halloween candy...

[MamaBee]

I hate to admit - I am one of those people that turn out the lights and pretend I'm not home during Trick-or-Treating... I live in an area where there are a lot of high schooler - and older - go ToT... and I was just sick of kids not being polite and complaining around what was given out... so it has been 9 years since I last gave out candy...

Last year ToT was on Sunday, so after taking kiddo around for his first time, we had to go to the radio station for my FIL radio show... so we weren't around. This year we will have to give out candy... since we are ToTing, we should give back and also we are having company and it probably would be a bit much to ask them to sit in the dark... hahaha...

So my question... how much candy do you give out? Is one fun size candy bar enough? Or do you give them an alternative to candy? Last year I was just getting over mono so I don't really remember what J got out and about...

[Darcy Baldwin]

We do two bags of candy - pour it into a bowl - put a note on the door to please help yourself but be mindful of others - and leave it on the porch.

[Julie Billingsley]

We don't get many kids because we are out ToT with Logan during the busiest hours. Hard to hand out candy when you have a kidlet yourself! So, for those few that we do get, I give out 2 pieces of fun-size candy. I think the average around here is one piece unless they LOVE your costume. When Logan dressed up in his fabulous Capt Jack Sparrow costume he always got 4-5 pieces at each home. LOL

[*Celeste*]

I buy one box of the full size candy bars at BJs - around 30 pieces. I give each child one. We usually don't get more than that.

[rach3975]

Usually I take the kids out and DH stays home to hand out candy. (And if I'd let him, he'd shut the lights and pretend not to be home, too!) Around here people tend to give 2-3 mini candies or one full sized. We hand out candy until 8, which is when our kids get into bed. After that we bring in the jack-o-lanterns and shut the door and porch light. Even when we have other lights on in the house, people tend to respect that as a sign that they shouldn't trick or treat here anymore. That's also what neighbors do if they're not participating.

[Scrapper007]

We hand out 2-3 fun size pieces for each child, for the first 1/2 hour of TOT until we go out ourselves. Then we just leave a bowl on the porch (hoping that kids will do the right thing and leave some for the others)!

[heathergw]

normally we go to a trunk or treat at one of the churches before and then hand out that candy LOL

but this year we'll be out of town for the trunk or treat so we'll have to buy candy... we usually just buy one bag and hand out 2 at a time... I'll go with the kids early and we'll use that after we run out of the stuff we bought LOL... usually I don't have to buy any candy though...

[Jengerbread88]

We buy two larger bags of candy, and for young kids we give 2-3 pieces. For teens, we give one piece... we don't shun them because we don't want to get egged or anything (it's been known to happen), but we also don't give them a lot. One piece.

Of course, last year we only got 2 trick or treaters. So... :shrugs:

[Jennilyn]

I take the girls trick or treating in my mom's neighborhood and hubby doesn't usually get home until at least 6:30-7 so we haven't given out treats in about 4 years I think. I don't buy the chocolate bars because I end up eating them so I used to buy a big box of chips at Costco to hand out.

[AmberK]

DH really gets into handing out candy and we live in a neighborhood where we get TONS of T-O-Ters. He bought some candy today (on sale) and said he got 12 bags of candy. Most of them were small but he spent $26 on candy. I think thats ridiculous. I HATE handing out candy and Im mean about it too. I do NOT give older kids candy. I tell them that its for the little kids.

[digideb]

We go to a friend's house on Halloween. They have a 1/2 mile long driveway in a very heavily wooded area, off of 3 dirt roads! LOL We watch movies & eat pizza! So, I don't buy any!

[mariewilcox]

We don't get TOTers... ever. LOL - we live down a very long driveway and you can't even see hints of our house from the road because the trees are so dense - you could like up our house like a Christmas tree and still not know there was a house down there. In fact, we always head into "town" about 10 minutes away to do our TOTing in my sister's burb neighborhood. Not sure about this year though since Cheyanne has travel team basketball practice that night from 6-7:30...

[lovely1m]

No one comes to my house, but I always thought 1-2 pieces would be good. I do give to teenagers though when I have a place people go to. Why not, much worse things they could be doing with their time.

[MissKim]

It depends what we buy. Most years I buy tootsie rolls and smarties, which are cheap, and get them in big bags. I'll give the kids at the door a whole handful, and whatever is left over goes to work for my students.

This year I bought little packages of marshmallows. They'll each get one. Probably. Some years we are busy all night and some years we're lucky to get a handful. If it looks like it's going to be slow, we'll probably give more.

This is the first year none of my kids will go out. They'll be in charge of the door.

[ayaandjudah]

I just bought lollipops, we give one per person

[Misty Cato]

Originally Posted by Julie Billingsley

I think the average around here is one piece unless they LOVE your costume. When Logan dressed up in his fabulous Capt Jack Sparrow costume he always got 4-5 pieces at each home. LOL

This reminds me, last year when we went out Mya collected 3x as much candy as Jamin. They went out together, went to exactly the same houses. He did all the door bell ringing and talking and was very polite. She just followed him around looking shell shocked, but people would just look at her, say "awwww" and pile candy into her bag. Poor Jamin kept trying to look as cute and sweet as possible, but he just couldn't compete.

I had to even things up later.

[Starlight-Princess]

Theres only 38 houses in our estate 20 of which have kids so I do up a treat bag with a bag of chips, candy bar, lollipop and halloween transfer tattoos for the kids in our estate. For other kids that drop by from other estates I just have a large bowl of candy bars and lollipops and about 2 pieces each x

[Paula]

Oh I do too Rebecca. But, I am a halloween scrooge - I absolutely HATE it!

[haydensmommy217]

If i am not out trick or treating with my son i will usually hand out one to two piece of candy.

[Milmomma]

My husband stays home and hands it out. Usually it's one fun sized and one Reese cup or something like that. I always get the good candy cause if we have left overs I'll eat it. but we pass out for all ages. I love ToTing from all angles, passing out, going to all the houses, the parties, the contests and more.

[SweetMelissa]

I have never handed out candy. We never lived in an area where kids went Trick Or Treating door to door. There is a gated community about ten minutes from our house & everyone goes there to hand out candy (even people who don't live there). No cars are allowed into the community & people build booths and set up shop on the side of the streets. The kids then can go booth to booth in a well lit area & don't have to worry about cars driving by. Plus cops walk up and down the street at all times. Last year there was 160 booths. This year I think they said that there are 170 signed up but they always have people flake at the last minute.

Oh and I should say that Wal-Mart is across from the community & lets the ToT's park for free and then they have cops helping with people crossing the road to get to the community. Its a really great idea and the kids score really well.

So since we have kids we've never signed up for a booth. But I think once the kids are teens we may.

[melmos75]

Being that TOTing is only scheduled between 5:00-7:00 and we spend that whole time TOTing with our kids, I don't hand out any candy. I have neighbors that walk with us that set out a bowl for people to help themselves but I am sure that it is gone within the first few people.

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by melmos75

Being that TOTing is only scheduled between 5:00-7:00 and we spend that whole time TOTing with our kids, I don't hand out any candy. I have neighbors that walk with us that set out a bowl for people to help themselves but I am sure that it is gone within the first few people.

wow... only 2 hours by you? Here it's from 4-8pm... who needs that much TOTing time??

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by melmos75

Being that TOTing is only scheduled between 5:00-7:00 and we spend that whole time TOTing with our kids, I don't hand out any candy. I have neighbors that walk with us that set out a bowl for people to help themselves but I am sure that it is gone within the first few people.

You'd be surprised...we've even had candy left in our bowl that we'd left out.

[melmos75]

Originally Posted by MamaBee

wow... only 2 hours by you? Here it's from 4-8pm... who needs that much TOTing time??

Yep - only 2 hours. When I was growing up, we didn't have time limits - when people started turning their lights off, we would go home. It wasn't until I moved here that there was a time limit.