If you haven’t guessed by now, a holiday devoted to hoards of candy is not my favorite. Read on to find out why Halloween makes me anxious and if my children still love me at the end of it all!
[disclosure]
It’s coming. I can see the date drawing near and I don’t like it. I have brainstormed over and over ways to get out of it. But it’s impossible.
Halloween.
I want to like it, I do. But I can’t. I am one of those “Is Halloween over yet?” people, waiting to push on to Thanksgiving and Christmas as soon as possible.
I always loved trick-or-treating as a kid, who doesn’t? We would fill pillow cases full of candy and then head home to sort it all out and barter with siblings. I ate myself sick and then slowly pieced on the rest over the weeks following. It’s a wonder I have any teeth, really.
Now that I have my own children, the balance is difficult. I want to let them be kids and enjoy it for what it is. I want them to dress up and have fun with friends and make memories. But I don’t want them adding all of that sugar/coloring/flavoring into their tiny bodies!
my kids last year enjoying their “have at it” time.
This is the system we landed on for Halloween at our house:
We go trick-or-treating, but not for very long. They are allowed to eat whatever they want that evening afterward, and then each pick out 5 treats to save. The rest goes in the garbage. Yep. We are hard core.
I have never ever had a problem throwing junk food away. It’s a gift.
My kids are actually fine with this. I think it’s more the experience of it all that makes them happy. Plus, around these parts eating as much candy as they want in one night is a rare novelty. They enjoy every second and then bemoan their choices all night long while I apply essential oils to their tummies and try not to say “I told you so.”
This year, I have decided to give out glow necklaces/bracelets/rings to trick-or-treaters and am really excited to do something different. I have candy options I am okay with, but this seemed more fun and kids probably wouldn’t appreciate the “good” candy either. If you want to do the same, here are some of the ideas I found:
Kelsey,
I got the idea from The Anderson Crew blog to buy my kids’ candy back from them. I think we gave a nickle a piece…it came to less than $5 per kid. They were allowed to use that money to buy something at the store – none of it had to go into their savings jar.
Because they did want to keep some candy, we allowed them 10 pieces. They were allowed to have one piece every Monday after dinner til the candy was gone. Monday was deemed “special day”!
I looked into donating the candy last year, but no one was collecting at the time that I could find. Our Sunday School teachers give out a treat to kids who memorize their verse for that week, so I gave it to them. Saved them having to buy some for a few weeks!
Those are all awesome ideas! I love the special monday thing! I might have to try that.
My parents did the same thing and “I think” I’m totally fine and not scarred at all. Our family tradition was to have chili for dinner. (obviously a ploy by my mom to fill us up with real food before the onslaught of candy) We went trick-or-treating, had a block party with donuts/hot chocolate and fireworks and were allowed to eat whatever we wanted that night. Honestly looking back, the fireworks are what I looked forward to the most, and Reese peanut butter cups-yum!! ? Then we had our bowl of candy, and allowed to choose one piece of candy in our school lunch for a week. Then the bowls of candy mysteriously disappeared and it was done . . . Pretty sure my mom threw it away. It was kinda like believing in Santa, you would get older and realize what was really going on, and by then be ok with it. I do roughly the same thing with my kids (they are still little 2.5/4 so they are happy to just dress up and go door to door. Any candy that’s left over from their small haul go into our 72 hour kit for emergencies, then I throw out the old stuff from last year and put in the new.
I love this robyn! I am loving the fireworks tradition, that would definitely be a hit with my kids!