Halloween~ My children are not happy!

What do you do to avoid the left over candy?
Do you not buy the candy and do something different?
Just looking for some other ideas for next year maybe...

I try not to buy too much candy so that there is not leftovers. Most of the leftovers that I do have I take to work. My kids are grown now, but when my kids were young I did the same. They got to eat anything they picked up trick-or-treating and I might keep a few of our leftovers but if there was more than a few items left, most of it went to work where it was promptly scarfed down. But I've never been a big candy eater so this wasn't really hard for me. I've had candy sitting on my shelves at home so long I had to throw it away on several occasions.

My plan is to buy a bunch of candy on the day so that we don't have tons of it lying around the house. I don't usually eat much of it, but my kids would eat it all day long if I let them.

I was reading something on this because I was worried about it too. I am trying to give up added sugar and sweeteners and to eat more natural, minimally processed, minimal ingredients food. I was worried about this, so the suggestions i read was to get small individual school supplies/puzzles/games/cheap toys/cards/boxes of raisins/etc. Anything but candy. I thought that was a good idea and some of those party type favors probably aren't that much more than the uber sized bags of candy.

I went trick or treating once when I was very young and crashed a guys poker party and they gave me and my sister pennies, because they didn't realize leaving a light on outside meant trick or treaters and that it was Halloween and they didn't have candy. We were young and thought that was really cool. So you could empty your change jar that way with a handful of pennies for little kids - they love counting and rolling that stuff.

We don't get any trick or treaters at our house either since we live kind of in the country and have a really long driveway, lol. Our kids do trick or treat though and personally I don't think they need the tons of candy they get. We have a Halloween goblin tradition where the kids pick put their favorite candies and leave the rest in a pile for the goblin. The goblin comes that night and takes the candy and leaves them a present. So, in years past, dh and I had their "goblin" candy and would eat it. This year, I was going to take it to work and leave it out for people, but am liking the suggestion of saving it for birthday goodie bags. I have pretty decent self control...dh on the other hand, not so much, so we'll see what he wants to do.

For the record, I don't believe I'm depriving my kids at all by doing the Halloween goblin thing. They do get to keep their favorite candies, and they would rather get the present anyway. They do have the option of keeping all of their candy if they really want to and not getting a present from the goblin, but that has never been an issue.

What do you do to avoid the left over candy?

Not have kids and live in an area where there are NO trick or treaters. EVER.

I'll be handing out raisins and protein shakes and ezekiel bread with sweet potato spread.

Then, I'll move to another state because my house would get burned down.


Honestly, I'll be handing out candy bars and when it nears the end of the night some lucky kid will be getting a buttload of candy. This solves the leftover candy issue and it makes one kid really freakin' happy.

That's how I do it too! The last kid wins the jackpot. I also try not to buy stuff that I like. If I buy the Snickers, I'm going to eat them.

That's exactly how I do it. The last kid wins the jackpot!

I also try not to buy stuff I like. That way I'm not tempted to eat the goodies while I'm waiting for the doorbell to ring.

As a kid we threw out half the bag anyway because all the pieces were ripped and then ended up giving it away at school to classmates or just throwing the access amount of it away (since I only really like certain things and I never could get very many of what I wanted) now we just don't buy candy to give away since there aren't many kids anymore. Used to give out handfulls to make the pile smaller and we would end up with a small amount which my parents usually consumed while us kids were away at school (at that age when your to old for trick or treating)

Every year, I go out and buy 5-6 mega bags of mini candy bars for Halloween. Even tho we generally only have maybe a couple of dozen trick or treaters...

We generally have tons of the stuff left and I can eat Snickers and Peanut Butter Cups all day!
To solve my problem of having all that candy left over after the season, I purchased Rice Crispy Treats!
My reasoning, first of all, I wont sit and eat them one after another if there are any left...
AND even if I do have one or two after the season, they are much less of an evil than a Snickers! o_O

My kids are not happy! lol

What do you do to avoid the left over candy?
Do you not buy the candy and do something different?
Just looking for some other ideas for next year maybe...

They're probably unhappy because you just nixed the majority of their Halloween loot. Tell them to suck it up or buy their own!
My solution was to send it to the husband's office but then he started working from home. Then I tried to see if the neighbor's would like to take it to work and they said the office already gets too much.

I say 'suck it up, buttercup!"

We don't get many kids so I buy 10 full size candy bars. So I don't have bags of mini candies. So if only 6 come, then there are only 4 full size candy bars that I can space out way better than mini candies.

Some lucky kids get the whole bowl of candy at the end of the night. I also by candy we don't like.

I buy it - but, when I know nobody else is really coming, I give handfuls to the last kids to get rid of it!

Our local dentist will give the kids $1 for each pound of candy they turn in.

Usually my kids will eat a piece or two the first few days following Halloween, then their interest dies down.

Sometimes I take the candy to work other times it goes in the trash.

I am a vegan and there is very little vegan-friendly candy!

I send all the left over candy with my husband to take to work-out of sight out of mind!

Well, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie but I'll never know...

I think I'm going to buy Junior Mints, they're pretty low fat, taste good, but aren't a huge temptation for me.
And they are VERY refreshing!

You're my favorite quoter today!

I like the suggestions about non-candy stuff to hand out like microwave popcorn and glow sticks. Who doesn't love glow sticks?? I'll bet I can procure a few of those while I'm trick-or-treating in the West Village this Halloween.