Halloween “Very Tricky” to treat 🙂
It is that time of the year when you love to see your child with his/her adorable costume. Instagram is full of pumpkin everything and at the same time starts the overwhelming thought about what I am going to do with all that candy? Then you catch yourself at the store buying a huge bag of candy for all the kids that are going to ring your bell. As if there is not enough sugar to go around?
No worries, I am with you. I am here to give you some words of encouragement. I will give you some ideas that will make Halloween less spooky. My big advice today is to do what sounds right for you and your family. And go out there, take a beautiful picture next to that pumpkin and maybe get dressed in your favorite costume and enjoy time with your children. Choose your battles!
First: If you, for any reason, do not agree at all with the candy and logistics of Halloween you can just skip this holiday altogether. Really, just have a normal routine in your house. Put a sign on your front door and go to sleep early. Your small children won’t even know. We did this until my first child was 3 years old 🙂 and he doesn’t even remember :)!
But, if you still want to celebrate, here are some ideas to deal with the candy. This will help you to have a very sweet day:
What to do with all that candy?
- Before you go trick or treating, give your child a good healthy meal, so s/he won’t feel like they have to eat all that candy right away, and if they have some, they will be satisfied faster.
- Choose a small bucket. You can say: We go collect candy until the bucket is full and that is when we know we are done trick or treating.
- Or, pick a number of houses: How many houses are we visiting tonight?. Go to that number of houses and go back home with that much candy.
- Buy the candy from your child. You can put a price per piece and buy the candy from them. They may want to invest the money in a toy they wanted before or a fun experience.
- Trade candy for a toy. You can say: I can change all your candy for a nice toy you pick in the store.
- Do a party in your house or go to a Halloween party, so your child has the opportunity to wear his/her costume and does not have to go trick or treating to get a lot of candy.
- Turn candy into Art. Let them have some, and the rest could be a fun Art project. You can even save some for Christmas and your gingerbread house decorations.
- Do science with candy: Grab clear jars, put white vinegar, water or vegetable oil and experiment with different kinds of candy, take pictures, write changes, be a scientist. Make it fun!
- Some people use just candy and toothpicks, and do a competition to make the best statue. The creations can become centerpieces on the table.
- Sell candy to the Dentist office: Some dentist offices buy your candy per pound, so check your local Dentist. They may take all that candy out of your hands.
- If you prefer to keep the candy, there are tons of recipes people use to make cookie dough, trail mix, cakes and much more…
- Talk to your child (and the other parents) in advance to pool half the sugar take for a donation to fill a pinata at somebody’s birthday party.
- When your child is around 4 years old. S/he can probably start to administer his/her own candy. This actually can start teaching regulation and planning ahead. If they eat all the candy in one day they won’t have any tomorrow. And, their tummy will probably hurt a lot.
- Talk about how sugar really makes them feel. Last year, my then 6 year old boy ate candy after breakfast, not before because we agreed he needed real food before candy, for 3 days. He told me his tummy didn’t feel good, so he started to eat his candies in the afternoon. And then he decided just to have candy on the weekends. Then, the candy was gone and it was the end of the story 🙂
Of course it is important to make decisions based on your childrens’ age, and how we handle things at home, but one observation I have here is: If we decided to let them go out, run around and collect all the candy they want then our kids want to have some control of their candy at the end… they worked very hard to collect it right? – It is my candy, not your candy, I worked very hard for it – said a 5 year old boy to his mom when she said she was going to take it away.
It is really up to you what rules or traditions you want to have around this specific holiday. Just try to be fair with your children. Don’t send confused messages that can lead to tantrums and fights. It is really not worth it. If you are going to sugar up, then live with it.
Also, keep in mind your childhood… what did you do as a child? Did you just grab 10 pieces and give the others away? Did you regulate yourself perfectly and have one candy a week?. This is just my opinion but, if you decided to go for it and let them collect candy. Let them enjoy candy too. If you normally keep a good healthy diet at home without extra sugar…. Halloween will really be just a treat, once a year, not a big deal right?
Good Luck. Have a sweet day!