How much candy do you give?

[dvcnewgirl]

1 fun sized bar and 1 lollipop.

 

[toystorymom]

ONE piece per child.

Am I cheap?

NO!!!

We get nearly 500 Trick-or-treaters each year. I'm NOT exaggerating!!!

We live in a subdivision that is the coolest place to ToT apparently. People drive from all over the city (and neighboring cities) to come here. If you stand in the middle of the street and look down, it's a sea of people-it's CRAZY!!!!

I have to start buying candy at the start of September so I don't drop $75 at once

WOW! Sounds fun! We're in MA too, where is this subdivision? May have to drop my kids off there.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

I don't know if this still happens, but when we lived in Oakville (Ontario) there was someone who gave out stock certificates to the kids. Yeah, real stocks. There was always a line-up of kids to go to that house but I suspect it was the parents urging them on - what kid would take a piece of paper over CANDY??

Teresa

 

[michellejed]

The first year in our new house we were told about 100 kids, had over 200!!

The next year we got enough candy for 300 kids, it rained and we had less then 50!!! Stuck with a ton of yukky candy!!!

Now we hand out mini candy bars that we also like so if we are stuck then we can freeze them.

They get 2 mini to start and more if it is a light turnout

 

[angeleigh]

We have bought candy every year and don't have anyone come. My kids load up at our two neighbors because my kids are the only ones they get. When we first moved here one of our neighbors said that my kids were the first they had in 10 years.

 

[angeleigh]

I don't give out any. I'm usually out with the kids and DH is working! So when we get back I just recycle our kids candy to the last few straglers.

When we lived in town we did this. The kids got a ton of candy and when we got back we would "recycle" it. I also used it for my dd's birthday goodie bags in November and for their christmas stockings one year. Now that their older I don't think I can pull it off. They inventory it as soon as we get home. There is no snagging a Reese cup for daddy now.

 

[toledo13]

I give each person one or two pieces, and make sure I put my hand way down deep in the bag so they can't see what they get . At the end of trick or treat, when there's 20-30 min left, I start giving out more because I do NOT want it in my house. Death trap.

 

[jensen]

I'm a candy recycler, too... not only that, but our town has a huge parade the first week of October, so all the candy the kids get at the parade also goes out the door on Halloween... it's NOT because I'm cheap. I do it because the candy would never get used at our house. Luckily for me, my kids don't have sweet tooths, so candy can sit for years and never get eaten. I still have Easter candy from two years ago in the cupboard.

One of our neighbors puts on a HUGE halloween display and hundreds of kids walk our block each year, so I easily go through all of the candy I buy, the kids candy and the parade candy... of course, I do give handfuls (6-8 pieces each) to make sure I get rid of it.

 

[Narnia]

I bought a huge halloween bowl at the dollar store and have filled it with stickers, rings, bouncy balls,pencils, gummie candy, eye suckers. I'm not even going to be home but I give the stuff to the guy next door and he hands it out for us. We get about 50 kids or less since our street tends to be over looked.

 

[kellia]

We live in a somewhat rural area and are one of the few subdivisions in the area, so we get tons of kids dropped off from all over. Since we are on the first street in the sub, we get at least 400 kids. So, they only get 1 piece unless I know them!

 

[C.Ann]

If they're small pieces, we just let them dig in - or we give them a 6 or more pieces..

If they're the fun-size candy bars; small bags of M&M's; etc. we usually give them 2 or 3..

 

[caribear]

We usually get about 50 trick or treaters so I hand out goodie bags loaded with 2 mini-bars, stickers, tatoos....play-doh for the little ones...pencils, spider rings and whatever I bought after halloween the year before on sale! I also buy the Wendy's Frostie or McDonald's coupons and throw those in there too.

Now if we received 200+ trick or treaters I would not be making the treat bags!! It would be candy only or play-doh for the little ones.

One year I put everything in a bowl and told the kids to pick 2 candy items and 1 toy....everyone....even the 15 year olds took the play-doh. Now I put the play-doh off to the side and just offer it to the little kids.

 

[kid-at-heart]

In our town T-n-T lasts from 6:00 until 8:00. Most of the time I am out of candy by 7:30 or before. Lots of kids.... I buy two large Costco bags of the little fun size chocolate bars. I give one per child and when I run out I close up shop (go inside and turn off the outside lights). In our neighborhood, most of us wait outside our houses passing out candy. That way we can watch the children and be available if needed. Most of the kids are really nice and understand that once the outside lights are turned off, there is no more candy from that house. The little ones come out early, the older ones, (teens) tend to come out later.