Halloween question for parents

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Save some for them and take the rest into work.

 

[ilovejack02]

I don't know if you are talking to me, but if you read my second post I said I posted my question on this board by accident so I apologize profusely for posting the most outrageous thing you have ever read on the budget board. I don't currently throw out the candy - I just said I was considering getting rid of it after a week - what I really meant was out of my house.

Other people posted that there are places that take donations, which I hadn't even thought of before. So thank you for that suggestion, and now I will go back to my usual lurk mode before I offend anyone else with something even more outrageous.

Lesson 1 of the disboards, people get offended for every thing, gotta learn to take it with a grain of salt .

 

[tikilyn]

We go out trick or treating pretty early and by the time we get home our candy bucket is half empty (dh stays home to pass out the candy). We have the kids go through their bags and pick out the candy they they really like and we dump the junk candy in our candy bucket to pass out to the rest of the trick or treaters. That away most of the candy is out of my house and the kids get to eat what they like and I don't have to throw any of it away.

 

[pennymom]

As PPs said, I let my kids eat as much as they want for a few days, then a piece or two each day either in their lunch box or after dinner. They do tend to forget about it after a while.

On December 1, we make a Christmas countdown...we take out a long length of waxed paper and each of the kids chooses one candy at a time, we twist it into a sausage shape and tie each section with ribbon. Each 'sausage' gets numbered from 25 down to one, and they cut off one section and eat a piece each night as a countdown to Christmas. Anything that doesn't fit into the countdown is donated to our local Red Cross which either sends it to the troops overseas or to the local military base for troops deploying.

 

[pigletto]

I do the same as you OP. They eat quite a bit on Halloween night with gradually less and less interest and then it just hangs around on the top of the cupboard until I toss it sometime months later.
I wish there was something to take them to.. some kind of event or party and then a little bit of trick or treating after so that they had a nice full evening and still had some but not tons of candy afterwards.

It's not a huge deal by any means, but there's always the drag it out or gorge debate every year

 

[riley2008]

The boys get a couple of pieces of their favorite candies that night, but then 1 piece with their lunch and 1 piece after dinner. They usually forget about it after a week.

Then.....we get to make the most amazing gingerbread houses ever! Weird looking ghosts become melting snowmen and we've even turned a skeleton sucker into a pretty cool santa (just covered him up with icing!).

Tell you friends now, and it is a great Saturday after Thanksgiving activity! Invite them over and bring their leftover candy and leftover Thanksgiving treats too! Friends always have something different to eat, so you get to trade and sample. (And you get rid of ALL the leftovers - from Thanksgiving an Halloween)

 

[pigletto]

The boys get a couple of pieces of their favorite candies that night, but then 1 piece with their lunch and 1 piece after dinner. They usually forget about it after a week.

Then.....we get to make the most amazing gingerbread houses ever! Weird looking ghosts become melting snowmen and we've even turned a skeleton sucker into a pretty cool santa (just covered him up with icing!).

Tell you friends now, and it is a great Saturday after Thanksgiving activity! Invite them over and bring their leftover candy and leftover Thanksgiving treats too! Friends always have something different to eat, so you get to trade and sample. (And you get rid of ALL the leftovers - from Thanksgiving an Halloween)

EXCELLENT IDEA!!!!

 

[SILLYANDI]

My kids have a couple on halloween night then get to pick 20 pieces to keep (they can eat all 20 right there if they want to, the faster it's gone the better!).
The rest goes back into the Halloween hand out bucket (minus a few I sneak for me lol). If we don't hand it all out on Halloween night it goes to my work and sits in the lunch room until it is gone!

 

[scrapquitler]

When I was growing up, my Mom took most of the chocolate bars and froze them, then she handed them out during the next few weeks as snacks/deserts. But on Halloween night, we were allowed to eat whatever we wanted, as much as we wanted. After that, my brother's and I would trade and or use our candy stash as currency!

In my house, the kids sort thru what they get on Halloween night, and eat whatever they want. The rest goes in a big bowl which I leave out for a couple of days and they each eat a few pieces here and there. After that, I figure everything they really want will be gone. I keep the leftovers that I like in my secret stash and the stuff that nobody wants eventually gets thrown away (since I'm not very picky, there isn't too much that gets tossed) a couple of weeks later.

Same thing pretty much happens after Easter. Gorging that day and free access (with a LOT less enthusiasm) the next few days, then eventually it gets hidden or tossed.

 

[arielmomma]

On Halloween night, I let the kids eat whatever they want. Then for the next week, after lunch, they can have whatever they want. After a week, my DH takes the candy to work and gives it away. Its Halloween. Let them have some fun!

 

[stewpette]

Halloween candy cookies! Every year my husband makes these and people go nuts over them. He makes chocolate chop cookie dough (without the chocolate chips) and then takes all of the leftover candy from what we were handing out, plus whatever good stuff is left in my daughters bucket, chops it all up and adds it to the dough. The cookies are amazing. You would never think snickers, butterfingers, almond joys, whoppers, peanut butter cups, twix etc would taste so good all mixed up and chopped up in cookies, but they do! You get a different taste with every bite. The non-chocolate candy we use for gingerbread houses.

 

[Carriemel]

I follow a tradition passed down from my mom. My 2 year old isn't all that into candy...so for each piece, we give her a nickel which goes into her piggy bank. (Last year she made upwards of 20 bucks) DH and I take the candy to work (we work at the same place) and leave it in a big ol' bucket. Normally, ALL of the candy is gone by 2pm. Now, this includes the MNSSHP candy and we all know that you get TONS.

 

[scrapquitler]

Halloween candy cookies! Every year my husband makes these and people go nuts over them. He makes chocolate chop cookie dough (without the chocolate chips) and then takes all of the leftover candy from what we were handing out, plus whatever good stuff is left in my daughters bucket, chops it all up and adds it to the dough. The cookies are amazing. You would never think snickers, butterfingers, almond joys, whoppers, peanut butter cups, twix etc would taste so good all mixed up and chopped up in cookies, but they do! You get a different taste with every bite. The non-chocolate candy we use for gingerbread houses.

I'm going to have to remember this, they sound delicious! Of course the Chocolate candies are not the ones leftover (the leftovers are usually hard candies, tootsie fruit flavor rolls, and things like that).

 

[B&Bforever]

We would always save what would work and use in on our gingerbread houses, trains etc. This saves on having to spend a fortune at Christmas on extra candy.

 

[indimom]

My kids are older, so I don't regulate it. They keep it in their room in a box or drawer (same with Christmas and Easter). Sometimes its in there for a L-O-N-G time! I do notice a lot of wrappers laying around after they have friends or cousins spend the night, so I guess they bring it out when they are hosting a party. Works for me. When the kids were younger (and more likely to gorge themselves), we put the chocolates in the freezer and the hard candy in a jar and doled it out to them.
Generally only the candy no one likes goes to waste at our house. I may have to steal the gingerbread house and cookie ideas though. Those are great!

 

[everylastbreath]

I actually read this on board somewhere and we are going to use it this year with my GS(5)- realize it will only work with young children, we are going to let him pick out 10 pieces of candy to keep and the rest will go into a bag for the "Candy Fairy" who will come and take the candy and replace it with a toy. Someone in our house will then take the bag to work.

When my kids were younger, I would just take handfuls of candy to work everyday until the bowl was empty, they never noticed it missing!!

 

[angierae]

By the time DD15, DH and I have picked out everything we like, it doesn't last long. Most of the stuff she gets is stuff no one likes, and I'll take it to work and let it sit and see if anyone wants it there.

I don't understand why people still pass out candy they know kids won't eat when you can get a bag of chocolate for a buck and a half if you catch it on sale at CVS or something. But we always end up throwing away a ton of hard candy or super-chewy things or weird candy no one's ever heard of.

 

[SDSorority]

Curious how other parents handle consumption of Halloween candy.

In the past, we have let our kids eat several pieces of candy on Halloween night and then they save the rest and we let them have one or two pieces each night for dessert - on nights we have dessert (we generally only eat dessert on weekends or special occasions). This results in them still having candy weeks or months after Halloween is over.

I'm not a total health food nut by any stretch of the imagination, but we normally try to limit the amount of candy and junk food in the house and I've always hated having the candy around so long after Halloween.

I'm considering this year letting them gorge themselves for a full week - as much as they want, and then tossing whatever is left after that. Would love to hear opinions on this and to find out what other parents do.

We don't have kids. But when we do, we'll have them go around for it, then have them turn it in to the 'Halloween Fairy' (or something like that ) and we'll give them a bar of organic chocolate and maybe a new toy or something.

 

[Reese]

When the kids are done trick or treating all the candies get dumped and sorted together (it discourages the older ones from wanting to stay out all night since they share it all anyways). They each get to pick 5 chocolates, 5 chips and 5 candies. The rest is bagged up and traded for a new book. I than take some of the candies and freeze them. I use them throughout the next little while. The remainder Dh and I take to work with us for our co-workers.
These little treats work great for a math game we play. I pull out the penny jar and for every right math question they get right they get a penny. After we're finished I set out treats with prices and they get to go to the store and use their pennies for treats. Halloween keeps us going for awhile.

 

[CTdiznymom]

Didn't read the entire thread so sorry if this has been stated.

Most of the candy your kids don't eat can be FROZEN.