocolate fish, etc. Then there was a deli platter: a roll, cold cuts, mustard, cup of coleslaw, and a can of soda.

So use your ingenuity! But remember, it should be fun - the amount of money or effort put in isn't the point - you should enjoy it! If you love to cook or bake, live it up. Or, maybe a funny theme will make your Mishloach manot package memorable.

Reaching Out
While it is always a pleasure to exchange mishloach manot with friends and family, this mitzva is especially appropriate to use as a way to connect with others we don't know so well. The elderly, those who are new to a community, neighbors you don't yet know - all are great candidates to receive your mishloach manot. They will really appreciate that you remembered them! Two years ago in Israel, following the wave of bus bombings, there were soldiers posted at bus stops throughout the capital. They were the grateful recipients of many of our neighborhood mishloach manot. Remember -- this is a chance for us to express our "achdut" (unity) as a nation!

Shaliach Mitzvah: The Messenger

Children make especially good bearers of mishloach manot. Where it is not safe to let children go alone, they can be accompanied to the door, but it's a special treat for them to give out the presents. Since mishloach manot have to be delivered on Purim itself, it is often expedient to deliver them to shlichim (messengers) beforehand, so that they can deliver them on Purim.