Halloween Candy
I was at the grocery store the other day, and passed by the piles and piles of fun sized candy, ready to be bought a bit too early, brought home and eaten, and for the eaters of said candy to come back and buy some more. I was thinking about how nice a tiny little Baby Ruth would taste, or maybe an Almond Joy. I’m looking forward to after Halloween, when our ‘candy cow’ is full of yummy candy. Most of it will be from Maya’s trick or treating, and some will be the leftovers from our failure to get anyone to come this far back into a little condo complex to trick-or-treat, so every year I buy it, every year, it sits here, unwanted and unloved. Well, except that it is wanted and loved by us. 😉
Us? Does that mean Py and J, as well as Maya? Why yes, indeed, it does. I know several families that deal with Halloween candy differently. One of Maya’s friends, D, is allowed to pick her favorite 10 pieces, and the mom brings the rest to work to foist upon unsuspecting folks, hoping to lose a dress size before the Christmas party, and seeing their doom in that huge bowl of candy. Another friend ‘buys’ the candy from the child, giving them some money in exchange for the haul, and again, bringing it to work for the poor coworkers to try to resist. We all know what those 3:00 munchies can be like. It’s darned hard to resist that candy, even if deep down, you don’t even want it. So, are you at all curious as to how WE deal with the sudden influx of candy around here? We eat it. All of us. “Shocking!” you might say, “That’s Maya’s candy, and she earned it fair and square by trick-or-treating! Hands Off!” That’s where your logic is flawed, my friend. You see, I drove her to the store to buy her costume. I paid for the thing. I arranged for her to go trick or treating with her friends. I drive her there, I drive her home, I go through the candy to make sure none of it has obvious razor blades. In my opinion, this candy is now communal property. So, into the candy cow (that’s our cow shaped cookie jar, which isn’t as good for cookies, which go stale, as it is for candy, which doesn’t, at least not so quickly) it goes. Every night after dinner, we each pick out a piece or two, and we enjoy it. This lasts for a few days, and then at some point we start forgetting it’s there. One day I look through it, and all of the good stuff is gone. All that’s left is some other family’s idea of good, our idea of crap. And I dump it out.
How does Maya feel about this, you may well ask? I like to think she’s fine with it. She sees the logic behind Ted and I being a part of the collection of this loot, so she’s accepting, if not thrilled, of us getting a share of the bounty. I could be wrong, however. Maybe it drives her nuts. But she knows, if she wants mom and dad to shell out $$$ for a costume, some Baby Ruths have to come my way. 😉
Those of you with kids of trick-or-treating age…how do you deal with the candy that’s coming your way VERY soon? Do the kids eat it all, do you spirit it away to torture your coworkers, or do you share the wealth?
15 Comments
Mom101
While Thalia’s too young for candy (although her father seems to disagree at times for reasons I can’t entirely understand) I’d love to do what we did as kids: The day after Halloween, we could each pick say, 10 pieces to keep. The rest was brought to school where they sent all the extra candy to orphanages (or similar). Was I pissed at the time? Of course. But I grew up to appreciate it.
Ml
I think back to when I used to trick or treat and my parents would let us keep all our candy. If we wanted to share, fine, if not then eat it all. Being of short stature, I trick or treated until I was 19 and no one knew the difference because all the 10 year olds were bigger than I was…Muuhahaha.
However, if I did have children of my own, I would probably want them to share the candy with the family and not take the bounty to work.
BTW, I like the word foist 🙂
Beenzzz
We definitely share Zoe’s candy. She sets out the cheaper candy and Derrick will take that to work with him. The good stuff is for us.:) I agree, we do shell out money for the costume and take her trick or treating,so half the loot is ours!
Maya's Granny
As I remember, you got to keep all of your own candy. When I was a kid, I got to keep all of my own candy.
Shelliza
Hmmm, Almond Joy! Yummy. There’s a domino effect with all this candy starting now. It’s Halloween, then Christmas and before I receive my credit card bill, it’ll be Valentine’s. When I worked outside of home, I took leftovers to the workplace lunch room and before my husband swiped all the M&Ms. I’ve never trick or treated but Connor(aka Superman) will. Once in Canada, my parents ran out of candy, so my dad started giving out Loonies. Needless to say, out house was BUSY!!
Dot
We share it. For about a week or two then I toss it out. Autumn only likes a few kinds of candy so she eats the few she likes, my husband tries to eat the rest. It’s a group effort in my opinion. We outfit her for the night of trick or treating and she rewards us with candy in the end.
Gina
Well, a four year old has no business eating all that candy, dontcha know? He gets so much candy that even with all of us sort of dipping in now and then, it lasted over eight months, and then I just threw it out.
Had never thought of bringing it to Hubba-hubba’s work. We might eat the good stuff and then let them have the leftovers! We’re so thoughtful.
LynnDenise
My kids get to keep all of the candy they like and they give the rest to us. We let them have two pieces for dessert, after dinner. Usually, after about a week, they forget the candy is even there and it sits in the pantry until around January when I, finally, throw it away.
I remember when we were kids, we got to keep all of our candy except the pieces our parents sneaked from our bowl. Also, my brother used to keep his bowl of candy under his bed. Haha, little did he know, it made it easier for anyone to steal the good stuff from him.
Contrary
I only ever had one rule for Halloween…I get the tootsie rolls. Man, there is no better fake chocolate in the world.
Also, the red tootsie pops. Because I am 6, apparently.
Cherry
After mom “inspected” our plunder, my brother and I would sit with a big mixing bowl each, and one for mom. Then we’d divy it up giving each other our favorites.
Perhaps that is why I didn’t develop the intense love for the chocolate… because I always got the candy corn and all the fruit flavored stuff. But we did always equally split up the tootsie rolls, its not really chocolate.
Py Korry
As long as I get my Kit Kats and Peanut Butter cups, no one gets hurt! 😉
katkat
We make goody bags for our family members. That way I won’t eat it all. And my son gets to share.
la luna
The first few days, everyone at our home OD’s on the candy then it just sits around until it’s retired to the garbage can. We love Holloween, candy,costumes & fun
Jenny
In our family we share the wealth. Luckily I am mostly able to resist eating it. I usually let them keep about 10-20 (since I want some too) and the rest gets checked for razors. If they all look good I have them donate the rest at church to the other kids. The church hands out candy for good work on memorizing scripture and races and fun games they do. They all get candy for their work. I figure I can contribute to the cost of buying all that candy each year and donate it to them. They end up getting it back anyway as they win it at church.
Amy
WHen I was kid, my mom always had us split our loot into two equal piles. Then she’d take one pile and either throw it away or take it into work, and we got to keep the rest. My kids are young enough now that I can get away with tossing most of it and they don’t realize. But I’m not sure what we’ll do when they get older.