Tonight is Trick or Treating in our neighborhood. We have a tradition with our kids and I thought that maybe my daughter would tire of the tradition this year. Nope.
After I take them Trick or Treating and they fill up their pumpkin, we will dump out all the candy and sort it by favorites. Then they pick out 10 pieces of their favorites and the rest goes back in the pumpkin and by the back door. During the night the Great Pumpkin comes and takes all their candy and leaves them prizes in return. (Then Mom and Dad enjoy the candy for a few months.) Emily LOVES this tradition and I love that they don’t spend days/weeks begging for Halloween candy.
A friend of mine has the tooth fairy visit on Halloween and take the candy and leave toothbrushes in exchange.
Do you have any Halloween traditions like this?
Our local fire department sends out there trucks 1 or 2 days before Christmas to travel through the neighbors with lights on and sirens blaring. Santa tosses candy out to the kids that run out into their yards as the fire trucks go by. We will be donating the left over candy to them. I got way too much this year thanks to coupons.
I’m sorry, I think that’s so mean.
Why even go? You get the kids all excited to go and get the candy and then you take it away. Why not go do some other activity that doesn’t involve trick or treating and candy?
A local Dentist buys the candy you have collected ~ a dollar per/pound then mails it overseas to the heros that are fighting in the war!
Our boys are excited to be able to do this……this year we told them that we would match dollar/dollar & give them what the dentist does.
We got the LARGE ToysRus magazine today in the Newspaper & they were trying to spend their money that they think they will get from the Dentist!
They keep using the scales to weigh their candy!
Our boys are sooooooooo EXCITED!
Money speaks louder than candy….
First, everything gets dumped on the table and we pick out what we want. Next, anything that won’t melt gets picked out and goes in our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. Finally, anything left over gets stored away for class or church parties (or put on the front porch for other kids if my kids finish up early).
Also…one good thing(or bad depending on how you look at it) we live in a small town where everyone knows everyone and nearly everyone hands out candy, so the kids come home with tons of candy. Times that by four boys and we have enough to last us a LONG TIME!!!
That is a good idea!! Too bad my boys are too old to startt hat now…lol. Not really a tradition but for the last 4 years we have visited a nearby state park with some friends and thier families. The campground there has a wonderful trick or treat/ halloween program for the kiddos. They block all car traffic for 2 hours and the campsites really go all out decorating thier lots and campers. They always do it the Saturday before Halloween so we can still enjoy Halloween herer at home.
We have a Candy Monster that visits and goobles up most of the candy on Halloween night and always leaves a surprise in return. My husband and I even mess it up and put some candy wrappers around their pails so it looks like it was gobbled in a hurry :)
My friend just trades her kid the candy for a toy, without benefit of a Pumpkin Fairy or Switch Witch. My almost 3 year-old probably wouldn’t care either way, since we’ll only be going to about 10 houses on our street of people we know. But maybe I’ll have the Switch Witch (I love saying that!) switch out some candy for a toy for her. Thanks for all the great ideas! (Though boo to getting toothbrushes! That hardly seems fair)
These are some good ideas i use the halloween candy as a motivator for my girls. They think it lasts all year because i replace it when it runs out but i give them a peice when theyre super good or help with soemthing they dont have to.
Those are some great ideas. Unfortunately no one in our neighborhood celebrates Halloween but us. So we just end up buying a bag of the mixed candy and rent a bunch of scary, but kid friendly, movies like Goosebumps and they get to stay up all night watching them. Any candy that is left over, I normally put in a treat box for our homeschooling.
Wow, these are some great ideas. I like doing the Great Pumpkin or Witch Switch and then taking the remaining candy to the hospitals or for the military. My little one isn’t yet interested in trick-or-treating. We went to two houses yesterday before we were done. The little one loves handing it out to kids though! :)
this is our first real year of trick or treating so we don’t have any traditions but i am stealing yours!!! great idea!!! and i can bring the candy to school (work) with me for my students to enjoy :)
Also, I would take my children and go up to the local hospital and give their candy (after they each picked out 20) to the children that didn’t get to go trick or treating. The children were to happy and the parents were so thankful that our children thought of others and not themselves. I would call before you go, to find out if your hospital participates.
My children are a bit older 7 and 9.. perhaps I should have started something like this earlier. But I really your idea even better that the “Great Pumpkin”. What a great way to teach your children about giving to others…. We may have to start this!!
This is an amazing idea. We live in Columbus OH and there is a huge children’s hospital here. I think next year I will have to look into whether or not they would allow us to do something like that.
thanks for all the great ideas! i think i will start this with my 4 and 2 yr old. I’ll be using the leftover candy to fill the pinata for their birthday party at the end of nov.
We do this with my daughter every year, she is allergic to peanuts so what she can eat after Trick or Treating is very limited. We just leave the baggie on the door and the Great Pumpkin comes and takes the candy and leaves her something small in return. I usually take a few peanut butter cups and snickers, put them on top of the fridge and eat them when she goes to bed lol, but everything else I send with her dad when he goes to work and he fills the break room’s candy dish lol.
I totally would have noticed if my parents were stealing my candy.
I don’t think my kids would like the toothbrushes in exchange, but that’s a really good idea on the prizes. Better than eating the candy all month.
We do something very similar we have a “Pumpkin Fariy”. The kids pick out about 20 pieces of their favorite candy and then the rest gets set out for the Pumpkin Fairy. She comes and takes the candy and pumpkins and in return leaves a small toy or present (this year it is clothes, the $5 Old Navy Vests from last weekend :) ) I also know that some dentists buy back candy.
We make a candy chain out of our candy using saran wrap and pretty red ribbons. My kids choose one piece of candy from November 1st through Christmas Eve. That way, every day they get one piece of their Halloween candy. It also helps them see how long until Christmas. Any remaining candy gets used for our annual Gingerbread Houses!
ooh i love that idea!
wow~ That is my favorite idea of all.
I never had any restrictions. Of course my mom would discourage us from gouging on it all at once, but Halloween candy used to last us MONTHS!!
I know someone that lets her kids keep 5 pieces then pays them 10 cents a piece for the rest
Oh my gosh this is PURE GENIUS!!! We did the Library’s festivities today and OMG we already have what in my opinion is enough candy!!…lol…
My friend heard of a program with dentists. They give you $1 per pound of candy and then they send it to the troops. The troops overseas give it to the kids in the villages over there.
an orthodontist in my area is doing this as well, I thought it was a great idea!
We are starting the same thing this year. My son is 3 1/2 and he is already upset by this.
you ladies are smart cookies! i have never even thought of doing something like this! i love this idea! i might have to start doing this!!!
We also have a tradition of allowing the kids to choose 10 pieces. Then the rest of the candy is taken by the “Switch Witch” and is replaced with a small toy for each of the kids. The candy from the Switch Witch is then donated to our local food pantry.